Abstract-A personal area network (PAN) connects IT devices or gadgets (such as cell phones, PCs, laptop computers, PDAs, printers, pagers, or other wearable computer devices) within the environment of an individual user. Because PAN enables low-power, low-rate communications between the devices near the user, it has received a lot of attention in the recent years. This paper provides a brief introduction to PAN.Keywords-home area networks, smart homes, smart grid
I. INTRODUCTIONAs electronic devices become smaller, low power, and low cost, we have begun to adorn our bodies with wearable computer devices such cell phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), palmtops, pocket video games, wristwatch, pagers, digital camera, and GPS receiver. As our homes continue to contain an increasing number of them, there is a growing demand for networking them together in a manageable fashion [1]. The concept of personal area networks (PANs) has arisen as a means of enabling these devices to share data.A personal area network (PAN) is a computer network that handles interconnection of digital devices at the surrounding of a single user. It involves battery-operated, wearable and portable digital devices that draw very little current and are located within 1 m to 100 m of each other. It allows these devices to communicate with each other. PAN is for personal use only. The reach of a PAN is typically few meters. Every device in a PAN can plug into any other device provided they are in close proximity.A PAN may be either wired or wireless. It is wired when it is carried over wired computer buses such as USB and FireWire. Wireless PAN or WPAN is based on the standard IEEE 802.15 and employs wireless technologies such as infrared, ZigBee, Bluetooth, and ultrawideband. WPAN allows devices such as keyboards, audio head sets, and printers to connect to personal digital assistants, cell phones, or computers wirelessly [2]. It allows connection to the Internet.The concept of personal area network originated at M.I.T.'s Media Lab. PAN is different from a LAN in a sense that it requires little or no infrastructure. The range coverage of PANs is smaller than that of LANs. An example of a WPAN is shown in Figure 1 [3].