Time-varying on-body wireless channel model during walking

Abstract

A novel dynamic channel model for on-body wireless communication during walking is proposed. The developed model utilizes a human walking model which provides detailed information on the movement of the human body parts. The diffraction of the signal around the body parts is used to describe the time-varying shadowing effects. Body part movements are also used to estimate the signal fading caused by angular variations of the transmitting and receiving antenna gains. A Rice distribution is used to represent the multipath fading effects caused by objects around the human body. Simulation results of the first- and second-order statistics of the received signal affected by moving body parts for 2.4 GHz signal are presented. To illustrate the capabilities of the developed model, time series were generated and used in system performance calculations. The obtained results give an insight into the potential advantages of link diversity technique in wireless body area networks (WBANs).