A Periodic Transmission Line Model for Body Channel Communication

Abstract

Body channel communication (BCC) is a technique for data transmission exploiting the human body as communication channel. Even though it was pioneered about 25 years ago, the identification of a good electrical model behind its functioning is still an open research question. The proposed distributed model can then serve as a supporting tool for the design, allowing to enhance the performances of any BCC system. A novel finite periodic transmission line model was developed to describe the human body as transmission medium. According to this model, for the first time, the parasitic capacitance between the transmitter and the receiver is assumed to depend on their distance. The parameters related to the body and electrodes are acquired experimentally by fitting the bioimpedentiometric measurements, in the range of frequencies from 1 kHz to 1 MHz, obtaining a mean absolute error lower than 4 • and 30 Ω for the phase angle and impedance modulus, respectively. The proposed mathematical framework has been successfully validated by describing a ground-referred and low-complexity system called Live Wire, suitable as supporting tool for visually impaired people, and finding good agreement between the measured and the calculated data, marking a ±3% error for communication distances ranging from 20 to 150 cm. In this work we introduced a new circuital approach, for capacitive-coupling systems, based on finite periodic transmission line, capable to describe and model BCC systems allowing to optimize the performances of similar systems. INDEX TERMS body area network, body channel communication, intra-body communication, propagation model, periodic transmission line

Channel Modeling of an Optical Wireless Body Sensor Network for Walk Monitoring of Elderly

“…Connectivity solutions mostly use radiofrequency (RF) wireless technologies through different standards such as Bluetooth Low Energy among others [ 6 , 7 ], with air then being the communication medium. In addition, the human body is also used as a communication medium for intra-WBSN [ 8 ]. We focus in this study on wearable on-body sensors with extra-WBSN transmissions.…”

Transmission Analysis in Human Body Communication for Head-Mounted Wearable Devices

“…In the next step of our research, we will develop a more simplified circuital model based on the transmission mechanism clarified herein because simple models such as the distributed circuital model [21] are useful for the hardware design phase. Moreover, using the obtained transmission parameters, we will investigate physical layer issues such as the electrode structure design and modulation strategies.…”

“…In both types of HBC, transmission is contributed by the current flowing through the human body and the electric field around the human body, but the exact modeling of transmission remains problematic. To clarify the transmission mechanism of HBC and optimize the physical layer components, such as the carrier frequency and impedance of the frontend circuit, researchers have developed different types of models [18][19][20][21].…”

Human Body Communication with Head-Mounted Wearable Devices

“…Finally, the power consumption and human safety analyses confirmed the availability of the proposed system. In the next step of our research, we will develop a more simplified circuital model based on the transmission mechanism clarified herein because simple models such as the distributed circuital model [21] are useful for the hardware design phase. Moreover, using the obtained transmission parameters, we will investigate physical layer issues such as the electrode structure design and modulation strategies.…”