Dynamic Propagation Channel Characterization and Modeling for Human Body Communication.docVIP

Sensors 2012, 12, 17569-17587; doi:10.3390/s121217569 OPEN ACCESS sensors ISSN 1424-8220 /journal/sensors Article Dynamic Propagation Channel Characterization and Modeling for Human Body Communication Zedong Nie 1,2, Jingjing Ma 3, Zhicheng Li 1,2, Hong Chen 1,2 and Lei Wang 1,2, * 1 Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Science, Shenzhen 518055, China; E-Mails: zd.nie@ (Z.N.); zc.li@ (Z.L.); hong.chen@ (H.C.) Shenzhen Key Laboratory for Low-Cost Healthcare, Shenzhen 518055, China Testing and Technology Center for Industrial Products, Shenzhen 518067, China; E-Mail: jingjing-0816@ 2 3 * Author to whom correspondence should be addressed; E-Mail: wang.lei@; Tel.: +86-755-8639-2277; Fax: +86-755-8639-2299. Received: 15 November 2012; in revised form: 12 December 2012 / Accepted: 13 December 2012 / Published: 18 December 2012 Abstract: This paper presents the first characterization and modeling of dynamic propagation channels for human body communication (HBC). In-situ experiments were performed using customized transceivers in an anechoic chamber. Three HBC propagation channels, i.e., from right leg to left leg, from right hand to left hand and from right hand to left leg, were investigated under thirty-three motion scenarios. Snapshots of data (2,800,000) were acquired from five volunteers. Various path gains caused by different locations and movements were quantified and the statistical distributions were estimated. In general, for a given reference threshold è = ?10 dB, the maximum average level crossing rate of the HBC was approximately 1.99 Hz, the maximum average fade time was 59.4 ms, and the percentage of bad channel duration time was less than 4.16%. The HBC exhibited a fade depth of ?4 dB at 90% complementary cumulative probability. The statistical parameters were observed to be centered for each propagation channel. Subseque