Recent developments and technological advancements in wireless communication, MicroElectroMechanical Systems (MEMS) technology and integrated circuits has enabled low-power, intelligent, miniaturized, invasive/non-invasive micro and nano-technology sensor nodes strategically placed in or around the human body to be used in various applications, such as personal health monitoring. This exciting new area of research is called Wireless Body Area Networks (WBANs) and leverages the emerging IEEE 802.15.6 and IEEE 802.15.4j standards, specifically standardized for medical WBANs. The aim of WBANs is to simplify and improve speed, accuracy, and reliability of communication of sensors/actuators within, on, and in the immediate proximity of a human body. The vast scope of challenges associated with WBANs has led to numerous publications. In this paper, we survey the current state-of-art of WBANs based on the latest standards and publications. Open issues and challenges within each area are also explored as a source of inspiration towards future developments in WBANs.

Wireless Body Area Networks: A Survey

Advances in wireless communication technologies, such as wearable and implantable biosensors, along with recent developments in the embedded computing area are enabling the design, development, and implementation of body area networks. This class of networks is paving the way for the deployment of innovative healthcare monitoring applications. In the past few years, much of the research in the area of body area networks has focused on issues related to wireless sensor designs, sensor miniaturization, low-power sensor circuitry, signal processing, and communications protocols. In this paper, we present an overview of body area networks, and a discussion of BAN communications types and their related issues. We provide a detailed investigation of sensor devices, physical layer, data link layer, and radio technology aspects of BAN research. We also present a taxonomy of BAN projects that have been introduced/proposed to date. Finally, we highlight some of the design challenges and open issues that still need to be addressed to make BANs truly ubiquitous for a wide range of applications.

Body Area Networks: A Survey

Ambient Intelligence (AmI) is a new paradigm in information technology aimed at empowering people's capabilities by means of digital environments that are sensitive, adaptive, and responsive to human needs, habits, gestures, and emotions. This futuristic vision of daily environment will enable innovative human-machine interactions characterized by pervasive, unobtrusive, and anticipatory communications. Such innovative interaction paradigms make AmI technology a suitable candidate for developing various real life solutions, including in the healthcare domain. This survey will discuss the emergence of AmI techniques in the healthcare domain, in order to provide the research community with the necessary background. We will examine the infrastructure and technology required for achieving the vision of AmI, such as smart environments and wearable medical devices. We will summarize the state-of-the-art artificial intelligence (AI) methodologies used for developing AmI system in the healthcare domain, including various learning techniques (for learning from user interaction), reasoning techniques (for reasoning about users' goals and intensions), and planning techniques (for planning activities and interactions). We will also discuss how AmI technology might support people affected by various physical or mental disabilities or chronic disease. Finally, we will point to some of the successful case studies in the area and we will look at the current and future challenges to draw upon the possible future research paths.

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A Survey on Ambient Intelligence in Healthcare

A wireless body area network is a radio-frequency- based wireless networking technology that interconnects tiny nodes with sensor or actuator capabilities in, on, or around a human body. In a civilian networking environment, WBANs provide ubiquitous networking functionalities for applications varying from healthcare to safeguarding of uniformed personnel. This article surveys pioneer WBAN research projects and enabling technologies. It explores application scenarios, sensor/actuator devices, radio systems, and interconnection of WBANs to provide perspective on the trade-offs between data rate, power consumption, and network coverage. Finally, a number of open research issues are discussed.

http://csi.dgist.ac.kr/uploads/Seminar/1107_QoS%20Support_SSH.pdf

Enabling technologies for wireless body area networks: A survey and outlook

Healthcare applications are considered as promising fields for wireless sensor networks, where patients can be monitored using wireless medical sensor networks (WMSNs). Current WMSN healthcare research trends focus on patient reliable communication, patient mobility, and energy-efficient routing, as a few examples. However, deploying new technologies in healthcare applications without considering security makes patient privacy vulnerable. Moreover, the physiological data of an individual are highly sensitive. Therefore, security is a paramount requirement of healthcare applications, especially in the case of patient privacy, if the patient has an embarrassing disease. This paper discusses the security and privacy issues in healthcare application using WMSNs. We highlight some popular healthcare projects using wireless medical sensor networks, and discuss their security. Our aim is to instigate discussion on these critical issues since the success of healthcare application depends directly on patient security and privacy, for ethic as well as legal reasons. In addition, we discuss the issues with existing security mechanisms, and sketch out the important security requirements for such applications. In addition, the paper reviews existing schemes that have been recently proposed to provide security solutions in wireless healthcare scenarios. Finally, the paper ends up with a summary of open security research issues that need to be explored for future healthcare applications using WMSNs.

https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/12/1/55/pdf

Security Issues in Healthcare Applications Using Wireless Medical Sensor Networks: A Survey

Advances in semiconductor technology have resulted in the creation of miniature medical embedded systems that can wirelessly monitor the vital signs of patients. These lightweight medical systems can aid providers in large disasters who become overwhelmed with the large number of patients, limited resources, and insufficient information. In a mass casualty incident, small embedded medical systems facilitate patient care, resource allocation, and real-time communication in the advanced health and disaster aid network (AID-N). We present the design of electronic triage tags on lightweight, embedded systems with limited memory and computational power. These electronic triage tags use noninvasive, biomedical sensors (pulse oximeter, electrocardiogram, and blood pressure cuff) to continuously monitor the vital signs of a patient and deliver pertinent information to first responders. This electronic triage system facilitates the seamless collection and dissemination of data from the incident site to key members of the distributed emergency response community. The real-time collection of data through a mesh network in a mass casualty drill was shown to approximately triple the number of times patients that were triaged compared with the traditional paper triage system.

/pdf/the-advanced-health-and-disaster-aid-network-a-light-weight-4tdqw9nqmj.pdf

A. Chanmugam

Papers

The Advanced Health and Disaster Aid Network: A Light-Weight Wireless Medical System for Triage