3D UTD Modeling of a Measured Antenna Disturbed by a Dielectric Circular Cylinder in WBAN Context

Abstract

International audienceThis paper describes a work realized for On-Body antennas characterization: the 3D deterministic modeling of a measured antenna disturbed by a dielectric circular cylinder of finite length. This prediction model is based on the ray-tracing technique for the electromagnetic wave paths search and the Uniform Theory of Diffraction (UTD) for the modeling of the electromagnetic waves interactions with the cylinder. After a detailed description, the model is validated in 3D with measurements made for an antenna disturbed by a cylindrical phantom [1]. Indeed, the presented model gives results very close to these measurements. These first validations allow the presented model to be implemented into more complex WBAN (Wireless Body Area Networks) propagation models

Simulation and Measurement Validation of a Finite-Length Cylindrical 3D UTD Model

“…The studies in [29], [30] have clearly indicated that the direct, reflected and surface diffracted field are not enough to describe the electric field for finite cylinder when the position of the receiving point is higher than the top of the cylinder. Therefore, in this paper, we revise the 3D UTD model to take the edge diffracted field into account .…”

“…These works on the human body shadowing effects using UTD are mostly carried out in 2D space when transmit antenna (TX) and receive antenna (RX) are at the same height. The investigations in [29], [30] on the 3D UTD cylindrical model show the defect of ignoring the edge diffraction field on the total received field, it means, for a finite 3D cylinder, the top/bottom of cylinder diffracted field have an influence on the total field for single-cylinder scattering problem.…”

“…In addition, UTD calculation is significantly faster than numerical simulation using the CST Integral Equation Solver. The modified UTD model is based on the model of E. Plouhinec in [29] and [30], the contribution of edge diffraction field value is not considered in the previous model, it works well in most of its scenarios but highlights the fact that the top and bottom disks cylinder diffracted fields have an influence on the total received field for the presented single cylinder problem, and our modified model integrating the edge diffraction contribution at the cap of cylinder. The validation proves the importance of edge diffraction especially when one of the TX/RX is higher than finite cylinder.…”