The Internet of Things, often known as IoT, is an innovative technology that connects digital devices all around us, allowing Machine to Machine (M2M) communication between digital devices all over the world, owing to the technological advancements in the 21 st century. Due to the convenience, connectivity, and affordability, this IoT is being served in various domains including healthcare where it brings exceptional benefits to improve patient care, uplifting medical resources to the next level. As of now, the IoT is served in various aspects of healthcare making many of the medical processes much easier as opposed to the earlier times. One of the most important aspects that this IoT can be used is, managing various aspects of healthcare during global pandemics, as pandemics can bring an immense strain on healthcare resources. As there is no proper study is done with regards to the proper use of IoT for managing pandemics, in this regard, through our study we aim to provide a comprehensive analysis of various use cases of IoT towards managing pandemics especially in terms of COVID-19 owing to what we are currently going through, along with key challenges and future directions. In this regard, we are proposing a contextual framework synthesizing the current literature and resources, which can be adopted when managing global pandemics like COVID-19 at the national and global levels.

In this paper, a comprehensive review of the wireless body area network is provided. A review of the WBAN architectures, standard network topologies, and WBAN communication protocols is discussed in detail. Also, the security requirements of WBAN, security threats and types of attacks, and authentications used in WBAN are discussed. The paper also includes very detailed coverage of antenna types, antenna designs, and flexible antennas used in WBAN with some design considerations and comparisons. Some new energy harvesting technologies, materials used for energy harvesting, and energy management are also discussed. Energy harvesting and power management is an ever-growing area of research. Despite the fact that there are many nanogenerator-based energy harvesting methods, the demand for more efficient energy harvesting mechanisms is ever-increasing. The paper has an extensive discussion of energy harvesting and power management methods. Subsequently, some reviews of recent developments in wearable sensors and novel materials for developing wearable sensors are discussed. Finally, the application areas of WBAN are discussed INDEX TERMS Body area network, network security, wireless communication protocols, wearable sensors, energy harvesting, WBAN, flexible sensors, IoT.

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