Study of Channel Characteristics for Galvanic-Type Intra-Body Communication Based on a Transfer Function from a Quasi-Static Field Model

Sensors

Xi Mei Chen³  Peng Un Mak³  Sio Hang Pun³  Yue Ming Gao²  Chan-Tong Lam¹  Mang I. Vai³ 

[1] Macao Polytechnic Institute, Macau 999078, China;Laboratory of Medical Instrumentation and Pharmaceutical Technology of Fujian Province, Fuzhou 350108, China;Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Faculty of Science and Technology, University of Macau, Macau 999078, China

关键词: Body Sensor Network (BSN);    BER;    channel characteristics;    Intra-Body Communication (IBC);    modulation scheme;    quasi-static field model;    transfer function;   

DOI  :  10.3390/s121216433

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

Intra-Body Communication (IBC), which modulates ionic currents over the human body as the communication medium, offers a low power and reliable signal transmission method for information exchange across the body. This paper first briefly reviews the quasi-static electromagnetic (EM) field modeling for a galvanic-type IBC human limb operating below 1 MHz and obtains the corresponding transfer function with correction factor using minimum mean square error (MMSE) technique. Then, the IBC channel characteristics are studied through the comparison between theoretical calculations via this transfer function and experimental measurements in both frequency domain and time domain. High pass characteristics are obtained in the channel gain analysis versus different transmission distances. In addition, harmonic distortions are analyzed in both baseband and passband transmissions for square input waves. The experimental results are consistent with the calculation results from the transfer function with correction factor. Furthermore, we also explore both theoretical and simulation results for the bit-error-rate (BER) performance of several common modulation schemes in the IBC system with a carrier frequency of 500 kHz. It is found that the theoretical results are in good agreement with the simulation results.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2012 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland