An Experimental-Based Analysis of Inter-BAN Co-Channel Interference Using the κ-μ Fading Model

In this communication, we empirically study and model the impact of co-channel interference and background noise (BN) on a body area network (BAN) operating at 2.48 GHz using the extremely generalized κ-μ fading model. The BAN measurements considered three nodes with the signal-of-interest (SoI) forming the link between two wearable devices located on the front-central-chest and front-central-waist of an adult male, while an interfering signal emanated from a third wearable device that was located on the front-central-waist of an adult female. Three environments were considered which are indicative of different environmental multipath conditions likely to be encountered by everyday BAN users, namely, an anechoic chamber, a reverberation chamber and an indoor laboratory. As well as this, the influence of different human mobility scenarios was studied. Utilizing the κ and μ parameter estimates, we then provide some useful insights into the outage performance of BAN systems in the presence of BN when both the SoI and the interferer undergo κ-μ fading.