Experimental investigation of ultra wide-band diversity techniques for on-body radio communications

Abstract

This paper presents an experimental investigations and analyses of ultra-wideband antenna diversity techniques and their effect on the on-body radio propagation channels. Various diversity-combining techniques are applied to highlight; how the overall system performance may be enhanced. Diversity gain is calculated for five different on-body channels and the impact of variation in the spacing between diversity branch antennas is discussed, with an emphasis on mutual coupling, correlation and power imbalance. Results demonstrate the repeatability and reliability of the analysis with error variations as low as 0.8 dB. The study highlights the significance of diversity techniques for non-line-of-sight propagation scenarios in body-centric wireless communications.