Chapter 6
Body Area Communication Performance
6.1 Introduction
The communication performance of a body area communication system is directly influenced by the channel it operates in. Body area channels differ from traditional wireless indoor/outdoor channels on account of the fact that great changes take place in signal propagation on or in or off the body. As a special transmission medium for wireless communication, human body tissue brings new challenges to channel modeling as well as to communication performance evaluation. Chapter 4 has generalized body area channels in the form of a static shadow fading channel and a dynamic multipath fading channel. Body area channels are characterized by different communication frequencies and communication channel position. The channel models have been further classified into different kinds according to the frequency band as well as the channel position in the body area. In this chapter, we will evaluate the communication performance in terms of frequency and communication channel position, that is, according to the following four major types: on-body UWB communication; in-body UWB communication; in-body MICS band communication; and human body communication, respectively. For in-body UWB communication, two application scenarios will be covered: in-body to on-body transmission for capsule endoscope application and in-body to off-body transmission for cardiac pacemaker application. Finally, a dual mode scheme will be described which can ...
