Abstract
Recent advances in microelectronics and integrated circuits, system-on-chip design, wireless communication and intelligent low-power sensors have allowed the realization of a Wireless Body Area Network (WBAN). A WBAN is a collection of low-power, miniaturized, invasive/non-invasive lightweight wireless sensor nodes that monitor the human body functions and the surrounding environment. In addition, it supports a number of innovative and interesting applications such as ubiquitous healthcare, entertainment, interactive gaming, and military applications. In this paper, the fundamental mechanisms of WBAN including architecture and topology, wireless implant communication, low-power Medium Access Control (MAC) and routing protocols are reviewed. A comprehensive study of the proposed technologies for WBAN at Physical (PHY), MAC, and Network layers is presented and many useful solutions are discussed for each layer. Finally, numerous WBAN applications are highlighted.
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Notes
Energy absorbed by the body when exposed to RF waves and is measured in watts per kilogram
To differentiate it from the term Medium Access Control (MAC), Message Authentication Code (MAC) is represented in bold letters.
Abbreviations
- ALTR:
-
Adaptive Least Temperature Routing
- AES:
-
Advanced Encryption Standard
- CSMA/CA:
-
Carrier Sense Multiple Access/Collision Avoidance
- CAP:
-
Contention Access Period
- CFP:
-
Contention Free Period
- CCA:
-
Clear Channel Assessment
- C1/C2:
-
Control Channels
- CE:
-
Consumer Electronics
- CTR:
-
Counter
- CBC:
-
Cipher-block Chaining
- CCM:
-
Counter with CBC
- CRC:
-
Cyclic Redundancy Check
- CAB:
-
Coefficient of Absorption and Bioeffects
- CICADA:
-
Cascading Information Retrieval by Controlling Access with Distributed slot Assignment protocol
- CBR:
-
Constant Bit Rate
- DTDMA:
-
Reservation-based Dynamic TDMA Protocol
- ERP:
-
Effective Radiated Power
- ECG:
-
Electrocardiogram
- FCC:
-
Federal Communication Commission
- FDTD:
-
Finite Difference Time Domain
- GDP:
-
Gross Domestic Product
- GTS:
-
Guaranteed Time Slot
- H-MAC:
-
Heart-beat Driven MAC Protocol
- HEC:
-
Hydroxyl Ethyl Cellulose
- H-V:
-
Horizontal-Vertical Polarisation
- H-H:
-
Horizontal-Horizontal Polarisation
- IEEE:
-
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
- ISM:
-
Industrial, Scientific, and Medical band
- LPL:
-
Low Power Listening
- LBT:
-
Listen Before Talking
- LOS:
-
Line Of Sight
- LTR:
-
Least Temperature Routing
- LTRT:
-
Least Total Route Temperature
- MAC:
-
Medium Access Control
- MICS:
-
Medical Implant Communications Service
- MAC (bold letters):
-
Message Authentication Code
- MN:
-
Master Node
- MS:
-
Monitoring Station
- NIST:
-
National Institute of Standards and Technology
- NLOS:
-
Non-line Of Sight
- NS2:
-
Network Simulator 2
- PHY:
-
Physical Layer
- PB-TDMA:
-
Preamble-based TDMA Protocol
- QoS:
-
Quality of Service
- RF:
-
Radio Frequency
- REMCOM:
-
a software company (http://www.remcom.com/)
- SAR:
-
Specific Absorption Rate
- TDMA:
-
Time Division Multiple Access
- TSRP:
-
Time Slot Reserved for Periodic Traffic
- TSRB:
-
Time Slot Reserved for Bursty Traffic
- TARA:
-
Thermal Aware Routing Algorithm
- TIP:
-
Temperature Increase Potential
- UWB:
-
Ultra-wide Band
- V-V:
-
Vertical-Vertical Polarisation
- V-H:
-
Vertical-Horizontal Polarisation
- WBAN:
-
Wireless Body Area Network
- WMTS:
-
Wireless Medical Telemetry Services
- WASP:
-
Wireless Autonomous Spanning Tree Protocol
- WSN:
-
Wireless Sensor Network
- XFDTD:
-
a 3d Electromagnetic simulation software package
- XOR:
-
Exclusive OR
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Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank Mr. Michael J. Hladik, Mr. Niamat Ullah, and Mr. Pervez Khan (Inha University) for their insightful comments on the manuscript. This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korea government(MEST) (No. No.2010-0018116).
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Ullah, S., Higgins, H., Braem, B. et al. A Comprehensive Survey of Wireless Body Area Networks. J Med Syst 36, 1065–1094 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10916-010-9571-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10916-010-9571-3