Performance of Magnetic Induction Communication Systems Using Induction Factors

Inductive communication is an emerging physical layer technology for secure communications which has promise to provide significant incentives in body area networks and other short range communication systems. This paper presents the principles and performance of inductive communication systems from the points of view of the efficiencies of the transmitter and receiver topologies. The rapid reduction of power level with distance to power six means that inductive systems should be designed for efficient flux coupling to the receiver. This therefore needs to be quantified. This paper proposes a performance measure using both the trans-impedance and a new factor called the induction factor which describes the magnitude of induced power caused by a transmitter at the receiver. The effects of system parameters on performance are modeled, simulated and discussed. Four system topologies are identified and their performances in terms of the influences of the system components are investigated. Different topologies result to different induced voltages in the receiver. We demonstrate that at frequencies below 1.4 MHz, the performance of the series–series and series–parallel topologies are almost identical. We also show by the induction factor concept that the series–parallel (transmitter–receiver) topology provides more induced voltage to the receiver at high frequencies above 1.4 MHz. This is demonstrated for frequencies up to 4.5 MHz. Many applications use frequencies above 1 MHz, making these results highly essential for inductive system design and development.