A Dynamic Channel Model of UWB-WBAN for Some Medical Applications

In hospitals patients and other medical facilities have various levels of mobility, e.g., walking, wheelchairing, eating, etc. There is also growing evidence that for most medical conditions having patients move or walk, as much as they can tolerate, will improve their health. With keeping this in mind, not only static wireless body area network (WBAN) radio channels usually investigated, but also dynamic scenarios due to the effect of body motion must be considered. The contribution of the work described in this paper is to expand the knowledge of the ultra-wideband (UWB) channel in the frequency range of 3.1-10 GHz in close proximity of a dynamic human body. Based on experimental measurements a two-state alternating Weibull renewal process is modelled for the dynamic fade characteristics of the channel. The model can then be used to better design communication network protocols for WBANs.