Statistical Analysis for On-Body Spatial Diversity Communications at 2.45 GHz

An investigation of the fading experienced by on-body diversity channels at 2.45 GHz is presented by focusing on the effects of the receive antennas position and the human body movement. This investigation is based on the conduction and analysis of signal measurements in an indoor office environment using bodyworn antennas. Three principal combining techniques, namely selection combining (SC), equal gain combining (EGC) and maximal ratio combining (MRC) are considered. A statistical characterization of the fading experienced by dual diversity on-body channels is performed in terms of first and second order statistics. Our investigations have shown that among several distributions tested, the alpha - mu distribution provides sufficient fit to measured combined signal envelopes and also offers a good approximation to second order statistics for the majority of test cases.