R&D and standardization of body area network (BAN) for medical healthcare

A new major application of UWB is medical healthcare using advantages of low power spectrum density, high capacity of transmission and accurate ranging. As a core network of medical healthcare based on ICT, i.e. medical ICT, a body area network (BAN) has been researched and developed. BAN can provide a wide range of applications in primary for medical healthcare such as tele-metering vital sign, e.g. ECG, EEG, tele-controlling medical equipment, e.g. capsule endoscope and in addition for non-medical service such as entertainment. To harmonize with the strong demands from both medical healthcare societies and ICT industries, a standardization committee referred to as IEEE 802.15.6 was formally set up in December 2007. The objective of 15.6 is to define new physical (PHY) and media access control (MAC) layers for wireless BAN (WBAN). This invited paper introduces a progress of research and development of body area network, i.e. BAN and its standardization in IEEE802.15.6 in a field of medical ICT in order to encourage global collaboration as well as planting many R&D and business seeds in academia and industry.