On-body antennas and radio channels for GPS applications

This chapter has presented the characterisation of the GPS antennas operating in different on-body scenarios. Performance of these antennas is severely affected by the multipath arrival of the GPS signal in realistic operational conditions. These effects have been investigated using a statistical model replicating the multipath GPS environment. It has been shown that the linear polarised antennas can work better for on-body GPS links in multipath environment as compared to the conventional choice of CP antennas. It has also been shown that the antenna performance depends hugely on the body posture and on-body antenna position. The model also reduces the antenna design and testing durations by removing the need of detailed, uncontrolled and lengthy open field test procedures and providing efficient and accurate predictions of GPS antenna performance in cluttered environment.