Experimental correlation of path loss with system performance in WBAN for healthcare applications

This paper presents the experimental characterization of the static on-body channel for healthcare applications at 2.48 GHz. The measurements are conducted in the anechoic chamber and laboratory. The link quality is measured by either using a vector network analyzer, where the path loss is averaged over a period of time or calculated from the received signal strength indicator (RSSI), which can be calculated from the receive sensor module. A correlation between the path loss and the packet delivery ratio (PDR) will be made via the probability distribution of the RSSI for a given transmit power. In addition, the optimal transmit power at the different body locations can be obtained, which will be useful to conserve the battery energy.