Medical Body Area Networks Research Articles

ASAP: A lightweight authenticated secure association protocol for IEEE 802.15.6 based medical BAN

Medical Body Area Networks (MBANs), a specialized subset of Wireless Body Area Networks (WBANs), are crucial for enabling medical data collection, processing, and transmission. The IEEE 802.15.6 standard governs these networks but falls short in practical MBAN scenarios. This paper introduces ASAP, a Lightweight Authenticated Secure Association Protocol integrated with IEEE 802.15.6. ASAP prioritizes patient privacy with randomized node ID generation and temporary shared keys, preventing node tracking and privacy violations. It optimizes network performance by consolidating Master Keys (MK), Pairwise Temporal Keys (PTK), and Group Temporal Keys (GTK) creation into a unified process, ensuring the efficiency of the standard four-message association protocol. ASAP enhances security by eliminating the need for pre-shared keys, reducing the attack surface, and improving forward secrecy. The protocol achieves mutual authentication without pre-shared keys or passwords and supports advanced cryptographic algorithms on nodes with limited processing capabilities. Additionally, it imposes connection initiation restrictions, requiring valid certificates for nodes, thereby addressing gaps in IEEE 802.15.6. Formal verification using Verifpal confirms ASAP's resilience against various attacks. Implementation results show ASAP's superiority over standard IEEE 802.15.6 protocols, establishing it as a robust solution for securing MBAN communications in medical environments.

Designing of Textile-based Wearable Antennas at 2.45 GHz

In the recent times, there are a continuous development and distinctive growth in the implementation of wearable sensors and flexible devices in real lifes. These devices are exploited to monitor signals in healthcase applications, for the intents of geo‐positioning of the rescue, and in military personnel. There are abundant of frequency bands have been introduced worldwide such for the narrow-band versions 2.36–2.40 GHz for the medical body area network, 2.40–2.48 GHz as the industrial, scientific, and medical band, and 3.1–10.6 GHz for the ultra‐wideband applications. In designing of wearable antennas, we find many challenges due to the practical implementation of antennas next to human body. The human body presents as very loss structures and its presence affects the form of the radiation pattern of the antenna and also can shift its operational frequency. Moreover, placement of the antenna on convex structures with different curvature radii also affects its performance due to overall change in electrical length. In this study, we analyze wearable antennas based on textile flexible materials for WBAN implementation. The type of the antennas is a metasurface implementation of microstrip antennas. In this way, we can reduce the thickness of the material significantly to prevent the radiation efficiency of the antennas. We will observe the bending effect on the radiation patterns of the antenna.

Curvature-Adaptive Compact Triple-Band Metamaterial Uniplanar Compact Electromagnetic Bandgap-Based Printed Antenna for Wearable Wireless and Medical Body Area Network Applications

A novel, compact, monopole apple-shaped, triple-band metamaterial-printed wearable antenna backed by a uniplanar compact electromagnetic bandgap (UC-EBG) structure is introduced in this paper for wearable wireless and medical body area network (WBAN/MBAN) applications. A tri-band UC-EBG structure has been utilized as a ground plane to minimize the impact of antenna radiation on the human body and improve antenna performance for the proposed wearable antenna. Metamaterial triangular complementary split ring resonators (TCSRRs) are incorporated into the antenna and UC-EBG structure, resulting in a compact UC-EBG-backed antenna with an overall size of 39 × 39 × 2.84 mm3 (0.41 λg × 0.41 λg × 0.029 λg). The printed textile antenna operates at 2.45 GHz for the wireless local area network (WLAN), 3.5 GHz for 5G new radio (NR), and 5.8 GHz for the industrial, scientific, and medical (ISM) bands with improved gain and high-efficiency values. Furthermore, the performance of the antenna is analyzed on the human body, where three models of curved body parts are considered: a child’s arm (worst case) with a 40 mm radius, an adult’s arm with a 60 mm radius, and an adult’s leg with a 70 mm radius. The results demonstrate that the proposed antenna is an attractive candidate for wearable healthcare and fitness monitoring devices and other WBAN/MBAN applications due to its compact size, high performance, and low SAR values.

ENHANCING WEARABLE AND MEDICAL CONNECTIVITY: A NOVEL PRINTED TRIPLE-BAND METAMATERIAL ANTENNA FOR WBAN/MBAN APPLICATIONS

This paper presents a novel, compact, monopole apple-shaped, and triple-band metamaterial printed antenna for wireless body area network (WBAN) and medical body area network (MBAN) applications. The antenna is backed by a tri-band uniplanar compact electromagnetic bandgap (UC-EBG) structure that acts as a ground plane and incorporates metamaterial triangular complementary splitring resonators (TCSRRs). The proposed printed textile antenna operates at 2.45 GHz for wireless local area network (WLAN), 3.5 GHz for 5G new radio (NR), and 5.8 GHz for industrial, scientific, and medical bands. Implementing the UC-EBG structure resulted in a 99% decrease in the specific absorption rate (SAR) values over 1 g and 10 g of tissues and achieved gains of 5.45, 6.09, and 7.63 dBi at 2.45, 3.5, and 5.8 GHz, respectively. Due to its high performance, low SAR values, and compact size of 39 × 39 × 2.84 mm<sup>3</sup> (0.41 λ<sub>g</sub> × 0.41 λ<sub>g</sub> × 0.029 λ<sub>g</sub> ), the proposed antenna is an attractive candidate for wearable healthcare, fitness monitoring devices, and other WBAN/MBAN applications.

Smart Wireless Sensor Technology for Healthcare Monitoring System Using Cognitive Radio Networks

Programmable Object Interfaces are increasingly intriguing researchers because of their broader applications, especially in the medical field. In a Wireless Body Area Network (WBAN), for example, patients’ health can be monitored using clinical nano sensors. Exchanging such sensitive data requires a high level of security and protection against attacks. To that end, the literature is rich with security schemes that include the advanced encryption standard, secure hashing algorithm, and digital signatures that aim to secure the data exchange. However, such schemes elevate the time complexity, rendering the data transmission slower. Cognitive radio technology with a medical body area network system involves communication links between WBAN gateways, server and nano sensors, which renders the entire system vulnerable to security attacks. In this paper, a novel DNA-based encryption technique is proposed to secure medical data sharing between sensing devices and central repositories. It has less computational time throughout authentication, encryption, and decryption. Our analysis of experimental attack scenarios shows that our technique is better than its counterparts.

Differential method for determining the specific absorption rate coefficient of electromagnetic energy for a liquid phantom

The wide use of small-sized wearable electronic devices in various practical human activities makes it relevant to measure the proportion of electromagnetic energy absorbed by the human body. One of the most important parameters that determines it is the specific absorption rate. In this article we propose a method for determining this coefficient for a liquid phantom, with the use of computer simulation and experimental measurement of the microstrip patch antenna parameters.The antenna is located on an elliptical cylinder and operates in the medical body area network. The method is based on measuring the rise in temperature of the liquid phantom exposed to electromagnetic waves generated by a microstrip antenna over a given time. Homogeneous liquid phantom was created by changing the percentage of salt and sugar in 250 g of water, skin phantom – by changing the percentage of water in 200 g of glycerol. The proposed specific absorption rate measurement method eliminates the need to purchase an expensive set of dielectric probes, which demonstrates its cost-effectiveness. The obtained results of experimental measurements are in good agreement with the results of the performed computer simulation.

Modern Forms and New Challenges in Medical Sensors and Body Area Networks

Traditional medical sensors/monitors can measure pressure, airflow, force, oxygen, pulse, temperature, etc [...]

A photopaper‐based low‐cost, wideband wearable antenna for wireless body area network applications

This study presents a low-cost, compact, flexible, and wideband wearable antenna for different wireless body area network (WBAN) band applications, covering medical body area network band of 2.4 GHz, industrial, scientific, and medical band of 2.45 GHz, WiMAX band of 3.5 GHz, and wireless local area network band of 5.2 GHz. The final antenna topology is obtained by hexagonal microstrip radiator patch fabricated on commercially available low-cost photo paper substrate and defected ground plane below the feed line acting as a partial ground to achieve a conformable structure wideband operation. The overall size of the fabricated antenna is 30 × 40 mm2 and yields a wide-bandwidth of 3 GHz (2.30–5.30 GHz), radiation efficiency of 84.35%, and the highest gain of 3.48 dBi at the centre frequency of 5.2 GHz, and minimum gain of 1.91 dBi at 2.45 GHz. Furthermore, our detailed numerical and experimental investigations involving specific absorption rate performance assessment and bending analysis revealed the proposed design's excellent robustness to both human body loading and structural deformation scenarios. Therefore, simulated and measured results strongly advocate that the proposed design has profound implications for flexible and body-worn devices in WBAN applications.

Textile Bandwidth-Enhanced Coupled-Mode Substrate-Integrated Cavity Antenna with Slot

A textile bandwidth-enhanced coupled-mode substrate-integrated cavity antenna with a slot is presented. The original coupled-mode substrate-integrated cavity antenna is of two close resonances for the odd and even coupled modes, and a rectangular slot is added on the top layer to introduce a third resonance. Parameters are optimized to merge the bands of the three resonances to realize a widened −10 dB impedance band to cover the Medical Body Area Network band, 2.45 GHz Industrial Scientific Medical band and Long-Term Evolution Band7. The proposed antenna can operate in a −10 dB impedance band of 2.32–2.69 GHz with a 14.9% fractional bandwidth according to the measurements on a fabricated prototype. Simulation and measurement results illustrate the robustness of the proposed textile antenna in the vicinity of the human body and cylindrical bending conditions. In addition, the simulated specific absorption rate of the antenna radiation in the human body is lower than the IEEE and EN limits.

Multibiosignal chaotic encryption scheme based on spread spectrum and global diffusion process for e-health

E-health provides several remote health services highly convenient for patients. Nevertheless, inherent security risks are present in e-health such as data privacy since insecure communication channels are used to transmit data between patients and physicians or to cloud medical data storage. Nowadays, medical body area network provides a solution to continuous health monitoring with real-time updates of multibiosignal records in multiuser communication schemes for monitoring and early detection of medical conditions or diseases. In this paper, we propose to use chaos-based sequence direct spread spectrum technology and chaos-based cryptography to provide data privacy, high security and efficiency in monitoring multibiosignals in multiuser networks for e-health applications. First, each plain biosignal is modulated with sequence direct spread spectrum by using the chaotic Hénon map. Then, all modulated biosignals are summed to produce the modulated cryptogram. The modulated cryptogram is finally encrypted by using global diffusion process with the chaotic Hénon map to increase security by reducing the high autocorrelation of the modulated cryptogram. The experimental results are presented in a simulated multiuser scenario with 4 users (or patients) and 2 specialists (neurologist and cardiologist), with 12 biosignals acquired from database on the Internet, such as electroencephalograms, electromyograms, blood pressure signals, and electrocardiograms. A comprehensive security study is presented to show the high security, the high speed encryption, and the high noise interference robustness. According with the results, the proposed method can be used for secure multibiosignal monitoring in multiuser networks for e-health applications with high efficiency and security.

Low-profile Button Sensor Antenna Design for Wireless Medical Body Area Networks.

A button sensor antenna (BSA) for wireless medical body area networks (WMBAN) is presented, which works through the IEEE 802.11b/g/n standard. Due to strong interaction between the sensor antenna and the body, a new robust system is designed with a small footprint that can serve on- and off-body healthcare applications. The measured and simulated results are matched well. The design offers a wide range of omnidirectional radiation patterns in free space, with a reflection coefficient (S11) of -29.30 (-30.97) dB in the lower (upper) bands. S11 reaches up to -23.07 (-27.07) dB and -30.76 (-31.12) dB on the body chest and arm, respectively. The Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) values are below the regulatory limitations for both 1-gram (1.6 W/Kg) and 10-gram tissues (2.0 W/Kg). Experimental tests of the read range validate the results of a maximum coverage range of 40 meters. Clinical Relevance- WMBAN technology allows for continuous monitoring and analysis of patient health data to improve the quality of healthcare services.

Design of Flexible Meander Line Antenna for Healthcare in Wireless Body Area Network Systems.

A flexible meander line monopole antenna (MMA) is presented in this paper. The antenna can be worn for on-and off-body applications. The overall dimension of the MMA is 37 mm x 50 mm x 2.37 mms, The MMA was manufactured and measured, and the results matched with simulation results. The MMA design shows a bandwidth of up to 1282.4 (450.5) MHz and provides gains of 3.03 (4.85) dBi in two operating bands, respectively, showing omnidirectional radiation patterns in free space. While worn on the chest or arm, bandwidths as high as 688.9 (500.9) MHz and 1261.7 (524.2) MHz, and the gains of 3.80 (4.67) dBi and 3.00 (4.55) dBi were observed. The experimental measurements of the read range confirmed. Clinical Relevance- Wireless Medical Body Area Network (WMBAN) technology allows for continuous monitoring and analysis of patient health data to improve the quality of healthcare services.

Improving the Security of the IEEE 802.15.6 Standard for Medical BANs

A Medical Body Area Network (MBAN) is an ensemble of collaborating, potentially heterogeneous, medical devices located inside, on the surface of or around the human body with the objective of tackling one or multiple medical conditions of the MBAN host. These devices – which are a special category of Wireless Body Area Networks (WBANs) – collect, process and transfer medical data outside of the network, while in some cases they also administer medical treatment autonomously. Since communication is so pivotal to their operation, the newfangled IEEE 802.15.6 standard is aimed at the communication aspects of WBANs. It places a set of physical and communication constraints while it also includes association/disassociation protocols and security services that WBAN applications need to comply with. However, the security specifications put forward by the standard can be easily shown to be insufficient when considering realistic MBAN use cases and need further enhancements. The present work addresses these shortcomings by, first, providing a structured analysis of the IEEE 802.15.6 security features and, afterwards, proposing comprehensive and tangible recommendations on improving the standard’s security.

An Efficient and Compact Monopole Antenna Backed With Square Loop EBG Structure for Medical Wireless Body Area Network Applications

AbstractIn this paper, a compact, low‐profile, and simple monopole antenna is presented that is operated at the frequency of 2.4 GHz in industrial scientific medical band. The monopole antenna is based on the simple rectangular microstrip patch with a rotated T‐shaped slot. Furthermore, a 2 × 2 electromagnetic band‐gap (EBG) array is used in this design to act as an isolator between the antenna and the human body, which additionally increases the performance of the proposed antenna. The final design has an overall size of only 0.9λg × 0.9λg × 0.034λg (60 × 60 × 2.3 mm3) where λg is the guided‐wavelength with respect to RO4003 substrate at the resonant frequency of 2.4 GHz. This can make the structure a good candidate for wireless body area network applications. A prototype of the designed EBG‐based antenna is fabricated over a widely available RO4003 substrate. The measurement results show a gain of 6.52 dBi, a front to back ratio of 12.12 dB, and a total efficiency of 79.87% around the resonant frequency. Furthermore, numerical studies are conducted to evaluate the specific absorption rate (SAR) of the proposed design, which shows by introducing the EBG structure, more than 96% reduction in SAR level is obtained. All simulations are carried out by CST microwave studio software.

High Efficiency, Good phase linearity 0.18 µm CMOS Power Amplifier for MBAN-UWB Applications

This paper presents the design of 3.1-10.6 GHz class AB power amplifier (PA) suitable for medical body area network (MBAN) Ultra-Wide Band (UWB) applications in TSMC 0.18 µm technology. An optimization technique to simultaneously maximize power added efficiency(PAE) and minimize group delay variation is employed. Source and Load-pull contours are used to design inter and output stage matching circuits. The post-layout simulation results indicated that the designed PA has a maximum PAE of 32 % and an output 1-dB compression of 11 dBm at 4 GHz. In addition, a small group delay variation of ± 50 ps was realized over the whole required frequency band . Moreover, the proposed PA has small signal power gain (S21) of 12.5 dB with ripple less than 1.5 dB over the frequency range between 3.1 GHz to 10.6 GHz, while consuming 36 mW.

Artificial intelligence image recognition based on 5G deep learning edge algorithm of Digestive endoscopy on medical construction

In this paper, we use artificial intelligence image recognition to obtain Digestive endoscopy image, and process the image based on 5G Deep learning edge algorithm to judge the disease type of the patient, and then consider the treatment plan. The combination of body area network and edge computing technology can meet the demand of low delay in body area network. In this case, the resource constrained body area network gateway node can process the physiological data collected by it into an offloadable task, and then unload the task and data to the edge computing node according to a certain strategy. The edge computing node completes the corresponding task processing and data storage, and finally provides the results to the relevant medical institutions and body area network users for reading auxiliary diagnosis and treatment of diseases. Studies have shown that 25% of patients with colon polyps have CD4 cells in peripheral blood based on 5G deep learning edge algorithm under artificial intelligence image recognition of Digestive endoscopy. The number of lymphocyte in group of differentiation was less than 200/μL, and the blood RNA in 92.3% patients was lower than 100 IU/ml, while fam CTP (A-cyclic peptide) was lower than 100 IU/ml. Opportunistic infections of the intestine and viruses can directly cause enteropathy because the fluorescence intensity of the probe is essentially unchanged and cannot form a triple helix structure. In terms of feature recognition accuracy, the 5G deep learning edge algorithm in this paper improves accuracy by 68% compared to the simple Yolo algorithm, and is similar in speed. Compared with RCNN algorithm, the accuracy and speed are improved by 21% and 85% respectively. Therefore, the 5G deep learning edge algorithm based on artificial intelligence image recognition has the advantages of accuracy and speed in digestive endoscopy of intelligent medical.

Proposed Transport Protocols Suite for Wireless Medical Body Area Networks

Proposed Transport Protocols Suite for Wireless Medical Body Area Networks

Secured Key Agreement Schemes in Wireless Body Area Network — A Review

Objective: To review different key agreement schemes which are used to establish Wireless body area network (WBAN) on the basis of identified attacks and also evaluate the schemes on performance parameters. Method: In this paper, an overview of WBAN, its architecture, difference between WSN and WBAN, IEEE 802.15.6 specifications of WBAN, attacks in the environment and security essentials are discussed at first. It further divides the key agreement schemes into four classes and provides an extensive review of the schemes on the basis of distinct parameters viz. data confidentiality, node authentication, data integrity, mutual authentication, unforgeability, unlinkability, forward/backward secrecy, scalability, freshness, dos attack and node capture attack. Schemes are searched using the keywords- (“Traditional Key Agreement Scheme” OR “Physiological Key Agreement Scheme” OR “Signal Based Key Agreement Scheme” OR “Hybrid Key Agreement Scheme” OR “Security in Key Agreement Scheme”) AND (“Wireless Body Area Network” OR “WBAN” OR “Body Area Network” OR “BAN” OR “Body Sensor Network” OR “BSN” OR “Medical Body Area Network” OR “MBAN”). The papers are shortlisted around long stretches of 2003-2021 with a focus on recent work from IEEE Xplore, Springer, Science Direct, ACM, MDPI and Google Scholar databases. Schemes are analyzed against the mentioned attacks and the result of the comparative analysis is shown using tables and chart tools graphically. Findings: The wide coverage of the schemes in this review provides in-depth exposure to the shortcomings of the different schemes against the listed attacks which will provide a road map to the researchers to develop secure schemes in the future. Moreover, maximum schemes do not consider all the three aspects of performance viz. memory efficiency, computational efficiency and energy efficiency which are the foremost parameters in resource scarce environment of WBAN. Novelty: This review is unique as it analyzes the distinct key agreement schemes under specific attacks found in the literature while other review papers discuss the general aspects of the security threats and corresponding counter measures in WBAN environment. It also provides the performance analysis of the key management schemes which are missing from other review works. Keywords: WBAN; IOT; Bio sensors; Security; Privacy; Attacks; Encryption; Key agreement schemes; IEEE 802.15.6

Asymmetric coplanar strip‐fed textile‐based wearable antenna for MBAN and ISM band applications

AbstractThe design of portable textile‐based asymmetric coplanar strip‐fed comb‐shaped patch (CSP) antenna is proposed and analyzed for Medical Body Area Network and Industrial Scientific and Medical band applications. A thin sheet of fabric with high conductivity has been embedded on a denim textile to fabricate a flexible conductive wearable antenna. The CSP antenna is validated in both free spaces and on the body. The proposed CSP antenna resonates at an operating frequency of 2.49 GHz (2.27–3.42 GHz) for free space with a bandwidth of 1150 MHz. On‐body, the antenna resonates at 2.44 GHz (1.9–2.8 GHz) with a bandwidth of 900 MHz. The gain is 4.67 dBi for free space, and −4.82 dBi for on‐body is observed. The CSP antenna was tested under bent and crumpling conditions, and the performance remains unaffected by the deformation. The CSP antenna performance is analyzed by using the artificial human hand for the physically challenged people. Specific absorption rate is 1.4 W/kg, and values under the electromagnetic radiation exposure limits have been obtained, with a safe margin of 1.6 W/kg. There is good agreement between the simulation and measurement results for the proposed CSP antenna.

A lightweight continuous authentication scheme for medical wireless body area networks

A lightweight continuous authentication scheme for medical wireless body area networks