System loss in UWB off-body communications in a ferry environment

In this paper, the system loss in UWB off-body communications in a ferry environment based on measurements is presented. A mobile measurement set-up, consisting of WBAN nodes with UWB DWM1000 modules, was used. System loss was split into LOS and NLOS conditions. For the former, the smallest mean value, 24.4 dB, was obtained for the user approaching the fixed terminal, with the antenna on his chest, and the largest, 28.1 dB, for the user departing from the fixed terminal, still with antenna on the chest, which is directly related to the body shadowing effect. Regarding the latter, all measurement scenarios have a very similar average attenuation, but a 10 dB difference in system loss is visible compared to LOS.