Optimal and Efficient Design of WBAN Sensor Antenna System and Voxel-Based Path Loss Modeling for Internet of Wearable Things

In the context of the Internet of Wearable Things (IoWT), human bodies are equipped with wearable and interconnected sensors that can be deployed on, inside or around the body. The deployment of these devices in proximity to the human body presents several challenges, including channel fading due to energy absorption, reflection, multipaths, and shadowing by the human body. Furthermore, the human body is considered a complex propagation environment due to the absorbent nature of biological tissues. This paper presents a novel 3D-voxel-based channel model for wearable wireless sensor antennas, both in free space and in a human body propagation environment, based on mathematical formulations of propagation wave attenuation. We present a design flow and performance evaluation of our 3D-voxel model using multiple wearable antennas working at 2.4 GHz. Additionally, we conduct a SAR analysis to guarantee human body protection and safety. We compare the performance of the IEEE 802.15.6 CM3 channel model to our model for various distances between the coordinator sensor antenna and the on-body transmit sensor antennas. This study reveals a good agreement between the IEEE 802.15.6 CM3A and our proposed on-body voxel-based channel model.