UWB Body-Centric Network: Radio Channel Characteristics and Deterministic Propagation Modelling

With the introduction of low-power, high data rate ultra wideband (UWB) technology, the idea of providing constant and reliable personal communication services with the user being the centre of attention seems more feasible and attractive. The paper presents UWB on-body radio channel characteristics in both large-scale (path loss) and small-scale (delay) prospective. Radio channel modelling using a sub- band finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method in the frequency band 3-9 GHz is performed. The band is uniformly divided into 12 sub-bands in order to take into account the material frequency dispersion, each sub-band is simulated separately and then a combination technique is used to recover all simulations at the receiver. Respective modelling results from two-dimensional (2-D) and three- dimensional (3-D) sub-band FDTD models show good agreement with measurement results.