Characteristics of the polarised off-body channel in indoor environments

This paper addresses the depolarisation effect in off-body body area networks channels, based on measurements performed at 2.45 GHz in an indoor environment. Seven different scenarios, involving both static and dynamic users, were considered, taking a statistical perspective. The analysis of the cross-polarisation discrimination is performed, as well as the analysis of path loss in co- and cross-polarised channels. Results show a strong dependence of the cross-polarisation discrimination and of channel characteristics on the polarisation and propagation condition, i.e. line-of-sight (LoS), non-LoS or quasi-LoS. Distance, varied between 1 and 6 m in the considered scenarios, is observed to have very little impact on the cross-polarisation discrimination. In the considered dynamic scenario, the channel is characterised by lognormal-distributed shadowing and Nakagami-distributed multipath fading. Parameters of the Nakagami distribution have essentially different values in the co- and cross-polarised channels, showing a trend towards Rice in the former and Rayleigh in the latter. Based on results, a model is proposed for a dynamic off-body channel.