Propagation effects and antenna properties and their impact on ED receivers´ performance in body sensor network

In this paper, we demonstrate the performance of a system built according to the IEEE Std. 802.15.4-2011 impulse radio ultra wideband (UWB) definitions. We have constructed a physical layer transceiver simulation model with energy detector receivers and a medium access control layer sensor network analysis model with slotted Aloha (S-ALOHA) protocol. The used channel models in the transceiver system are two different body area network channel models. In the results, the receiver structure is shown to affect 2-4 dB and the used channel 3-5 dB on system level performance. Additionally, we have designed a UWB antenna suitable for body worn devices and have studied its performance characteristics with different distances from the human body. As a conclusion, besides observing the impact of the channel model and the receiver structure, we are also able to estimate the effect of the antenna - human body distance to the system level performance.