LTE as a potential standard for public safety indoor body-to-body networks

In this paper, a wideband indoor body-to-body communication channel is characterized and analyzed into detail by means of the RMS delay spread and the 50% correlation bandwidth. These body-to-body channel parameters are calculated based on high-resolution power delay profiles, directly provided by the Elektrobit channel sounder, and are further analyzed using a ray tracing algorithm. We have replicated a real-life rescue operation, performed by two firefighters as part of the Rapid Intervention Team searching for potential victims, operating at the same floor of an office block. Both firefighters, who were simultaneously moving around in the vicinity of each other, were equipped with two cavity-backed Substrate Integrated Waveguide textile antennas unobtrusively integrated in the front and back section of their jackets, allowing us to analyze four independent body-to-body links. Furthermore, we prove that the Long Term Evolution (LTE) and, by extension, the LTE - Device to Device (LTE-D2D) standard is compatible with this indoor body-to-body channel. This could provide high data rate indoor communication between rescuers, enabling multimedia broadcast and realtime communication of on-body sensor data in public safety networks.