1 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