A Comprehensive Survey of Wireless Body Area Networks

Abstract

The increasing use of wireless networks and the constant miniaturization of electrical devices has empowered the development of Wireless Body Area Networks (WBANs). In these networks various sensors are attached on clothing or on the body or even implanted under the skin. The wireless nature of the network and the wide variety of sensors offer numerous new, practical and innovative applications to improve health care and the Quality of Life. The sensors of a WBAN measure for example the heartbeat, the body temperature or record a prolonged electrocardiogram. Using a WBAN, the patient experiences a greater physical mobility and is no longer compelled to stay in the hospital. This paper offers a survey of the concept of Wireless Body Area Networks. First, we focus on some applications with special interest in patient monitoring. Then the communication in a WBAN and its positioning between the different technologies is discussed. An overview of the current research on the physical layer, existing MAC and network protocols is given. Further, cross layer and quality of service is discussed. As WBANs are placed on the human body and often transport private data, security is also considered. An overview of current and past projects is given. Finally, the open research issues and challenges are pointed out.

SPW-1: A Low-Maintenance Wearable Activity Tracker for Residential Monitoring and Healthcare Applications

“…On a different perspective, related work on Wireless Body Area Networks (WBANs) typically focuses on the networking aspects of body sensor networks [23].…”

Mutual interference in large populations of co-located IEEE 802.15.4 body sensor networks—A sensitivity analysis

“…After discovering the first beacon we assume that a node is required to attempt to receive all future beacon packets. 3 It will wake up shortly before expected beacon transmission in order to receive the beacon. Upon successful reception of a beacon packet, the extracted information (BO/SO values and beacon payload, if any) is delivered to the higher layers.…”

“…Wireless Body Sensor Networks (WBSNs) are expected to play a pivotal role in health-related and well-being applications [1,2,3,4,5]. They are deployed to measure and collect human vital signs for diagnosis and monitoring of medical conditions or assessment of training progress.…”

Wake-up Receiver Based Ultra-Low-Power WBAN

“…T HERE has been a lot of research into Wireless Body Area Networks (WBAN) ; see for example the surveys presented in by [3] and [4]. In a WBAN, sensors are placed on or near the body.…”