Performance Evaluation of an On-Body Wireless Body Network Based on an Ultra-Wideband Physical Layer under a Dynamic Channel Model

Abstract

Wireless body area networks (WBANs) are attracting attention as an important technology for realizing the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT). In addition, ultra-wideband (UWB) is one of the wireless communication technologies suitable for the IoMT and WBANs. Our previous study investigated the feasibility of WBANs utilizing UWB under ideal and static wearable WBAN channel models. The present research applies a dynamic on-body UWB channel model to a WBAN as a more realistic channel model. The feasibility of a high-reliability UWB-WBAN is demonstrated by evaluating the physical layer performance. Numerical results reveal the maximum number of retransmissions needed to achieve the desired transmission failure ratio for each link type and the corresponding energy efficiency and average number of retransmissions. These findings contribute to the realization of a highly reliable IoMT utilizing UWB-WBANs in a practical environment.