Investigation of wireless optical technology for communication between on-body nodes

Interferences in Body Area Networks (BANs) are a great challenge in order to ensure a good quality of service in health monitoring systems. BANs are disturbed by several kinds of wireless communications, as mobile cells or Wi-Fi systems. Thus the wireless optical technology could be considered as a solution to reduce the interference amount. The validity of such a solution is examined in terms of transmitted power and data rate. The novelty of this paper is that this is the first time where diffuse optical wireless technology is considered to achieve “on body” communication, using the multiple reflections of optical beams in the patient room.