Introduction to Smart Body Area Networks
Body area networks, or BANs, provide benefits over broader range wireless solutions, such as 5G and LoRa. A BAN is a wireless network of sensors, actuators, and other devices installed around the human body for interpersonal or environmental interaction. Smart BANs are made up of wearable sensors communicating over a low-power mesh network to connect humans with their surroundings using Zigbee, Bluetooth, NFC and other technologies. Smart BAN is a smart mobile healthcare platform that enables comprehensive body area network (BAN) systems for non-invasive diagnosis and monitoring of human physiological conditions. Body Area Networks (BANs) are wireless networks that operate in the same frequency ranges and use similar protocol stacks as those used by wireless access points. However, BANs are optimized for much shorter distances to achieve best performance.
The communication range of a BAN device is typically between 10 cm and 3 m, whereas Wi-Fi access points usually have a range of 100 m or more. A Smart BAN is an Internet of Things (IoT) network for medical devices connected to the human body. It makes many devices that cannot be connected directly to the Internet (e.g., wearable or implantable sensors, stimulators) directly accessible from anywhere with a wireless connection, without requiring any infrastructure to be deployed on site. Moreover, every device participates in the network autonomously, without requiring any configuration from a user or any other external entity. Smart Body Area Networks (SBAN) is a term applied to one or more body-worn sensors (belonging to some specific technology) that communicate with each other in a bidirectional way, forming an ad hoc wireless network. SBANs are used to monitor conditions related to health, diet and physical fitness. More and more Internet of Things (IoT) devices are entering the market.
They are used in a variety of applications, including office automation and home services. One particular area where IoT adoption is increasing is the smart body area networks (sBAN) or body area networks (BAN). There are many advantages of using sBAN over traditional wireless local area networks such as robustness, low power consumption, and data rate scalable. The ability to access real-time physiological data from an individual’s body can provide numerous benefits. The application areas for sBAN include wellness monitoring, sports analytics and performance enhancement, predictive maintenance for equipment used by industrial drivers and athletes, preventive maintenance for drivers working in farming operations, remote medical monitoring with sensor fusion, medical alert systems that detect falls. M2M and IoT have grown exponentially in recent years, as the technology continues to evolve at a rapid pace. This industry will continue to be critical to consumer and business operations, with the potential to turn everyday tasks into smart solutions, greatly increasing efficiency and quality of life for people all around the world. Smart Body Area Networks is a technology that uses wearable sensors to track patients’ vital signs and provide alerts when a situation approaches critical levels. The information is relayed to doctors, nurses, and other administrators in real time, enabling them to identify risks and respond accordingly while improving overall patient care. Smart BANs are an emerging approach to sensing and communication in the Internet of Things (IoT) that uses wireless communication links located on or inside a person’s body. These body-area networks (BANs) allow various devices to communicate with each other, but they also provide several new capabilities. The Smart BAN allows for a more comfortable fit as well as seamless integration within the surrounding environment and overall lifestyle of the user.
