Measurement and Modeling of Wireless Off-Body Propagation Characteristics Under Hospital Environment at 6–8.5 GHz

A measurement-based novel statistical path-loss model with a height-dependent factor and a body obstruction (BO) attenuation factor for off-body channel under a hospital environment at 6–8.5 GHz is proposed. The height-dependent factor is introduced to emulate different access point (AP) arrangement scenarios, and the BO factor is employed to describe the effect caused by different body-worn positions. The height-dependent path-loss exponent is validated to fluctuate from 2 to 4 with AP height increasing by employing both computer simulation and classical two-ray model theory. As further validated, the proposed model can provide more flexibility and higher accuracy compared with its existing counterparts. The presented channel model is expected to provide wireless link budget estimation and to further develop the physical layer algorithms for body-centric communication systems under hospital environments.