Channel Model on Various Frequency Bands for Wearable Body Area Network

Norihiko KATAYAMA  Kenichi TAKIZAWA  Takahiro AOYAGI  Jun-ichi TAKADA  Huan-Bang LI  Ryuji KOHNO 

Publication
IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Communications  Vol.E92-B  No.2  pp.418-424
Publication Date: 2009/02/01
Online ISSN: 1745-1345
Print ISSN: 0916-8516
Type of Manuscript: Special Section PAPER (Special Section on Medical Information and Communications Technologies)
Category: 
Keyword: 
body area network (BAN),  wearable BAN channel model,  path loss model, 

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Summary: 
Body Area Network (BAN) is considered as a promising technology in supporting medical and healthcare services by combining with various biological sensors. In this paper, we look at wearable BAN, which provides communication links among sensors on body surface. In order to design a BAN that manages biological information with high efficiency and high reliability, the propagation characteristics of BAN must be thoroughly investigated. As a preliminary effort, we measured the propagation characteristics of BAN at frequency bands of 400 MHz, 600 MHz, 900 MHz and 2400 MHz respectively. Channel models for wearable BAN based on the measurement were derived. Our results show that the channel model can be described by using a path loss model for all frequency bands investigated.