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Nabil Ali Alrajeh 1 and Jaime Lloret 2 and Alejandro Canovas 2
Academic Editor:S. Khan
1, Biomedical Technology Department, College of Applied Medical Sciences, King Saud University, Riyadh 11633, Saudi Arabia
2, Integrated Management Coastal Research Institute, Universidad Politecnica de Valencia, C/Paranimf No. 1, Grao de Gandia, Gandia, 46730 Valencia, Spain
Received 23 May 2014; Accepted 1 July 2014; 15 July 2014
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
1. Introduction
A wireless sensor network (WSN) has many applications in which wireless body area network (WBAN) has gained significant importance. In WBAN [1, 2], small electronic devices are attached with human to monitor specific health related problem such as blood pressure, blood sugar level, and organ movement. The concept of WBAN is presented to facilitate the healthcare issues distantly or to monitor athletes [3]. WBAN consists of small intelligent electronic devices termed as sensors, which are low in power and processing [4]. These small sensors collect heath related data and communicate that data to some medical officers or medical servers so that it can be analyzed and monitor the patient health parameters or to track their fatigue and muscle stress. This kind of mechanism created ease in patient life to enjoy mobility and need not to stay at hospital all the time [5]. In WBAN, three layers play an important role for sensing precise readings of patient health and transmitting accurate information to medical servers, that is, physical layer, MAC layer, and network layer.
At physical layer, WBAN normally faces significant signal loss using narrow band or ultrawide band [6]. Furthermore, less path loss is observed in line of sight (LOS) communication as compared to nonline of sight due to capability of body fluid to absorb waves [7, 8]. Furthermore, mobility can also greatly affect the signal loss; by increasing movement and degree of movement, more signal loss occurs [9-11]. There are many research and design issues in antenna and radios that must be resolved to enable efficient and flawless deployment of WBAN. WBAN is playing role in improving e-healthcare and quality of life.
At MAC...