LED Based Optical Wireless Communication System for WBAN

In this paper the O-WBANs (Optical Wireless Body Area Networks) is presented as an alternative to the radio and microwave BANs which are plagued with issues like interference, power hungry, hazardous and costly spectrum. Various experiments performed in this work demonstrate the feasibility of LED (Light-Emitting Diode) based optical systems to be used for BANs. The system cost is kept as low as possible. Mainly the effects on the optical link are observed under ambient light and with different modulation schemes by varying link distance and line of sight in this paper. Experimental results reveal the satisfactory link availability up to the distance of 7 feet (around 2m, the optimum range of WBAN) and within the field of view of 30-60 degrees. The low cost solution presented in this paper meets the WBANs data rate requirement for physiological data (i.e. 10-100 kbps). As IR (Infra-Red) signals do not provide any interference with the signals generated by the medical equipment of hospitals which is the problem in case of RF or microwave signals, additionally the IR signals are confined within a room hence IR signaling can prove to be potential candidate for WBAN fulfilling its security and limited access requirement.