An On-Body Channel Model for UWB Body Area Communications for Various Postures

On-body area ultrawideband (UWB) communication is of high importance for promising new biomedical applications. However, there are currently few measurements or models describing on-body area propagation channels which put an emphasis on various body postures. Using the frequency-dependent finite-difference time domain (FDTD) method and a realistic human body model, we simulate various body postures for modeling on-body channels. Based on the FDTD numerical results, we derive an on-body propagation model and determine the model parameters for some representative transmission links on the human body. A good match is obtained between the data derived from FDTD and the statistically implemented models in terms of key communication metrics. In addition, for the chest-to-right-waist transmission link, an experiment is performed in order to verify the results from the FDTD method, and it is found that the model parameters agree well between the two approaches.