A Simulation Environment for Subject-Specific Radio Channel Modeling in Wireless Body Sensor Networks

Author

Zhao, Yan ; Sani, Andrea ; Hao, Yang ; Lee, Su-Lin ; Yang, Guang-Zhong

Author_Institution

Sch. of Electron. Eng. & Comput. Sci. Queen Mary, Univ. of London, London, UK

fYear

2009

fDate

3-5 June 2009

Firstpage

23

Lastpage

28

Abstract

This paper presents a simulation environment, based on the parallel finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method, for subject-specific radio channel modeling in wireless body sensor networks (WBSNs). The simulation environment takes into account realistic antenna radiation patterns in channel modeling to analyze their effects on WBSNs. The proposed simulation tool is applied to a study of body communication channels in a hospital environment and the results are validated by site measurement. It is found from our study that radio channel characteristics in WBSNs are subject specific and associated with human genders and body mass indices (BMIs).

Keywords

antenna radiation patterns; body area networks; finite element analysis; wireless channels; wireless sensor networks; FDTD method; WBSN; antenna radiation patterns; body communication channel; body mass indices; hospital environment; human genders; parallel finite-difference time-domain method; subject-specific radio channel modeling; wireless body sensor networks; Analytical models; Antenna radiation patterns; Biological system modeling; Body sensor networks; Communication channels; Finite difference methods; Hospitals; Pattern analysis; Time domain analysis; Wireless sensor networks;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Wearable and Implantable Body Sensor Networks, 2009. BSN 2009. Sixth International Workshop on

Conference_Location

Berkeley, CA

Print_ISBN

978-0-7695-3644-6

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/BSN.2009.64

Filename

5226923