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A Secure RFID-based WBAN for Healthcare Applications

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Abstract

A Wireless Body Area Network (WBAN) allows the seamless integration of small and intelligent invasive or non-invasive sensor nodes in, on or around a human body for continuous health monitoring. These nodes are expected to use different power-efficient protocols in order to extend the WBAN lifetime. This paper highlights the power consumption and security issues of WBAN for healthcare applications. Numerous power saving mechanisms are discussed and a secure RFID-based protocol for WBAN is proposed. The performance of the proposed protocol is analyzed and compared with that of IEEE 802.15.6-based CSMA/CA and preamble-based TDMA protocols using extensive simulations. It is shown that the proposed protocol is power-efficient and protects patients’ data from adversaries. It is less vulnerable to different attacks compared to that of IEEE 802.15.6-based CSMA/CA and preamble-based TDMA protocols. For a low traffic load and a single alkaline battery of capacity 2.6 Ah, the proposed protocol could extend the WBAN lifetime, when deployed on patients in hospitals or at homes, to approximately five years.

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Acknowledgments

The authors extend their appreciation to the Deanship of Scientific Research at King Saud University for funding this work through the research group project no. RGP-VPP-220.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Information System, College of Computer and Information Sciences, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

    Sana Ullah & Atif Alamri

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  1. Sana Ullah
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  2. Atif Alamri
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Correspondence to Sana Ullah.

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Ullah, S., Alamri, A. A Secure RFID-based WBAN for Healthcare Applications. J Med Syst 37, 9961 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10916-013-9961-4

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