Optical Chaos Based Secure Optical Body Area Network Employing Polarization Multiplexing and Free Space Optics for e-Health Applications

We propose and demonstrate an optical chaos secured optical body area network (OBAN) employing polarization multiplexing and free space optics links. The physiological data of patient coded in non-return to zero on-off keying (NRZ-OOK) format from two on-body nodes modulated on orthogonal polarization states of a continuous wave (CW) laser is secured by using additive chaos masking (ACM) technique with chaotic waveforms generated through direct modulation of semiconductor chaotic lasers (CLs). After polarization multiplexing, the secure NRZ- OOK modulated optical signals are transmitted over indoor and outdoor free space optics (FSO) links based on GammaGamma channel model towards remote healthcare center. After chaos subtraction, the NRZ-OOK modulated optical signals are photodetected and passed on to bit error rate (BER) estimator for performance analysis. The electronic health (e-health) system based on the proposed OBAN provides adequate privacy for classified patient related information with added advantages of acceptable BER results, cost efficiency, speedy installation and suitable for use in current pandemic situation.