Technological advances and the proliferation of electronics gadgets in the vicinity of the human body provide a unique opportunity for building next generation wireless Body Area Networking (BAN) technology targeted at medical and consumer applications.  BAN is a promising technology that enables unified connectivity among in, on and around the body devices.  BAN can support an evolutionary set of applications in healthcare (e.g. deep brain stimulation, camera pills, and implanted drug delivery), lifestyle (e.g. ambient intelligence), gaming and entertainment which can improve the quality of our life in an unprecedented way.

The wide range of BAN applications and corresponding stringent requirements bring new set of research challenges such as energy efficiency, scalability (in terms of data rate, power consumption, duty cycle, security and number of devices), integration of in and around the body networking, interference mitigation, coexistence, QoS and security.

Developing a single unifying BAN standard which addresses these core set of technical requirements is the quintessential step to unleash the full potential of BAN.  Standardization enables interoperability, economics of scale and seamless user experience.  IEEE 802.15.6 TG has recently been formed to develop the BAN standard encompassing PHY and MAC layers.

In this talk, Dr. Patel will outline the emerging BAN applications and highlight the core set of technical requirements which must be addressed for BAN to become ubiquitous and pervasive technology.

Biography:

Dr. Patel received the M.S. degree in Computer Science and the Ph.D. degree in Telecommunications Engineering from the University of Texas at Dallas in 2002 and 2006 respectively.  Since 2006, he has been a senior member research staff at Wireless Communication and Networking Department of Philips Research North America where he does research on Body Area Networking.  His current research interests include energy efficient protocols for Body Area Networks and Sensor Networks.  He actively contributes to IEEE 802.15.6 Body Area Network Task Group.  His research has been published in many leading journals and conferences.