UWB characteristics of creeping wave for RF localization around the human body

There is much current interest in wireless networking of sensors deployed on and around the human body, in view of many potential applications for health monitoring. In this paper, we conducted ultra-wide-band (UWB) measurements around human body and a phantom in order to develop angle based channel models for body area network (BAN) and to compare the measurement results in these two environments. By analyzing certain channel parameters such as, time-of-arrival (TOA), distance-measurement-error (DME), received signal strength (RSS) and total path-loss, we discuss the influencing factors when the signal traveling around the human body. We also analyze the influence of the human body on TOA ranging accuracy.