Abstract
In this paper the O-WBANs (Optical Wireless Body Area Networks) is presented as an alternative to the radio and microwave BANs which are plagued with issues like interference, power hungry, hazardous and costly spectrum. Various experiments performed in this work demonstrate the feasibility of LED (Light-Emitting Diode) based optical systems to be used for BANs. The system cost is kept as low as possible. Mainly the effects on the optical link are observed under ambient light and with different modulation schemes by varying link distance and line of sight in this paper. Experimental results reveal the satisfactory link availability up to the distance of 7 feet (around 2m, the optimum range of WBAN) and within the field of view of 30-60º. The low cost solution presented in this paper meets the WBANs data rate requirement for physiological data (i.e. 10-100 kbps). As IR (Infra-Red) signals do not provide any interference with the signals generated by the medical equipment of hospitals which is the problem in case of RF or microwave signals, additionally the IR signals are confined within a room hence IR signaling can prove to be potential candidate for WBAN fulfilling its security and limited access requirement.
Highlights
Majority of the WBANs rely on the radio and microwave based technologies designed for the short range personal area networks
In this paper we present the alternative to the radio and microwave BANs and analyze the O-WBANs by investigating the effects of ambient light, link distance, modulation/encoding schemes and Angle of receiver towards transmitter
Except for ASK, all other modulation techniques perform satisfactorily well upto the distance of 7 feet which is more than sufficient for the WBAN. 2-PSK and 4-PSK perform well with the increasing distance under low ambient light; provided the LOS is maintained or kept within a field of view under 20 degrees compared to other modulation schemes
Summary
Majority of the WBANs rely on the radio and microwave based technologies designed for the short range personal area networks. In our previous work [10], it is argued that the optical signaling schemes inherently compliment the security, low cost and interference free requirement of WBANs with a protocol designed for WBAN using infrared signaling Getting motivation from this fact, we present in this paper an LED based optical WBAN. Prince and Vibin [16]has established an LED based wireless audio communication system with 100 KHz audio signal They performed experiments to test the link reliability with different angles and distances with OOK. Et al [17] discusses the effect of increasing distance in VLC system as a significant reduction in the data rate They have tested their transceiver designs for 3m link distance and with 2.5 Mbps data rate using OOK and LOS only. In this paper we present the alternative to the radio and microwave BANs and analyze the O-WBANs by investigating the effects of ambient light, link distance, modulation/encoding schemes and Angle of receiver towards transmitter
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