An overview of Physical layers on wireless body area network

As a branch of WSN and an important part of the internet of things (IOT), the wireless body area network (WBAN) was originally created to improve the level of personal health care. And with the development of wireless technologies, the application of the WBAN has expanded to entertainment, leisure, military and other fields. So far, IEEE 802 Task Group has published a new IEEE 802.15.6 standard. The standard defines a Medium Access Control (MAC) layer supporting three Physical (PRY) layers. The three PRY layers are narrowband (NB) PRY, ultra wideband (UWB) PRY and human body communication (RBC) PRY. In this paper, the concept and applications of WBAN are introduced; comparisons between 802.11, 802.15.1, 802.15.4 and 802.15.6 are made; and a brief description about the three PRY layers specifications is given. Some existing questions and challenges the WBAN confronts are also analyzed.