Fading modelling in dynamic off-body channels

This paper presents an off-body fading channel model for Body Area Networks. The proposed model, based on both simulations and measurements at 2.45 GHz in a realistic indoor environment, consists of three components: mean path loss, body shadowing, and multipath fading. The first is modelled as a log function of distance, the path loss exponent being in between 0.4 and 1.6. A statistical perspective is taken for the other two components, i.e., body shadowing is modelled by a Lognormal Distribution, and multipath fading by Rice or Nakagami-m Distributions, depending on body motion characteristics. The correlation between selected distributions and empirical data is always higher than 0.95, typically being greater than 0.98. This model takes the statistical influence of various parameters and features present in BANs into account.