Using impulse Radio UWB for medical monitoring sensor networks: a performance evaluation

A compact testbed for real-time UWB performance evaluation in terms of un-coded bit-error rate is presented. Both the transmitter and the receiver are realized in form of a small PCB. This testbed represents a very versatile tool for the evaluation of IR-UWB as physical layer for various wireless technologies. It operates in the frequency range from 3.1-5.0 GHz with a maximum data rate of 10 MBit/s. Several measurements involving the influence of the human body are performed in a laboratory room in order to get a realistic picture of the performance and reliability that can be expected using IR-UWB for body area networks. In this paper the focus is set on medical monitoring applications. A body area sensor network was emulated and showed good connectivity for all tested scenarios. At a data rate of 10 Mbit/s the measured bit-error rate was better than 10^-5 for every node operating in the network.