Body Area Network: Connecting and powering things together around the human body

A body area network (BAN) provides connectivity and power among on-body/in-body sensors and is an attractive means for realizing the “human intranet” for health-care, medical, or multimedia applications around the human body [1] , [2] . As shown in Figure 1 , compared to a WLAN or a wireless personal area network (WPAN), it targets a much smaller range (∼2 m) with greater energy efficiency.