Wireless body area networks: A review of challenges, architecture, applications, technologies and interference mitigation for next-generation healthcare

Wireless Body Area Networks (WBANs) are one of the emerging technologies in the healthcare landscape. It enables the non-invasive collection of physiological data to continuously measure health indicators using a network of miniaturized sensors placed on or under the human body. This paper explores a comprehensive study of WBANs, covering all the basic concepts, including their background information and motivation for development, as well as requirements and issues related to their application scenarios and future directions. The paper elaborates on the exclusive characteristics of WBANs compared to Wireless Sensor Networks. It describes health monitoring requirements and energy efficiency challenges with security and biocompatibility as guidelines for comparison. In addition, the paper also highlights various WBAN communication technologies and their relevance in diverse medical and non-medical domains. This paper identifies the critical comprehensive analysis of interference dynamics and mitigation strategies that remain absent in the literature, along with an exhaustive review of the literature. The research shows that WBANs could have a significant impact on healthcare and other industries, while discussing the technical and ethical hurdles to their wider application.