An Initial Study of Human-Scale Blockage in sub-THz Radio Propagation with Application to Indoor Passive Localization

• Published in: 2024 IEEE-APS Topical Conference on Antennas and Propagation in Wireless Communications (APWC) pp. 50 - 54
• Main Authors: Paonessa, F., Virone, G., Kianoush, S., Nordio, A., Savazzi, S.
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Published: IEEE 02.09.2024
• Subjects: Channel impulse response; channel impulse response integrated sensing and communication; EM body models; Frequency response; Line-of-sight propagation; Location awareness; Radio frequency; sub-THz radiation; Terahertz radiation; Time-domain analysis; Time-frequency analysis; Wavelength measurement; Wireless communication
• ISSN: 2766-287X
• DOI: 10.1109/APWC61918.2024.10701955

This paper empirically investigates the body induced electromagnetic (EM) effects, namely the human body blockage, by conducting indoor measurement campaigns in the unexplored sub-THz W-band (\mathbf{7 5}-110 \mathrm{GHz}) and G-band (170-260 \mathrm{GHz}). The proposed analysis focuses on both the alterations of channel frequency response induced by body presence, fully or partially obstructing the line-of-sight (LoS) between transmitter and recevier, as well as on the channel impulse response (CIR) for selected movements of the target, i.e. crossing the LoS of the radio link. The proposed study has applications in device-free radio localization and radio frequency (RF) sensing scenarios where the EM radiation or environmental radio signals are collected and processed to detect and locate people without requiring them to wear any electronic devices. Although preliminary, the study reveals that discrimination of the blockage micro-movements is possible, achieving higher precision compared to classical RF sensing and localization using cm-scale wavelengths \mathbf{(2.4-6 ~ G H z} bands).