Mitigation of Human RF Exposure in Wearable Communications

TL;DR

This paper proposes a relaying mechanism in wearable communication networks to reduce RF power transmission, thereby decreasing human exposure to harmful electromagnetic radiation while maintaining energy efficiency.

Contribution

It introduces a relaying strategy to lower transmitted power and SAR in wearable devices, enhancing safety without compromising energy efficiency.

Findings

Reduced SAR through power distribution over larger tissue volume

Decreased transmitted power using relaying in multi-hop topology

Improved safety in wearable communications

Abstract

A major concern regarding wearable communications is human biological safety under exposure to radio frequency (RF) radiation generated by wearable devices. The biggest challenge in the implementation of wearable devices is to reduce the usage of energy to minimize the harmful impacts of exposure to RF on human health. Power management is one of the key energy-saving strategies used in wearable networks. Signals enter the receiver (Rx) from a transmitter (Tx) through the human body in the form of electromagnetic field (EMF) radiation produced during the transmission of the packet. It may have a negative effect on human health as a result of specific absorption rate (SAR). SAR is the amount of radio frequency energy consumed by human tissue in mass units. The higher the body's absorption rate, the more radio frequency radiation. Therefore, SAR can be reduced by distributing the power over a greater mass or tissue volume equivalently larger. The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.15.6-supported multi-hop topology is particularly useful for low-power embedded devices that can reduce consumption of energy by communicating to the receiver (Rx) through nearby transmitted devices. In this paper, we suggest a relaying mechanism to minimize the transmitted power and, as a consequence, the power density (PD), a measure of SAR.