Comparison of two measurement techniques for UWB off-body radio channel characterisation

This paper presents comparison of two measurement techniques for ultra wideband (UWB) off-body radio channel characterization. A measurement campaign was performed in indoor environment using UWB wireless active tags and reader installed with the tag antenna and same set of measurement was repeated in the frequency domain using Vector Network Analyser (VNA) and cable connecting two standalone tag antennas for comparison/with a view to finding out the cable effects. Nine different off-body radio channels were experimentally investigated. Comparison of path loss parameters and path loss model for nine different off-body radio channels for the propagation in indoor environment both measurement cases are shown and analyzed. Results show that measurement taken by VNA connecting two standalone antennas through cables experiences lower path loss value for all nine different off-body channels. Least square fit technique is obtained to extract the path loss exponent. Increase of 12.96% path loss exponent is noticed when measurements are made using UWB tags and reader, i.e., without cable measurement scenario.