Ultra-wideband Propagation Loss Around a Human Body in Various Surrounding Environments

Ultra-wideband (UWB) technologies have been anticipated for use in wireless body area networks (WBAN) because of their low power consumption and anti-multipath capabilities. This chapter presents the UWB (3.1–10.6 GHz) propagation loss in WBAN scenarios between on-body antennas in three different surrounding environments. The measurements were performed in a 3-m radio anechoic chamber, a classroom, and a small room. The propagation paths were roughly divided into line-of-sight (LOS) and non-LOS (NLOS) ones. Small rooms, particularly NLOS, yielded higher reception power than larger rooms. This was attributed to the ample multipath from the nearby floor, walls, and ceiling. The UWB maximum propagation losses in three surrounding environments were smaller than ones of CW (6.85 GHz). This is because nulls caused by interference were cancelled out by the ultra-wide bandwidth. The propagation losses of low-band (3.4–4.8 GHz) and high-band (7.25–10.25 GHz) UWB were also evaluated. In WBAN scenarios, the low-band yielded lower propagation loss than the high-band and approximately the same loss as the full-band UWB (3.1–10.6 GHz).