6 research outputs found
Modelling and characterisation of antennas and propagation for body-centric wireless communication
PhDBody-Centric Wireless Communication (BCWC) is a central point in the development
of fourth generation mobile communications. The continuous miniaturisation of sensors,
in addition to the advancement in wearable electronics, embedded software, digital
signal processing and biomedical technologies, have led to a new concept of usercentric
networks, where devices can be carried in the user’s pockets, attached to the
user’s body or even implanted.
Body-centric wireless networks take their place within the personal area networks,
body area networks and body sensor networks which are all emerging technologies
that have a broad range of applications such as healthcare and personal entertainment.
The major difference between BCWC and conventional wireless systems is the
radio channel over which the communication takes place. The human body is a hostile
environment from radio propagation perspective and it is therefore important to understand
and characterise the effect of the human body on the antenna elements, the
radio channel parameters and hence the system performance. This is presented and
highlighted in the thesis through a combination of experimental and electromagnetic
numerical investigations, with a particular emphasis to the numerical analysis based
on the finite-difference time-domain technique.
The presented research work encapsulates the characteristics of the narrowband
(2.4 GHz) and ultra wide-band (3-10 GHz) on-body radio channels with respect to
different digital phantoms, body postures, and antenna types hence highlighting the
effect of subject-specific modelling, static and dynamic environments and antenna performance
on the overall body-centric network. The investigations covered extend further
to include in-body communications where the radio channel for telemetry with
medical implants is also analysed by considering the effect of different digital phantoms
on the radio channel characteristics. The study supports the significance of developing
powerful and reliable numerical modelling to be used in conjunction with measurement campaigns for a comprehensive understanding of the radio channel in
body-centric wireless communication. It also emphasises the importance of considering
subject-specific electromagnetic modelling to provide a reliable prediction of the
network performance
Terahertz Communications and Sensing for 6G and Beyond: A Comprehensive View
The next-generation wireless technologies, commonly referred to as the sixth
generation (6G), are envisioned to support extreme communications capacity and
in particular disruption in the network sensing capabilities. The terahertz
(THz) band is one potential enabler for those due to the enormous unused
frequency bands and the high spatial resolution enabled by both short
wavelengths and bandwidths. Different from earlier surveys, this paper presents
a comprehensive treatment and technology survey on THz communications and
sensing in terms of the advantages, applications, propagation characterization,
channel modeling, measurement campaigns, antennas, transceiver devices,
beamforming, networking, the integration of communications and sensing, and
experimental testbeds. Starting from the motivation and use cases, we survey
the development and historical perspective of THz communications and sensing
with the anticipated 6G requirements. We explore the radio propagation, channel
modeling, and measurements for THz band. The transceiver requirements,
architectures, technological challenges, and approaches together with means to
compensate for the high propagation losses by appropriate antenna and
beamforming solutions. We survey also several system technologies required by
or beneficial for THz systems. The synergistic design of sensing and
communications is explored with depth. Practical trials, demonstrations, and
experiments are also summarized. The paper gives a holistic view of the current
state of the art and highlights the issues and challenges that are open for
further research towards 6G.Comment: 55 pages, 10 figures, 8 tables, submitted to IEEE Communications
Surveys & Tutorial
3D UTD Modeling of a Measured Antenna Disturbed by a Dielectric Circular Cylinder in WBAN Context
International audienceThis paper describes a work realized for On-Body antennas characterization: the 3D deterministic modeling of a measured antenna disturbed by a dielectric circular cylinder of finite length. This prediction model is based on the ray-tracing technique for the electromagnetic wave paths search and the Uniform Theory of Diffraction (UTD) for the modeling of the electromagnetic waves interactions with the cylinder. After a detailed description, the model is validated in 3D with measurements made for an antenna disturbed by a cylindrical phantom [1]. Indeed, the presented model gives results very close to these measurements. These first validations allow the presented model to be implemented into more complex WBAN (Wireless Body Area Networks) propagation models