Wireless Body Area Networks and Their Applications—A Review

Abstract

In this paper, a comprehensive review of the wireless body area network is provided. A review of the WBAN architectures, standard network topologies, and WBAN communication protocols is discussed in detail. Also, the security requirements of WBAN, security threats and types of attacks, and authentications used in WBAN are discussed. The paper also includes very detailed coverage of antenna types, antenna designs, and flexible antennas used in WBAN with some design considerations and comparisons. Some new energy harvesting technologies, materials used for energy harvesting, and energy management are also discussed. Energy harvesting and power management is an ever-growing area of research. Despite the fact that there are many nanogenerator-based energy harvesting methods, the demand for more efficient energy harvesting mechanisms is ever-increasing. The paper has an extensive discussion of energy harvesting and power management methods. Subsequently, some reviews of recent developments in wearable sensors and novel materials for developing wearable sensors are discussed. Finally, the application areas of WBAN are discussed

Keywords

• Body area network
• network security
• wireless communication protocols
• wearable sensors
• energy harvesting
• WBAN