Body Sensor Networking, Design and Algorithms

14Existing Projects and Platforms

14.1 Introduction

At the heart of body area network (BAN) architecture is the sensor platform equipped with a short- or even long-range communication capability. An on-board processing system is an extra but highly demanding and useful facility which is an emerging technology for smart sensors. The availability of smart sensors (remote system) further mobilises the research and technology for distributed and decentralised adaptive networks.

Several research groups and commercial vendors develop their own prototypes of wireless body sensor networks (WBSNs), also called wireless body area networks (WBANs) [1]. Some have more interest in building a system architecture and the associated service platform and others in developing the communication system focusing on the networking protocols, including routing algorithms. Here, a number of WBAN platforms are explained to give an overview of research and development as well as the market for developing body sensors, sensor networking, and communication strategies. Despite similarities, what makes them different are the short-range communication type, number of hops between the sensors and the sink, and of course the particular applications they focus on. These applications require particular body sensors as well as data acquisition and processing systems. On the other hand, the locations of sensors and sinks may be considered fixed or ad hoc and the overall system may include a diverse range of sensors. ...