Wireless Biotelemetry Parameter Comparison Between Male and Female Human Subjects

Wireless biotelemetry has become increasingly attractive for a wide range of body-centric healthcare applications. Biotelemetry can be implemented through wireless Body Area Networks (BANs) and Personal Area Networks (PANs). In this paper, we present a detailed description of a measurement campaign of wireless BAN and PAN propagation channels in an indoor environment. An ultrawideband virtual Multiple-Input-Multiple-Output (MIMO) array channel sounding system operating in the $2-10 \mathrm{GHz}$ frequency band was utilized in the BAN measurements while a virtual Single-Input-Multiple-Output (SIMO) array channel sounding system was used for the PAN measurements. The key objective of the measurement campaign is to determine the gender-dependence of body-centric wireless channel parameters. Using single male and female human test subjects, we compared channel parameters such as average path gain, root-mean-square (RMS) delay spread, small-scale fading, and channel capacity. We found that these parameters mostly showed consistent variation between male and female human test subjects. The results presented in this work confirms that a one-size-fit-all approach to body-centric channel modeling for biotelemetry applications is inadequate. A truly comprehensive body-centric channel model must take gender into consideration.