A survey: Issues and challenges of communication technologies in WBAN

Abstract

Wireless Body Area Network (WBAN) refers to a group of small intelligent electronic devices placed on the human body to monitor its vital signals. It provides a continuous health monitoring of a patient without any constraint on his/her normal daily life activities through the health care applications. Due to the strong heterogeneous nature of the applications, data rates will vary strongly, ranging from simple data at a few Kbits/s to the video stream of several Kbits/s. Data can also be sent in bursts, which means that it is sent at a higher data rate during the bursts. This study covers the main requirements of communication technologies that are used in WBAN comprise of two major parts. The first part, which presents the short-range classification, gives a specialized outline of a few standard wireless technologies that are short-ranged. These are introduced as contenders for intra-BAN communications for communications inside a Body Area Network (BAN) and between the elements.