Title: Preliminary UWB channel study for wireless body area networks in medical applications

Authors: Attaphongse Taparugssanagorn, Carlos Pomalaza-Raez, Ari Isola, Raffaello Tesi, Matti Hamalainen, Jari Iinatti

Addresses: University of Oulu, P.O. Box 4500, FI-90014, Linnanmaa, Finland. ' University of Oulu, P.O. Box 4500, FI-90014, Linnanmaa, Finland. ' University of Oulu, P.O. Box 4500, FI-90014, Linnanmaa, Finland. ' University of Oulu, P.O. Box 4500, FI-90014, Linnanmaa, Finland. ' University of Oulu, P.O. Box 4500, FI-90014, Linnanmaa, Finland. ' University of Oulu, P.O. Box 4500, FI-90014, Linnanmaa, Finland

Abstract: Ultra wideband (UWB) communications is a promising technology for wireless body area networks (WBAN) due to its very low power emission and robustness against multipath fading characteristics. The use of WBANs in the areas of healthcare and telemedicine is being seriously considered as a way of increasing the quality of medical services and of keeping under control the associated costs. Because the human body has a complex shape and consists of different tissues it is expected that the propagation of electromagnetic signals will have different characteristics than the ones found in other environments, e.g., offices, streets, etc. The contribution of the work described in this paper is to expand the knowledge of the UWB channel, for WBAN applications, in the frequency range of 3-11 GHz under scenarios expected to be found in the medical care field. The experimental measurements are used to develop UWB channel models which can then be applied to the design of efficient communications protocols.

Keywords: wireless medical communications; wearable computing; medical wireless sensors; health monitoring; wireless communications; ultra wideband; UWB communications; wireless BANs; body area networks; WBANs; healthcare technology; e-healthcare; electronic healthcare; telemedicine; UWB channel models.

DOI: 10.1504/IJUWBCS.2011.038632

International Journal of Ultra Wideband Communications and Systems, 2011 Vol.2 No.1, pp.14 - 22

Published online: 31 Mar 2015 *

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