Technical Committee (TC) Smart Body Area Network (SmartBAN) Activity Report 2022

Chair: Lorenzo Mucchi, CNIT

Responsible for standardization to support the development and implementation of Smart Body Area Network (BAN) technologies – notably small, low-power wireless devices which can be carried or embedded inside or on the body – in health & wellness monitoring, personal safety, leisure, sports training and other domains.

As the use of wearables and connected in- and on-body sensor devices grows rapidly in the Internet of Things (IoT), Wireless Body Area Networks (BAN) facilitate the sharing of data in environments such as smart homes, living environments, automotive and aerospace.

In specific areas such as digital healthcare/wellness and medical monitoring, personal safety, sports and leisure, wireless connectivity between the data collection or control centre and the medical devices or sensing nodes requires a standardized communications interface and protocols. Key challenges in these use cases include interoperability over heterogeneous networks in the future IoT, ultra-low power consumption for greater autonomy, latency, security, communications in harsh environments (such as implants communications), robust operation in the presence of radiofrequency interference and the ability to interact with embedded intelligence in smart environments.

A number of wireless BAN communications technologies have been implemented based on the existing radio technologies. However, if BAN technology is to achieve its full potential there is a need for more specific, optimized and interoperable solutions.

In response to these and other requirements, ETSI’s Smart BAN committee (TC SmartBAN) addresses the need for global standards to support the successful market roll-out of BAN technology. Co-operating with other ETSI committees, including TC SmartM2M, TC CYBER, E-HEALTH, ERM TG30 and ERM TGUWB, principal goals of TC SmartBAN are the development and maintenance of ETSI standards and other deliverables to support the development and implementation of Smart BAN technologies (including Wireless BAN, Personal BAN and Personal Networks) in health, wellness, leisure, sport and other relevant domains.

Scope of the committee’s interests includes communications media, associated physical layer, network layer, security, QoS and lawful intercept. This work also extends to the provision of generic applications and services for standardization in the domain of BAN technologies.

TC SmartBAN serves as a focal point for the coordination of ETSI's activities in the health ICT domain. It also represents ETSI external positions on Health ICT-related issues including telemedicine.

Future Smart BANs will exist within an IoT environment. Reflecting this, TC SmartBAN offers contributions to various bodies within ETSI, as well as external bodies, including AIOTI (Alliance for the Internet of Things Innovation), IEC SyC AAL (Active Assisted Living), Bluetooth Special Interest Group (BT SIG).

Published in July 2022, TS 103 325 V1.2.1 updates the committee’s Technical Specification on Low Complexity Medium Access Control (MAC) for SmartBAN. Applying to short range wireless communication between wearable sensor devices and the hub coordinator, this TS describes radio channel structure as well as MAC frame formats and functions.

Other Work Items in development during the year notably include:

  • TS 103 378 updates an existing Technical Specification on associate service model/ontology/enablers extensions. The revision extends the previous version with the specification and the formalization of SmartBAN unified service/application level representation formats, semantic open data model and corresponding ontology.
  • TS 103 806 is a new Technical Specification that extends the SmartBAN MAC (as defined in TS 103 325) with hub-to-hub communications capability. Its main scope is to define specifications for enabling hub-to-hub communications between neighbouring SmartBANs.
  • TS 103 805 is a new Technical Specification that extends the SmartBAN MAC (as defined in TS 103 325) with relay capability. Its main scope is to define specifications for relay node functionality enabling two-hop communications within a SmartBAN. 
  • TS 103 710 is a new Technical Specification on SmartBAN Data Scanner Agent specification, implementation, and validation. It addresses design, specification, implementation, qualification and validation of the Data Scanner Agent dedicated for SmartBAN low power and low energy device – in particular a device fully implementing SmartBAN PHY and MAC layer standards as specified in ETSI TS 103 326 and TS 103 325.
  • TS 103 888 is a new Technical Specification on Implant Communications. This focuses on ultra-low power, ultra-wide band (UWB) physical layer (PHY) specifications for a swallowable, pill-camera, wireless device operating in the 3.1 – 10.6 GHz frequency band.
  • TS 103 887 is a new Technical Specification on SmartBAN Coordinator requirements, main functionalities, and specifications. Additional functionalities include smart control/coordination/management, data concentrator role, data and node/Device interoperability management, security and privacy management.

See the full list of TC SmartBAN Work Items currently in development here.

 

Activities of TC SmartBAN members were also highlighted during the year by a number of publications in international journals and conferences:

  • L. Mucchi, S. Caputo, P. Marcocci, G. Chisci, L. Ronga, and E. Panayrci, "Security and reliability performance of noise-loop modulation: theoretical analysis and experimentation", accepted for publication in IEEE Trans. on Veh. Tech., June 2022.
  • M. Hämäläinen, L. Mucchi, and T. Paso, "Remote Secure eHealth Provision: ETSI SmartBAN as an Enabler", 16th International Symposium on Medical Information and Communication Technology (ISMICT), Lincoln, Nebraska, USA, May 2-4, 2022.
  • D. Marabissi, L. Mucchi, and A. Stomaci, "IoT nodes Authentication and ID Spoofing Detection based on joint use of physical layer security and machine learning", MDPI Future Internet, 14(2): 61, Feb 2022.
  • T. Shimazaki, D. Anzai, K. Watanabe, A. Nakajima, M. Fukuda, and S. Ata, “Heat stroke prevention in hot specific occupational environment enhanced by supervised machine learning with personalized vital signs,” Sensors, vol. 22, no. 395, Jan. 2022.
  • H. Saeki, D. Anzai, Y. Shimizu, T. Nagaoka, and J. Wang “Effect of IoT device arrangement on local SAR at 2.45 GHz and 920 MHz,” 1st Annual Meeting of Bioelectromagnetics (BioEM), Nagoya, Japan, June 19-24, 2022.
  • D. Dmitrieva, D. Anzai, J. Kirchner, G. Fischer, and J. Wang, “A study on machine learning methods for accuracy improvement of in-body device localization,” 1st Annual Meeting of Bioelectromagnetics (BioEM), Nagoya, Japan, June 19-24, 2022.