Characterization and Performance of High-Frequency Pulse Transmission for Human Body Area Communications

Jianqing WANG  Yuji NISHIKAWA  

Publication
IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Communications   Vol.E90-B    No.6    pp.1344-1350
Publication Date: 2007/06/01
Online ISSN: 1745-1345
DOI: 10.1093/ietcom/e90-b.6.1344
Print ISSN: 0916-8516
Type of Manuscript: Special Section PAPER (Special Section on 2nd Pan-Pacific EMC Joint Meeting--PPEMC'06--)
Category: Human-Body-Area Communication
Keyword: 
on-body transmission,  transmission characteristics,  Debye approximation,  FD2TD method,  impulse radio,  bit error rate performance,  interference,  

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Summary: 
With the rapid progress of electronic and information technology, an expectation for the realization of body area network (BAN) has risen. However, on-body transmission characteristics are greatly dependent on the frequency, and a high-speed transmission is difficult due to the remarkable signal attenuation at higher frequencies. In this study, we proposed a pulse transmission system with the frequencies at dozens of mega-hertzes. The system was based on an impulse radio (IR) scheme with bi-phase modulation. By using the frequency-dependent finite difference time domain (FD2TD) method, we investigated the on-body transmission characteristics and derived a path loss expression. Based on the transmission characteristics, we also investigated the influences of white Gaussian noises and other narrow-band interferences on the communication link budget and bit error rate (BER) performance. The results have shown the feasibility of the proposed on-body IR communication system.