title: Numerical characterization and modeling of subject-specific ultrawideband body-centric radio channels and systems for healthcare applications.
abstract: The paper presents a subject-specific radio propagation study and system modeling in wireless body area networks using a simulation tool based on the parallel finite-difference time-domain technique. This technique is well suited to model the radio propagation around complex, inhomogeneous objects such as the human body. The impact of different digital phantoms in on-body radio channel and system performance was studied. Simulations were performed at the frequency of 3-10 GHz considering a typical hospital environment, and were validated by on-site measurements with reasonably good agreement. The analysis demonstrated that the characteristics of the on-body radio channel and system performance are subject-specific and are associated with human genders, height, and body mass index. Maximum variations of almost 18.51% are observed in path loss exponent due to change of subject, which gives variations of above 50% in system bit error rate performance. Therefore, careful consideration of subject-specific parameters are necessary for achieving energy efficient and reliable radio links and system performance for body-centric wireless network.
authors.affiliation: School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science, Queen Mary University of London, Mile End Road, London E1 4NS, UK. qammer.abbasi@eecs.qmul.ac.uk
authors.forename: Qammer Hussain
authors.initials: QH
authors.lastname: Abbasi
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sani
authors.forename: Akram
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Alomainy
authors.forename: Yang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Hao
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D015992:Body Mass Index; D003198:Computer Simulation; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008954:Models, Biological; D019047:Phantoms, Imaging; D011846:Radio Waves; D058998:Remote Sensing Technology; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D017216:Telemedicine; D059015:Wireless Technology