Security In Wireless Body Area Network (WBAN) Using Blockchain

Abstract

In this era of increased technological and medical advancements, remote monitoring of patients and elderly people has become more popular. Even in situations like the present Covid’19 pandemic the hospital and medical facilities are in demand. In such scenarios, elderly people who need medical care and patients who need round-the-clock medical attention can be made to stay in their homes and can be monitored remotely with the help of a remote patient monitoring system. Such a system can be built by incorporating Wireless Body Area Networks (WBAN). WBAN encompasses various biological wearable sensors which monitor the patient’s health around the clock. The accumulated sensor data is then shared with hospitals and medical professionals through wireless sensor networks. This data includes personnel details, various vital parameters, medical images, etc. which are highly confidential. So providing security and confidentiality in such networks is mandatory. Several cryptographic mechanisms and algorithms are available for ensuring security in WBANs. In recent days several works have been proposed to incorporate the emerging Blockchain technology to improve the privacy, security, and confidentiality in WBANs. In this survey, we discuss various research that proposed blockchain-based solutions for ensuring security, integrity, and data privacy in WBAN.