Modeling and Analysis of the Electric Field Communication in Body Area Networks

Description

Electric Field Communication (EFC) is a low complexity technology with promising applications in wearable or implantable sensors. This technology has also been referred to as Human Body Communication (HBC) as part of the IEEE802.15.6 standard on Body Area Networks. In EFC/HBC, the human body is used as a communication medium between a pair of transmitter and receiver electrodes that are placed on the body surface. as the transmitted data is mostly confined to the human body area, there is less chance of unauthorized access; and therefore, better security is expected compared to other wireless technologies used for body area networks. The objective of this project is to develop a simple parametric model based on the finite-element method (FEM) using a full human body model to virtually emulate and study the EFC channel. FEM allows better modeling and quantification of the underlying physical phenomena including the impact of the human body for the desired applications. Having a flexible and customizable simulation platform could be very helpful to better understand the communication medium for capacitively coupled electrodes in EFC. This knowledge, in turn, leads to better transceiver design for a given application.

Recent Publications

• K. Krhac, K. Sayrafian, G. Noetscher, D. Simunic, “A Simulation Platform to Study the Human Body Communication Channel”, 41st Annual IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology (IEEE EMBC) conference, Berlin, Germany, July 23-27, 2019