A Study of an UWB Hospital Environment for a Bodyworn Antenna

For the first time, this paper presents both static and mobile signal strength measurements made for a bodyworn UWB radio channel in a 49m2 hospital environment using RF-over-fibre technology to eliminate unwanted electromagnetic interference effects associated with the use of RF co-axial cables. The results show that received signalstrength values depend significantly on whether the transmit and receive antennas are in relative LOS or NLOS, with LOS values being higher than the reference value and NLOS being less than the reference value. For mobile tests, LOS conditions tended to be either Rice or Gamma distributed with NLOS Lognormal distributed. For static conditions, signal strength is also dependant on user mode, with the difference between standing and sitting in the same location being up to 10.66dB.