ANALYSIS OF VARIOUS PROTOCOLS IN WIRELESS BODY AREA NETWORKS (WBAN)

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International Journal of Electronics and Communication Engineering and Technology
(IJECET)
Volume 8, Issue 2, March - April 2017, pp. 07–12, Article ID: IJECET_08_02_002
Available online at
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ISSN Print: 0976-6464 and ISSN Online: 0976-6472
© IAEME Publication
ANALYSIS OF VARIOUS PROTOCOLS IN
WIRELESS BODY AREA NETWORKS (WBAN)
Dr. R. Narayana Swamy
Associate Professor, Department of ECE,
AMIT, Arba Minch University, Arba Minch, Ethiopia
Ato. Eyassu Dilla
Head, Department of ECE,
AMIT, Arba Minch University, Arba Minch, Ethiopia
ABSTRACT
A Body Area Network is a system of computing devices located in close proximity
to the human body which coordinates and cooperates for the benefit of the user. Body
Area Networks have evolved out of sensor network technology and biomedical
engineering. In this paper we discuss various aspects of Body Area Networks,
introduction section deals with various concepts associated with computer networks
and some supporting technologies of Wireless Body Area Networks (WBANs). Section
2 deals with the various definitions of Body Area Networks (BANs) followed by the
types of BAN in section 3 and system architecture in section 4. Section 5 gives the
draft guidelines by IEEE 802.15.6 for a communications standard for BAN, the next
two sections list out the applications and current research trends of BAN followed by
the conclusion.
Key words: Body Area Network, Types of BAN, applications, research trends.
Cite this Article: Dr. R. Narayana Swamy and Ato. Eyassu Dilla, Analysis of Various
Protocols in Wireless Body Area Networks (WBAN), International Journal of
Electronics and Communication Engineering and Technology, 8(2), 2017, pp. 07–12.
http://www.iaeme.com/IJECET/issues.asp?JType=IJECET&VType=8&IType=2
1. INTRODUCTION
A computer network aka as a data network is an interconnection of a group of computing
devices via a physical cable or wireless media to share files, information and other
peripherals. Devices that are able to share information or other peripherals are said to be
networked devices. The most common example of a data network is the internet. For devices
to be able to transmit and accept data efficiently and effectively certain protocols have to be
implemented. A protocol is a set of rules that control the communication between computers
on a network. For example the message signal will have a header block of digits giving
information about the sender, recipient and the length of the message. It will also have a
termination block of digits that indicate the end of the message and further information to

Dr. R. Narayana Swamy and Ato. Eyassu Dilla
verify the accuracy of the message. Protocols are designed according to the standards decided
by International Organization for Standards (ISO) with principles to Open Systems
Interconnection (OSI).In any communication network a node is defined as an interconnection
point. In a computer network a node is defined as a device that starts and terminates the data.
A node can also be a gateway. A schematic description of the nodes and connecting cables in
a computer network is called the topology of the computer network. Topologies can be
defined as physical topology and signal Topology. Examples of physical topologies include
ring, bus, star, mesh. Bluetooth Low Energy and Zigbee are being commonly used for Body
Area Networks (BANs). Bluetooth is a short range wireless radio system which operates in
the frequency band of 2.4GHz at a maximum signal rate of 1 Mb/s. Its operating range is 10m
with a transmission power of 0-10dBm and channel BW of 1MHz. Topologies defined in
Bluetooth are piconet and scatternet. A piconet is a Wireless Personal Area Network (WPAN)
formed by 2 Bluetooth devices, one serving as a master and the other slave. A scatternet is
formed by connecting 2 piconets. A Bluetooth device may interact with several piconets at the
same time. A scatternet can be a slave in many piconets but master in only one of them.
Zigbee is a low rate WPAN operating in the frequency band 868/915 MHz and 2.4GHz with a
maximum signal rate of 250Kb/s, operating in the range of 10-100m with a transmission
power of 0dB. It is designed to support devices that consume minimal power. Device types
that can participate in a low rate WPAN network are Full Function device (FFD) and Reduced
Function device (RFD). An FFD can operate as a device, coordinator or a PAN coordinator.
An RFD is used for extremely simple applications. An FFD can talk to another FFD or RFD
whereas an RFD can talk only to an FFD.
2. BODY AREA NETWORK (BAN)
IEEE 802.15 formally defines a Body Area Network as, “a communication standard
optimized for low power devices and operation on, in or around the human body(but not
limited to humans) to serve a variety of applications including medical, consumer
electronics/personal entertainment and other.[1]” As Erik Karulf puts it in more simpler
terms, “in more common terms, a Body Area network is a system of devices in close
proximity to a person’s body that cooperate for the benefit of the user.[1]” BAN has evolved
out of existing sensor network technology and Biomedical engineering. Professor Guang-
Zhong Yang was the first person to coin the phrase Body Sensor Network in his book Body
Sensor Network in 2006. A Ban consists of several smart, extremely tiny and self powered
sensors that can be attached or implanted into subjects to monitor body parameters like ECG,
ENG, blood pressure or to monitor the subjects posture, location etc., this information is
either stored for further data processing or decision making by reporting it to a BAN
coordinator. A BAN coordinator can connect the BAN sensors to external networks like
wireless sensor network, Wi-Fi access points or Broadband cellular network(GSM, GPRS, 3G
etc)
3. TYPES OF BAN
According to the node position BANs can be categorized into 4 different types.
ON-Body
All the nodes involved in the communication are placed on the subject either by stitching it on
the skin or integrating it into a wearable or portable object carried by the user.
OFF-Body
Here at least one node is placed outside the subject and is made to act as a router, the
communication takes place between the external node and one of the devices on the body.

Analysis of Various Protocols in Wireless Body Area Networks (WBAN)
Body to Body
Both transmitter and receiver are placed on two different subjects [2].
IN-Body
At least one node is located inside the subject and it communicates with devices either inside,
on, or outside the subject.
4. SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE
4.1. Physical Layer
PHY is the undermost layer in the BANs communication stack. It defines the mechanism for
sending and receiving information bits over a wireless medium.
4.2. Medium Access Control (MAC) Layer
The nodes in a BAN have a common wireless channel for data transmission. Access to this
common channel is controlled by a common MAC. MAC protocols can be classified as
schedule-based MAC protocol and contention-based MAC protocol. In schedule-based MAC
protocol a coordinator to avoid packet collision in the commonly shared wireless medium
regulates the nodes channel access by assigning different time slots, frequency bands or
spreading code. In contention-based Mac protocol a predefined channel sharing mechanism is
employed and multiple nodes determine when, which and how to access the channel in a
distributed manner. Due to their distributed nature contention-based MAC protocols are more
feasible than schedule-based MAC protocols in most applications.
4.3. Network Layer and Topology
The network layer protocol is responsible for effective and efficient packet delivery from
source to destination, often through a number of intermediate nodes [3]. The principal job of a
network layer protocol is to locate, establish and maintain routes. There are a number of
routing protocols developed for various wireless sensor networks. Some of them include
• Sensor protocols for Information via Negotiation(SPIN)
• Threshold sensitive Energy Efficient sensor network(TEEN)
4.4. Middleware and Operating System
An operating system acts as an administrative program that effectively and efficiently
manages the hardware and software resources of the BAN.
The main functions of an operating system are as follows [3]
• Manages multiple processes and provides concurrency support
• Handles communication devices, sensors, memory and peripherals.
• Facilitates the efficient development of software applications by providing convenient and
secure abstraction of hardware resources.

Figure 1 Generic architecture of a BAN Node [3].
Figure1 portrays the generic architecture of a BAN node. While providing an abstraction
of system resources and Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) the operating system
manages the nodes hardware resources and other peripherals. Certain advanced operating
systems can provide concurrency mechanism thus allowing for multi-tasking and multi-
threaded programming. The middleware subsystem lies between the user application and
operating system and often provides communication, localization, Quality of service and data
management services for user applications. The communication stack is a simplified version
of the ISO seven-layer open systems interconnection model (ISO OSI 7-layer Model) and
typically consists of a PHY layer, a MAC layer and a network layer [3]. Each of the layers has
a significant role in communication link establishment, communication medium sharing, route
discovery and management. Compared to a general operating system, the operating system
developed for a wireless sensor network should be light weight, less complex, operate on low
power and be flexible in terms of the number of devices ported. Several operating systems
have been specifically developed for wireless sensor network. Some of them are
• TinyOS
• Contiki
• ScatterWeb
• MANTIS
• T-kernel
• LiteOS
5. BAN PROTOCOL
Several BAN devices have been implemented using already existing communication
standards, but they only meet a partial list of specific needs. Moreover they offer limited
solutions and cannot communicate with the outside world. The IEEE 802.15.6(TG6) task
group has been entrusted to come out with a specific communication standard for low power
devices and operating in, on, or around a human body. It is still in the development stage and
the communication standard has not been finalized yet. Several proposals for the standard
have been submitted to the task group. Various technical requirements were used to assess
proposals for the IEEE 802.15.6 BAN standard [4]. Those guidelines particularly related to
propagation and the physical layer includes [4]:
BANs should be scalable up to 256 nodes.
• A BAN link should support bit-rates between 10 kb/s and 10 Mb/s.
The packet error rate (PER) should be ≤ 10% for a 256 octet payload (i.e., 256× 8 bits of data)
for the 95% best-performing links according to PER .
Maximum radiated transmitted power should be 0 dBm and all devices should be able to

Analysis of Various Protocols in Wireless Body Area Networks (WBAN)
transmit at −10 dBm.
Nodes should be able to be added and removed to and from the network in less than 3
seconds.
• Reliability, latency and jitter should be supported for those BAN applications that need them.
Latency in medical applications should be less than 125 ms, and should be less than 250 ms in
non-medical applications. Jitter should be less than 50 ms.
Power saving mechanisms should be provided.
The physical layer should support co-located operation of at least 10 randomly distributed
BANs in a 6 × 6 × 6 m volume.
In-body BAN and on-body BAN should coexist in and around the body
6. APPLICATIONS OF BAN
• Remote health monitoring for humans and animals.
• Security
• Sports and fitness
• Entertainment
• Rescue operations
• Consumer electronics
7. CURRENT REASEARCH TRENDS
• Medium Access Control
• Antennas and Propagation on or near the surface of the body
• Networking protocols
• Security
• Localization
• Radiated power
• Consumed power
• Device size
• Interference susceptibility
• Electromagnetic field absorbed by the user
8. CONCLUSION
This paper gives information about the various aspects of a Body Area Network including
system architecture, applications, communication protocol draft specifications and current
research trends.
REFERENCES
[1] Eric Karulf, “Body Area Networks (BAN)”, http://www.cse.wustl.edu/~jain/cse574-
08/ftp/ban/index.html
[2] M. Maman, B. Denis, R. D'Errico, “Research Trends in Wireless Body Area Networks:
From On-Body to Body-to-Body Cooperation. IEEE DOI 10.1109/ISMICT.2014.6825240
[3] Sergio Gonzalex-Valenzuela, Xuedong Liang, Huasong Cao, Min Chen, Victor C.M.
Leung. “Body Area Networks”. Autonomous Sensor Network: Collective Sensing
Strategies for Analytical Purposes, pages 28-34, edited by Daniel Filippini, 2012, Springer
Science and business media

[4] David B. Smith, Dino Miniutti, Tharaka A. Lamahewa, Leif W. Hanlen. “Propagation
Models for Body Area Networks: A Survey and New Outlook”, IEEE DOI
10.1109/MAP.2013.6735479
[5] Kyung Sup Kwak, M.A. Ameen, Daehan Kwak, Cheolhyo Lee, Hyungsoo Lee, “A Study
on Proposed IEEE 802.15 WBAN MAC Protocols”, IEEE DOI
10.1109/ISCIT.2009.5341126
[6] Tehseen Bano, Mohd Anis, Subha Subramaniam"Networking-Human Area Network",
IJRET Volume: 04 Issue: 01 January 2015.
[7] Roshan Singh Sachan, Raghav Yadav and Ajeet Kumar Rai. A Survey of Energy-Efficient
Communication Protocols in WSNs, International Journal of Computer Engineering and
Technology, 7(3), 2016, pp. 07–16
[8] Shivabhakt Mhalasakant Hanamant, Dr. S. D. Shirbahadurakar and Dr. D. Y.Patil Ambi,
A3-6 GHZ Current Reuse Noise Cancelling Low Noise Amplifier For WLAN and WPAN
Application, International Journal of Electronics and Communication Engineering &
Technology, 7 (3), 2016, pp. 113–115.

ANALYSIS OF VARIOUS PROTOCOLS IN WIRELESS BODY AREA NETWORKS (WBAN)

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