Wireless Optical technology based Body Area Network for health monitoring application

Wireless Optical Communication (WOC) technology is now established as an alternative or complement to radiofrequency in particular for indoor transmissions. Besides, considering the crucial issue of the electromagnetic pollution in a sensible environment such as hospital, WOC is a good candidate for medical applications, such as Wireless Body Area Network (WBAN) dedicated to health monitoring. In this paper, we investigate the feasibility of an optical WBAN, exploiting diffuse optical reflections over the patient environment, and using spreading codes to realize network on-body nodes multiple access. Considering optical WBAN nodes distributed on the patient body, a theoretical analysis has been developed to evaluate the error probability distribution. Assuming perfect blocking because of the body regarding optical beams, the study takes into account the BAN mobility in terms of node orientation and patient location. A typical health monitoring scenario has been considered as an example, and the achievable performance of the wireless optical solution is reported and discussed regarding medical requirements.