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Wireless Networks manuscript No.
(will be inserted by the editor)
A Survey on Wireless Body Area Networks

Benoı̂t Latré · Bart Braem · Ingrid Moerman · Chris Blondia ·
Piet Demeester
Received: date / Accepted: date
Abstract The increasing use of wireless networks and 1 Introduction

the constant miniaturization of electrical devices has
empowered the development of Wireless Body Area Net- The aging population in many developed countries and
works (WBANs). In these networks various sensors are the rising costs of health care have triggered the in-
attached on clothing or on the body or even implanted troduction of novel technology-driven enhancements to
under the skin. The wireless nature of the network and current health care practices. For example, recent ad-
the wide variety of sensors oer numerous new, practi- vances in electronics have enabled the development of
cal and innovative applications to improve health care small and intelligent (bio-) medical sensors which can
and the Quality of Life. The sensors of a WBAN mea- be worn on or implanted in the human body. These
sure for example the heartbeat, the body temperature sensors need to send their data to an external medical
or record a prolonged electrocardiogram. Using a WBAN, server where it can be analyzed and stored. Using a
the patient experiences a greater physical mobility and wired connection for this purpose turns out to be too
is no longer compelled to stay in the hospital. This pa- cumbersome and involves a high cost for deployment
per oers a survey of the concept of Wireless Body Area and maintenance. However, the use of a wireless in-
Networks. First, we focus on some applications with terface enables an easier application and is more cost
special interest in patient monitoring. Then the com- ecient [1]. The patient experiences a greater physical
munication in a WBAN and its positioning between mobility and is no longer compelled to stay in a hospi-
the dierent technologies is discussed. An overview of tal. This process can be considered as the next step in
the current research on the physical layer, existing MAC enhancing the personal health care and in coping with
and network protocols is given. Further, cross layer and the costs of the health care system. Where eHealth is
quality of service is discussed. As WBANs are placed dened as the health care practice supported by elec-
on the human body and often transport private data, tronic processes and communication, the health care
security is also considered. An overview of current and is now going a step further by becoming mobile. This
past projects is given. Finally, the open research issues is referred to as mHealth [2]. In order to fully exploit
and challenges are pointed out. the benets of wireless technologies in telemedicine and
mHealth, a new type of wireless network emerges: a
wireless on-body network or a Wireless Body Area Net-
Benoı̂t Latré, Ingrid Moerman, Piet Demeester work (WBAN). This term was rst coined by Van Dam
Department of Information Technology, Ghent University / et al. in 2001 [3] and received the interest of several
IBBT, Gaston Crommenlaan 8 box 201, B-9050 Gent, Belgium, researchers [4–8].
Tel.: +32-45-678910
Fax: +132-45-678910
A Wireless Body Area Network consists of small, in-
E-mail: benoit.latre@intec.ugent.com telligent devices attached on or implanted in the body
Bart Braem, Chris Blondia
which are capable of establishing a wireless commu-
Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, University nication link. These devices provide continuous health
of Antwerp / IBBT, monitoring and real-time feedback to the user or med-
Middelheimlaan 1, B-2020, Antwerp, Belgium ical personnel. Furthermore, the measurements can be
2
recorded over a longer period of time, improving the – And nally the devices are often very heterogeneous,
quality of the measured data [9]. may have very dierent demands or may require
Generally speaking, two types of devices can be dis- dierent resources of the network in terms of data
tinguished: sensors and actuators. The sensors are used rates, power consumption and reliability.
to measure certain parameters of the human body, ei- When referring to a WBAN where each node com-
ther externally or internally. Examples include mea- prises a biosensor or a medical device with sensing unit,
suring the heartbeat, body temperature or recording some researchers use the name Body Area Sensor Net-
a prolonged electrocardiogram (ECG). The actuators work (BASN) or in short Body Sensor Network (BSN)
(or actors) on the other hand take some specic ac- instead of WBAN [12]. These networks are very similar
tions according to the data they receive from the sensors to each other and share the same challenges and prop-
or through interaction with the user. E.g., an actuator erties. In the following, we will use the term WBAN
equipped with a built-in reservoir and pump adminis- which is also the one used by the IEEE [13].
ters the correct dose of insulin to give to diabetics based In this article we present a survey of the state of
on the glucose level measurements. Interaction with the the art in Wireless Body Area Networks. Our aim is to
user or other persons is usually handled by a personal provide a better understanding of the current research
device, e.g. a PDA or a smart phone which acts as a issues in this emerging eld. The remainder of this pa-
sink for data of the wireless devices. per is organized as follows. First, the patient monitoring
In order to realize communication between these de- application is discussed in Section 2. Next, the char-
vices, techniques from Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) acteristics of the communication and the positioning
and ad hoc networks could be used. However, because of WBANs amongst other wireless technologies is dis-
of the typical properties of a WBAN, current proto- cussed in Section 4. Section 5 gives an overview of the
cols designed for these networks are not always well properties of the physical layer and the issues of com-
suited to support a WBAN. The following illustrates municating near or in the body. Existing protocols for
the dierences between a Wireless Sensor Network and the MAC-layer and network layer are discussed in Sec-
a Wireless Body Area Network: tion 6 and Section 7 respectively. Section 8 deals with
cross-layer protocols available for WBANs. The Quality
– The devices used have limited energy resources avail- of Service and possible security mechanisms are treated
able as they have a very small form factor (often less in Section 9 and 10. An overview of existing projects
than 1 cm3 [10]). Furthermore, for most devices it is given in Section 11. Finally, the open research issues
is impossible to recharge or change the batteries al- are discussed in Section 12 and Section 13 concludes
though a long lifetime of the device is wanted (up the paper.
to several years or even decades for implanted devi-
ces). Hence, the energy resources and consequently
the computational power and available memory of 2 Patient Monitoring
such devices will be limited;
– All devices are equally important and devices are The main cause of death in the world is CardioVascular
only added when they are needed for an application Disease (CVD), representing 30% of all global deaths.
(i.e. no redundant devices are available); According to the World Health Organization, world-
– An extremely low transmit power per node is needed wide about 17.5 million people die of heart attacks or
to minimize interference and to cope with health strokes each year; in 2015, almost 20 million people will
concerns [11]; die from CVD. These deaths can often be prevented
– The propagation of the waves takes place in or on a with proper health care [14]. Worldwide, more than 246
(very) lossy medium, the human body. As a result, million people suer from diabetes, a number that is
the waves are attenuated considerably before they expected to rise to 380 million by 2025 [15]. Frequent
reach the receiver; monitoring enables proper dosing and reduces the risk
– The devices are located on the human body that can of fainting and in later life blindness, loss of circulation
be in motion. WBANs should therefore be robust and other complications [15].
against frequent changes in the network topology; These two examples already illustrate the need for
– The data mostly consists of medical information. continuous monitoring and the usefulness of WBANs.
Hence, high reliability and low delay is required; Numerous other examples of diseases would benet from
– Stringent security mechanisms are required in order continuous or prolonged monitoring, such as hyperten-
to ensure the strictly private and condential char- sion, asthma, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease,
acter of the medical data; renal failure, post-operative monitoring, stress-monitoring,

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Wireless Networks manuscript No.

(will be inserted by the editor)

A Survey on Wireless Body Area Networks

Received: date / Accepted: date

Abstract The increasing use of wireless networks and 1 Introduction

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