A Software Defined Radio Evaluation Platform for WBAN Systems

Junchao Wang; Kaining Han; Zhiyu Chen; Anastasios Alexandridis; Zeljko Zilic; Yu Pang; Jinzhao Lin

doi:10.3390/s18124494

Sensors (Dec 2018)

A Software Defined Radio Evaluation Platform for WBAN Systems

Junchao Wang,
Kaining Han,
Zhiyu Chen,
Anastasios Alexandridis,
Zeljko Zilic,
Yu Pang,
Jinzhao Lin

Affiliations

Junchao Wang: Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, McGill University, Montreal, QC H3A 2A7, Canada
Kaining Han: National Key Laboratory of Science and Technology on Communications, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 611731, China
Zhiyu Chen: Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, McGill University, Montreal, QC H3A 2A7, Canada
Anastasios Alexandridis: Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, McGill University, Montreal, QC H3A 2A7, Canada
Zeljko Zilic: Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, McGill University, Montreal, QC H3A 2A7, Canada
Yu Pang: Chongqing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Chongqing 400065, China
Jinzhao Lin: Chongqing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Chongqing 400065, China

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/s18124494
Journal volume & issue: Vol. 18, no. 12
p. 4494

Abstract

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In recent years, the Wireless Body Area Network (WBAN) concept has attracted significant academic and industrial attention. WBAN specifies a network dedicated to collecting personal biomedical data from advanced sensors that are then used for health and lifestyle purposes. In 2012, the 802.15.6 WBAN standard was released by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), which regulates and specifies the configurations of WBAN. Compared to the prevailing wireless communication technologies such as Bluetooth and ZigBee, the WBAN standard has the advantages of ultra-low power consumption, high reliability, and high-security protection while transmitting sensitive personal data. Based on the standard specification, several implementations have been published. However, in terms of evaluation, different designs were implemented in proprietary evaluation environments, which may lead to unfair comparison. In this paper, a Software-Defined Radio (SDR) evaluation platform for WBAN systems is proposed to evaluate the RF channel specified in the IEEE 802.15.6 standard. A narrowband communication protocol demonstration with a security scheme in WBAN has been performed to successfully validate the design in the proposed evaluation platform.

Published in Sensors

ISSN: 1424-8220 (Online)
Publisher: MDPI AG
Country of publisher: Switzerland
LCC subjects: Technology: Chemical technology
Website: http://www.mdpi.com/journal/sensors

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