WBSN<br />introduction<br /><br />The WBSN is an interdisciplinary area which could allow inexpensive and continuous health monitoring with real-time updates of medical records through the Internet. This area relies on the feasibility of fixing very small biosensors on/inside the human body that are comfortable and that do not damage normal activities. The WBAN allows continuous health monitoring in real time and can access to the medical records remotely.<br /><br />Recent development and advancement of information and communication technologies facilitate people in different dimensions of life. Most importantly, in the healthcare industry, this has become more and more involved with the information and communication technology-based services. One of the most important services is monitoring of remote patients, that enables the healthcare providers to observe, diagnose and prescribe the patients without being physically present. The advantage of sensor technologies gives the flexibility of installing in, on or of the body of patients, which is capable of forwarding data wirelessly to remote servers. Such technology is named as Wireless Body Area Network (WBAN).<br /><br />Sensors functions<br />The sensors will collect the different information in order to monitor the patient’s health status regardless of the patient location; this information will be transmitted wirelessly to an external processing unit. If an emergency is detected, an alert will be generated through the computer system to inform the patient and/or the medical staff. <br />Sensors in WBAN are interconnected via short-range wireless technologies, such as ZigBee, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth. Devices such as, a mobile phone, a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) or any other device can work as a gateway, which collects data from the sensors and forwards this information to a remote online server, where data processing and analysis takes place with the assistance of some medical software applications. Telecommunication networks such as, WLAN, WiMAX, LTE, LTE-A or Satellite etc. could be used as mean of communication link between gateways.<br />WBAN is a collection of multiple sensors attached to or in the body, which are used to receive different physical parameters, such as body temperature, blood sugar level, heart rate, pulse rate, respiratory measurement and even the amount of calories, burnt after exercise etc. WBAN is not only used in medical applications, but is also in multimedia and gaming applications. Sensor nodes can be placed in different topologies such as a star, mesh or tree.<br /><br />WBSN taxonomy<br />The main taxonomy of the WBAN is presented on the basis of various medical and non-medical applications. Figure 1 presents the general architecture for medical and non-medical applications.<br /><br />Common WBSN sensors<br />The WBAN sensors are applied to perform the following activities:<br /> ECG Sensor <br /> Blood Pressure<br /> CO2 Gas Sensor <br /> Humidity and Temperature Sensors <br /> Blood Glucose <br /> EEG Sensor <br /> Pulse Oximetry <br /><br /><br /><br /> <br />