A prototype of ultra wideband-based wireless body area networks

Abstract

This paper presents a prototype of ultra-wideband-based wireless body area networks and tests the prototype in experiments held in an anechoic chamber. Physical and Media Access Control specifications are based on the draft standard in IEEE802.15.6. The Media Access Control is based on a superframe structure comprising time slots assigned to a beacon, contention access period, or contention-free period. The physical layer achieves a bit rate of 258 kbps in differential binary phase-shift keying with direct sequence spreading. The center frequency is 4.096 GHz. In the experiments, the throughput performance of the prototype is measured for the scenario of the wireless monitoring of vital signs with a sensor device and hub device. In this scenario, a bit rate of 18 kbps is required to convey a measured physiological waveform. The experiment results show that the requirement is continuously met, although the throughput is affected by body movement.