A Review of IEEE 802.15.6 MAC, PHY, and Security Specifications

Abstract

IEEE 802.15.6 is the first international Wireless Body Area Network (WBAN) standard that supports communications in the vicinity of or inside a human body to serve a variety of medical and nonmedical applications. The standard defines a Medium Access Control (MAC) layer that supports several Physical (PHY) layers. In this paper, the key features of the IEEE 802.15.6 standard are presented. The MAC, PHY, and security specifications of the standard are explained in detail. Different communication modes and access mechanisms are presented. The Narrowband (NB), Ultra-wideband (UWB), and Human Body Communications (HBC) specifications are reviewed in terms of frame structure, modulation, and other important parameters. Finally, the security paradigm and services of the standard are highlighted.

Medium Access Control (MAC) for Wireless Body Area Network (WBAN): Superframe structure, multiple access technique, taxonomy, and challenges

“…The frame structure, frequency modulation techniques, and the security authentication have been focused for MAC and PHY layers in IEEE 802.15.6 [15]. The Narrowband (NB), Ultra-wideband (UWB), and Human Body Communications (HBC) are the Superframe structures, have been considered for human beings to animals using Slotted Aloha and CSMA/CA.…”

“…There are two types of communication possible for data transmission in WBAN that is one-hop and two-hop with the support of star and mesh topologies, respectively [15]. In one-hop communication, the BANC or hub is a centralized device which is responsible for allocating of slots to BMSs.…”

“…Each channel is assigned an equal time frame to transmit the patient's data. Figure 4 (re-drawn from [15,27]) shows an overview of IEEE 802.15.6 MAC Superframe structure.…”

Performances Comparison of IEEE 802.15.6 and IEEE 802.15.4 Optimization and Exploitation in Healthcare and Medical Applications

“…Then Bluetooth Low Energy, have been proposed as likely candidates to lead the development and extended deployment of WBANs, but his small network scalability was a handicap. In 2012 the IEEE 802.15 Task Group 6 (BAN) [2] standardized the IEEE 802.15.6 communication standard optimized for low power devices and operation on, in or around the human body to provide a variety of applications including medical, personal entertainment and others [3].…”

“…For this purpose, this paper is presented into three sections: Section 1 introduces an overview of IEEE 802.15.4/6 MAC layers specifications; in Section 2 we investigate the power and throughput compromise between the two protocols access mechanisms namely Guaranteed Time Slot (GTS) and polling; in Section 3 we present our simulation results to compare between the two protocols under the same simulation conditions, then the paper gives some proposals how to improve WBANs efficiency in the medical field. [2]. The last draft of this standard was published in 2012 and specified the three IEEE 802.15.6 physical layers such as the Narrowband (NB), Ultra wideband (UWB), and Human Body Communications (HBC) layers.…”