LTE-Advanced and Next Generation Wireless Networks: Channel Modelling and Propagation

Chapter 9

Wireless Body Area Network Channels

Rob Edwards¹, Muhammad Irfan Khattak² and Lei Ma¹

¹ Loughborough University, UK

² NWFP University of Engineering and Technology, Pakistan

9.1 Introduction

The 1980s saw the beginnings of what has now become a revolution in personal communication systems. Although there are several contenders, the first viable voice-only cellular system is thought to have been NMT (Nordic Mobile Telephone) which was an analogue cellular system deployed in Nordic countries, Eastern Europe and Russia. Other early starters included Total Access Communications System (TACS) in the United Kingdom and Advanced Mobile Phone System (AMPS) in the United States. Early systems tended to have less than convenient handsets with cumbersome power requirements. Over almost three decades now there has been a generally increasing demand for handsets that are smaller with increased facility and longevity of use. This demand has been satisfied by improvements in technology particularly in the field of miniaturization whereby components of a communication system are generally much reduced in size.

Long Term Evolution (LTE) wireless network technology comes to us at a time when the Apple iPhone and similar smart phones from other manufacturers have constrained this strand of devices to have a display area of roughly 90 mm across the diagonal. Nevertheless, there continues to be significant demand for ever smaller mobile communications devices. Although realization of a 4G ...