BAN-BAN Interference Rejection With Multiple Antennas at the Receiver

• Published in: IEEE transactions on antennas and propagation Vol. 58; no. 3; pp. 927 - 934
• Main Authors: Khan, I., Nechayev, Y.I., Ghanem, K., Hall, P.S.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York, NY IEEE 01.03.2010; Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Algorithms; Antenna measurements; Antennas; Applied sciences; Bans; Belts; Body area networks; Body area networks (BAN); Body sensor networks; Channels; correlation; Exact sciences and technology; Gain; Human subjects; Humans; Indoor environments; Interference; interference rejection; Legged locomotion; Matrices; multiple antennas; optimum combining; Radiocommunications; Receiving antennas; Rejection; Robustness; Systems, networks and services of telecommunications; Telecommunications; Telecommunications and information theory; Transmission and modulation (techniques and equipments); Wireless communication; Wireless communications; Performance evaluation; Body area networks (BAN); Noise reduction; Wireless telecommunication; Transmission channel; Output signal; Signal to interference ratio; Algorithm; Interference suppression; optimum combining; Signal interference; Body area network; interference rejection; Covariance; Indoor installation; correlation; Telecommunication channels; Signal processing; multiple antennas; Signal to interference plus noise ratio; Receiving antenna; Antenna array
• ISSN: 0018-926X; 1558-2221
• DOI: 10.1109/TAP.2009.2039312

Rejection of interference from a nearby body area network (BAN) becomes significant in BAN applications, where a number of BANs are operating in the near vicinity of each other. Two interference rejection combining (IRC) techniques, optimum combining (OC) and Weiner-Hopf (WH) solution, are applied to the on-body wireless communication channels, and a more robust interference rejection technique, applicable to on-body channels, is proposed and compared to the conventional IRC algorithms. Three on-body channels are investigated by real time measurements of the desired and interference signals in an indoor environment with the antennas mounted on two human subjects walking around each other. The output signal to interference plus noise ratio improvement achieved with each algorithm is presented for the three channels and the dependence of the interference rejection gain on the average desired signal to interference ratio has been shown along with the covariance matrices for each channel. OC gives around 3-5 dB interference rejection gain for belt-wrist and belt-head channels. The WH solution gives the worst performance for all the channels. The proposed algorithm gives a flexible handle on the interference rejection gain and gives better rejection than the two conventional algorithms with proper interval selection.