Introduction of SG-BAN in IEEE 802.15 With Related Discussion

Body area networks (BAN) can provide a wide range of applications including medical support, healthcare monitoring, and consumer electronics with increased convenience or comfort. To harmonize with the strong demands from both medical and healthcare societies and ICT industries, a study group referred to as IEEE 802.15.BAN (SG-BAN) was formally set up in November 2006. The objective of SG-BAN is to define project authorization request (PAR) and five criteria (5C) and to lead the group up to the next standardization step. This paper presents a general guidance of SG-BAN. The main up-to-data activities in SG-BAN are introduced. Current status and main issues are overviewed. Some critical and future works are suggested.