Body area networks (BANs)

Channel Characterization of Magnetic Human Body Communication

Author(s)3: Erda Wen, Daniel F. Sievenpiper, Patrick P. Mercier
Channel Characterization of Magnetic Human Body Communication 170 177 IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering (TBME)
This paper aims to validate, analytically and experimentally, the benefits of the magnetic human body communication (mHBC) method using small form-factor-accurate antennas operating under realistic conditions. We show that by adopting resonant coils that couple by magnetic-dominant near-field at a few hundreds of MHz, low path loss and extra robustness to antenna misalignment across the body can be achieved compared to conventional far-field RF schemes. In best-case scenarios, the mHBC channel exhibits 100000x better efficiency than Bluetooth utilizing antennas of similar sizes. The extremely high efficiency provides a potential solution to the ever-present energy problem for miniaturized wearables. read more