Experimental Investigation of the Impact of BMI on Ultrawideband MIMO Body-to-Body Networks

Body-to-Body (B2B) communication has been envisioned for next- generation communication systems as it affords the ability to share information between co-located users with low energy consumption and high spectral efficiency. It is also anticipated that the bodies of the users on which the communication devices are located will strongly influence the signal propagation. Therefore, it is important that any B2B propagation channel characterization consider the effect of the human body and in particular the size/shape of the body. In this paper, we provide a detailed description of a measurement campaign for wireless B2B propagation channels. Measurements are done in an anechoic chamber to clearly work out the impact of the body. We use a self-developed 4 × 4 Ultrawideband (UWB) Multiple-Input-Multiple- Output (MIMO) array channel sounding system operating in the 2-10 GHz frequency band. The impact of body mass index (BMI) on the B2B propagation channels is investigated. Using a total of 9 test subjects, we determine the BMI- dependence of channel paramaters such as path gain, shadowing gain and rms delay spread. We find that parameters obtained from measurements on test subjects with BMIs corresponding to large body sizes show considerable difference to those of subjects with typical BMI.