Correlated shadowing and fading characterization of MIMO off-body channels by means of multiple autonomous on-body nodes

In off-body communication systems low-cost and compact transceivers are important for realistic applications. An autonomous off-body wireless node was designed and integrated onto a textile antenna. Channel measurements were performed for an indoor non line-off-sight 4×2 MIMO (Multiple-Input Multiple-Output) link using four off-body transmitting nodes and two similar fixed receiving nodes. The channel behavior is characterized as Rayleigh fading with lognormal shadowing and is fitted to a model determining fading and shadowing correlation matrices. The physics of the propagation is captured accurately by the model which is further used to simulate a link using diversity by means of Selection Combining, as implemented on the wireless nodes. The performance of measured and simulated links is compared in terms of outage probability level. The measurements and analysis confirm that the correlated shadowing and fading model is relevant for realistic off-body networks employing diversity by means of Selection Combining.