On-body fidelity factor for footwear antennas over different ground materials

UWB antennas are suitable for on-body links in body area networks because of the low power, high data rates and short range. As defined in the Wireless Body Area Network (WBAN) Standard, impulse radio technology must provide a fidelity factor greater than 0.8 to ensure reliable communications. In this paper the fidelity factor of a directional and an omnidirectional antenna located on footwear are computed for different body area locations. The effects of different grounds on the fidelity factor are also considered.