The effects of the human body on UWB signal propagation in an indoor environment

Ultra-wideband (UWB) communication systems are investigated for their ability to operate in dense multipath environments. While a great deal of time and effort has been spent characterizing both the indoor and outdoor UWB channels, the effects of human body interaction with a close proximity UWB antenna remains unexplored. Measurements of a commercially available UWB antenna performance in an anechoic chamber and in various indoor multipath environments were conducted. Comparisons of these measurement results indicate that while the human body creates a deep null (23.6 dB) in a light multipath environment, this null is drastically reduced (6.8 dB) in a dense multipath environment.