Indoor channel measurements for a body-worn 5.2 GHz receiver

An important aspect of emerging wireless networking standards for indoor environments is the use of body-worn or handportable terminals. The proximity to the user´s body has a direct impact on the nature of the propagation channel. The paper reports narrowband propagation measurements for a 5.2 GHz receiver worn by a male volunteer walking indoors at 0.5 m/s. Two indoor environments were considered: an 18 m long corridor and a 42 m² office. The results show that local mean values were dependent on whether or not the users body obstructed the direct ray from the transmitter. For the corridor, the average non-line-of-sight (NLOS) path loss was 5.4 dB greater than with line-of-sight (LOS). However, the power decay index (n) was 1.2 in both cases. In the small office, the difference between LOS and NLOS conditions was strongly dependent on the location within the room. All of the measured results were evaluated in terms of their impact on wireless systems. Without multipath effects, the two measured environments could comfortably support an IEEE 802.11a full-rate system. However, it was shown that this rate could not be guaranteed under low-mobility conditions, particularly in the small office.