Evaluating the IEEE 802.15.6 2.4GHz WBAN Proposal on Medical Multi-Parameter Monitoring Under WiFi/Bluetooth Interference

Wireless body area networks (WBAN) play a key role in the future of e-Health. In response, IEEE sets up working group 802.15.6 to standardize WBAN schemes. Of all existing standard proposals, the 2.4GHz proposal is the most mature and ready for mass production. However, as e-Health WBAN applications are often mission/life critical, people are concerned with the reliability (particularly, coexistence reliability) of this proposal. This study evaluates the 2.4GHz proposal under WiFi/Bluetooth interference in the context of medical multi-parameter monitoring. The authors conclude that WiFi poses a major threat to such application scenario, while Bluetooth does not.