UWB-based Wireless Body Area Networks channel modeling and performance evaluation

In the Wireless Body Area Network (WBAN), the wireless channel is complex and distinctive because of the irregular shape of human body. The channel modeling methods and results are different from those in traditional narrow-band communication environments. In this paper, we present channel models for WBAN in Ultra wide band (UWB) frequency range 3-9 GHz. The channels are modeled statistically and the channel model parameters are derived from actual measured data in an office environment. An interesting common result is that different shape people have significantly differences in multipath parameters. Taking into account the characteristics of body shape, we provide a new classified small-scale channel model which has three kind of channel models: sparse, medium and dense multipath channel models. These models can be applied to different scenarios and improve the system design. We evaluated these models by delays and average number of multipaths with the measured data. Results prove the effectiveness of our models.