Link layer behavior of body area networks at 2.4 ghz

Body Area Networks (BANs) can perform the task of contin-uous, remote monitoring of a patient’s physiological signals in diverse environments. Apart from providing healthcare professionals with extensive logs of a patient’s physiological history, BANs can be used to identify and react to emer-gency situations. We identify three important factors that afflict wireless communication in BANs: impermeability of the human body to radio waves at frequencies commonly used in BANs, efficient operation in mobile and time-varying environments, and mission-critical requirements for quick re-sponse to emergencies. An understanding of the link layer behavior of wireless sensor nodes placed on the body is cru-cial to address these and other challenges such as reducing energy consumption and increasing network lifetime