A Comparative Study of On-Body Radio-Frequency Links in the 420 MHz⁻2.4 GHz Range

Arno Thielens; Robin Benarrouch; Stijn Wielandt; Matthew G Anderson; Ali Moin; Andreia Cathelin; Jan M Rabaey

doi:10.3390/s18124165

A Comparative Study of On-Body Radio-Frequency Links in the 420 MHz⁻2.4 GHz Range

Sensors (Basel). 2018 Nov 27;18(12):4165. doi: 10.3390/s18124165.

Authors

Arno Thielens^{1

2}, Robin Benarrouch^{3

4

5}, Stijn Wielandt^{6

7}, Matthew G Anderson⁸, Ali Moin⁹, Andreia Cathelin¹⁰, Jan M Rabaey¹¹

Affiliations

¹ Berkeley Wireless Research Center, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94704, USA. arno.thielens@berkeley.edu.
² Waves Research Group, IMEC, Department of Information Technology, Ghent University, 9052 Ghent, Belgium. arno.thielens@berkeley.edu.
³ Berkeley Wireless Research Center, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94704, USA. robin.benarrouch@st.com.
⁴ CNRS, Centrale Lille, ISEN, University Valenciennes, UMR 8520-IEMN, University Lille, F-59000 Lille, France. robin.benarrouch@st.com.
⁵ STMicroelectronics, Technology and Design Platforms, 38920 Crolles, France. robin.benarrouch@st.com.
⁶ Berkeley Wireless Research Center, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94704, USA. stijn.wielandt@kuleuven.be.
⁷ DRAMCO, Department of Electrical Engineering (ESAT), Ghent Technology Campus, KU Leuven, 9000 Ghent, Belgium. stijn.wielandt@kuleuven.be.
⁸ Berkeley Wireless Research Center, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94704, USA. matthew_g_anderson@berkeley.edu.
⁹ Berkeley Wireless Research Center, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94704, USA. moin@berkeley.edu.
¹⁰ STMicroelectronics, Technology and Design Platforms, 38920 Crolles, France. andreia.cathelin@st.com.
¹¹ Berkeley Wireless Research Center, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94704, USA. jan_rabaey@berkeley.edu.

Abstract

While there exists a wide variety of radio frequency (RF) technologies amenable for usage in Wireless Body Area Networks (WBANs), which have been studied separately before, it is currently still unclear how their performance compares in true on-body scenarios. In this paper, a single reference on-body scenario-that is, propagation along the arm-is used to experimentally compare six distinct RF technologies (between 420 MHz and 2.4 GHz) in terms of path loss. To further quantify on-body path loss, measurements for five different on-body scenarios are presented as well. To compensate for the effect of often large path losses, two mitigation strategies to (dynamically) improve on-body links are introduced and experimentally verified: beam steering using a phased array, and usage of on-body RF repeaters. The results of this study can serve as a tool for WBAN designers to aid in the selection of the right RF frequency and technology for their application.

Keywords: Bluetooth; RF beam steering; RF repeaters; UHF RFID; body area networks; body-coupled communication; on-body communication; path loss measurements.

Abstract

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