Terahertz Channel Characterisation Inside the Human Skin for Nano-scale Body-Centric Networks

This paper focuses on the development of novel radio channel model inside the human skin at the terahertz range, which will enable the interaction among potential nano-machines operating in the inter cellular areas of the human skin. Thorough studies are performed on the attenuation of electromagnetic waves inside the human skin, while taking into account the frequency of operation, distance between the nano-machines and number of sweat ducts. A novel channel model is presented for communication of nano-machines inside the human skin and its validation is performed by varying the aforementioned parameters with a reasonable accuracy. The statistics of error prediction between simulated and modeled data are: mean (μ) = 0.6 dB and standard deviation (σ) = 0.4 dB, which indicates the high accuracy of prediction model as compared with measurement data from simulation. In addition, the results of proposed channel model are compared with Terahertz Time Domain Spectroscopy based measurement of skin sample and the statistics of error prediction in this case are: μ = 2.10 dB and σ = 6.23 dB, which also validates the accuracy of proposed model. Results in this paper highlight the issues and related challenges while characterizing the communication in such a medium, thus paving the way towards novel research activities devoted to the design and the optimization of advanced applications in the health-care domain. Keywords—Nanoscale communications, Body Area Nano Network, channel characterisation, Internet of Nano-things