Bit error rate estimation for galvanic-type intra-body communication using experimental eye-diagram and jitter characteristics

Bit error rate (BER), which indicates the reliability of communicate channel, is one of the most important values in all kinds of communication system, including intra-body communication (IBC). In order to know more about IBC channel, this paper presents a new method of BER estimation for galvanic-type IBC using experimental eye-diagram and jitter characteristics. To lay the foundation for our methodology, the fundamental relationships between eye-diagram, jitter and BER are first reviewed. Then experiments based on human lower arm IBC are carried out using quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK) modulation scheme and 500 KHz carries frequency. In our IBC experiments, the symbol rate is from 10 Ksps to 100 Ksps, with two transmitted power settings, 0 dBm and -5 dBm. Finally, the BER results were obtained after calculation by experimental data through the relationships among eye-diagram, jitter and BER. These results are then compared with theoretical values and they show good agreement, especially when SNR is between 6 dB to 11 dB. Additionally, these results demonstrate assuming the noise of galvanic-type IBC channel as Additive White Gaussian Noise (AWGN) in previous study is applicable.