Quantitative Analysis of the Subject-Specific On-Body Propagation Channel Based on Statistically Created Models

This letter presents a quantitative approach to the investigation of subject-specific on-body communication channels. To this aim, propagation at 5.8 GHz has been studied considering 50 realistic digital phantoms, statistically generated from a set of 20 magnetic resonance (MR) scans. Both line-of-sight (LoS) and non-line-of-sight (NLoS) communication links have been taken into account. Mathematical expressions are proposed reflecting the correlation between body dimensions (specifically height and waist) and path-loss variation. Results show that linear fitting can be extrapolated between path-loss variations and body shape parameters. In-house parallel finite-difference time-domain (PFDTD) numerical method has been applied to carry out full-wave simulations on the 50 digital phantoms.