IST 2001-34157, " Power Aware Communications for Wireless OptiMised personal Area Networks (PACWOMAN)" - Antennas and Propagation Contributions

The work-package of Antennas and Propagation professional group addresses the topics of UWB radio channel investigation and modelling for wireless personal/body area network (PAN/BAN) scenarios targeting low- to medium- data rate (L/MDR), impulse radio based UWB communication systems. Several low-cost, small-size UWB antennas have been evaluated for indoor PAN/BAN scenarios. The main parameters of the typical UWB radio propagation channel, including antenna configurations and human body proximity effects have been identified and characterised, providing guidelines for low-power, low-complexity L/MDR UWB transmitter-receiver design. Different synchronisation mechanisms have been analysed in the view of impulse radio based L/MDR UWB systems. The performances of low-complexity synchronisation techniques have been evaluated in simulations. The simulations, using the PAN/BAN UWB radio channel characteristics identified earlier, showed possible significant system performance degradation in terms of the required (re) synchronisation time. The work-package achievements have been integrated in the project?s final UWB transceiver guidelines and radio demonstrator. More information on the UWB related research in the Antennas and Propagation group: http://kom.aau.dk/antprop/uwb/