Analytical model, measurements, and effect of outer lossless shell of phantoms for on-body propagation channel around the body for body area networks

This paper presents the experimental verification of an analytical model for the propagation channel for the devices placed around body in body area networks. Measurements are done over a semi-solid physical phantom using on-body antennas. A good agreement between the analytical model and the measurements is obtained at 2.4 GHz. Further, the effect of the outer lossless shell, usually present in the phantoms, is discussed. Through simulations, it is shown that the outer lossless shell results in decreasing the link loss for around the body propagation whereas the effect of the shell for along the body propagation is minimal.