Update on the IEEE Body-Area-Networks standard

The Body-Area-Network standard IEEE 802.15.6 has moved a step closer to completion. The four draft documents have now combined into a single draft standard. This draft will be discussed at the upcoming meeting in May.

Task-Group 6 is the regulatory group for the standardization of body area networks, IEEE number 802.15.6. The 802.15.x groups are the Wireless Personal Area Networks (WPAN) which includes 802.15.4 (ZigBee).

 
In the February meeting, the Physical-Layer draft documents (narrowband, ultra-wide-band and human-body-communication) and the Medium-Access-Control layer document were proposed. These documents have now been combined into the single draft document under Daniel Lewis (Editor) and Art Astrin (TG6 Chair).

Body Area Networks are steadily growing outside the usual suspects of academia and industry standards players. ZDNet have been running a series of articles on BANs. 

The budding field of Body Area Networks gives new meaning to the term “personal” in PCs. In a nutshell, the technology leverages wireless communications protocols that allow for low-powered sensors to communicate with one another and transmit data to a local base station and to remote places like hospitals.

BAN technology is still in its infancy and mainstream adoption is still over the horizon as engineers and researchers work to overcome challenges involving interoperability, sensor design constraints (i.e. power and complexity), privacy, and security to name a few. Once these issues are overcome, expect BANs to first revolutionize healthcare allowing for concepts like telemedicine and mHealth to become real, and potentially allow for groundbreaking uses in communications, security, and sports. 

We can expect BANs to take on medical applications -- eg. in hospitals and mobile health, although it is likely that the consumer aspects of BANs will be more related to everyday living (tele-health rather than tele-medicine) and fitness (including sports).