A context aware wireless body area network (BAN)

Abstract

Abstract-In monitoring a patient's real-time vital signs through Body Area Networks (BAN), rich data sources are communicated to medical practitioners. The benefit of BANs may be negated if medical practitioners are overloaded with streams of BAN data. It is essential that data is delivered in a timely context aware manner. In this paper a BAN designed for falls assessment among elder patients (65+ years) is presented, with an emphasis on the communication scheme chosen. The FrameComm MAC protocol described in this paper employs three data management techniques, 1) message priority, 2) opportunistic aggregation and 3) an adaptive duty cycle, all of which are designed to ensure that patient vital signs (i.e. data packets) are delivered under a variety of network loads. The protocol is evaluated using a small laboratory network, initially configured to communicate Beat-toBeat (continuous blood pressure) readings when a patient goes from a sitting to a standing position and then with added ECG (ElectroCardioGram) readings.

A Review on Architectures and Communications Technologies for Wearable Health-Monitoring Systems

“…Thus, the LOBIN BAN can be classified as a wired solution from the communications point of view. Other surveyed WHMS have opted for wireless solutions, such as Bluetooth and IEEE 802.15.4 (e.g., Jovanov et al [26,27], Zhang et al [49], and O'Donovan et al [43]). There are also WHMS that use proprietary technologies, such as Fensli et al [20], which uses RF-transmitter at 869.700 MHz, or Human++ [34], which uses RF 2.4 GHz ISM.…”

“…On the one hand, there are some projects that work directly on top of IEEE 802.15.4, designing and developing their own network and application layers (e.g., LOBIN, MASN [38], that adopts a cluster-based communication scheme as its routing protocol, MEDISN [46], in which their distribution points are self-organized into a routing tree, and CodeBlue [25], which is based on a publish/subscribe routing framework allowing multiple sensor devices to relay data to all receivers). On the other hand, there are some projects that use Zigbee (in the body area network) such as Chen et al [41], and O ' Donovan et al [43]). The network layer of Zigbee natively supports both star and tree topologies, as well as generic mesh networks.…”

A mobile proposal for frailty monitoring by rehabilitation and physical daily activity

“…In [5] is proposed the use of smartphones to monitor physical activity levels and gait of the older people in their homes or at retirement homes. Finally, several works [6,7,8,9,10,11] study the accuracy of the accelerometerbased physical rehabilitation monitoring such as limb's motion, gait analysis before strokes, and other illness or accidents that cause malfunction in the physical condition of a patient.…”

High resolution wireless body area network with statistically synchronized sensor data for tracking pulse wave velocity

“…Technical focus areas within this domain include sensor miniaturization [1], wearable sensors [2], ultra low-power circuits [3], communication protocols [4], and network topologies. General rules related to, e.g., low power and reliability, guide each WBAN development phase.…”

“…To a large degree, these items determine the network performance, as they affect power consumption, data throughput, and packet loss rates. Data management techniques like adaptive duty cycles and message prioritization [4] Diverse and creative application-layer schemes can be designed and evaluated for various WBAN scenarios. This paper presents a WBAN that emphasizes high-resolution raw data, real-time operation, and time synchronization of intrasensor data and inter-sensor waveforms.…”