Body Area UWB RAKE Receiver Communication

Using wireless sensors placed on a person to continuously monitor health information is a promising new application. Furthermore, ultra-wideband is a promising air interface for short-range low data rate communication scenarios matching the requirements of wireless bio-medical applications. However, the performance and complexity tradeoffs of ultrawideband systems has never been assessed for the special features of the body area propagation channel. To address this problem, we have measured electromagnetic wave propagation around the body and developed a statistical model. Using this model, we evaluate the performance of optimal and sub-optimal RAKE receivers. This paper describes the resulting communication performance versus complexity for ultra wideband RAKE receivers in a body area propagation environment.