Performance of IR-UWB cross-layer ranging protocols under on-body channel models with body area networks
Abstract
This paper deals with the positioning performance of the 3-Way ranging protocol (3-WR) in a wireless body area network (WBAN). The purpose is to propose a new cooperative algorithm to improve the number of estimated positions with a conditional permutation of the on-body anchors. To do so, we first evaluate and analyze the positioning success rate under a realistic mobility scenario and using two scheduling strategies: Broadcast single node localization (P2P-B) and aggregated and broadcast (A\&B)) with a medium access control (MAC) layer based on time division multiple access (TDMA). The 3-WR estimates the distance between two nodes placed on the body with the transmission of three packets. The wireless transmission is based on impulse radio ultra wideband (IR-UWB). However, these transactions can be lost through the WBAN channel leading into a ``bad positioning service.'' We consider a physical layer based on IR-UWB with three different channels: (1) an empirical theoretical model based on the on-body CM3 path loss channel (Anechoic chamber), (2) a simulated channel calculated by ray-tracing with the PyLayers simulator, and (3) an experimental channel model obtained by measurements. Our results show that the channel affects the positioning success rate that decreases as a function of the sensitivity threshold at the receiver. This can be solved with long and short term analysis for the choice of virtual anchors to increase the positioning performance.