Diversity textile antenna systems for firefighters

Off-body communication systems are valuable to improve the security of rescue workers by allowing them to transmit vital information collected by sensors. As rescue workers often work in indoor environments characterized by many obstructions, non line-of-sight propagation with multipath effects and shadowing compromises the performance of the wireless communication. The reliability is enhanced drastically by the use of diversity techniques. In the measurement campaign presented, the performance of such an off-body diversity system is compared for two antenna configurations: two dual-polarized antennas, versus four circularly polarized antennas. The actual data transmission confirms the marginal difference between the two configurations, suggesting the use of dual-polarized systems for reasons of user convenience and ease of practical implementation.