Wearables, Medical WBAN, On-Body Sensors — Engineered as Telecom, Secure, and Proven
In telecom, BAN = Body Area Network (a.k.a. WBAN in IEEE 802.15.6).
It’s the on-body (and in-body/near-body) network of sensors, wearables, implants, and peripherals that talk to a gateway (phone, badge, hub) and up to Wi-Fi / Private 5G / LTE-M / NB-IoT / satellite—with QoS, security, privacy, and evidence.
We respect broader interpretations (bioelectric/biofield, ELF/EMF environment), but we implement BAN as telecom with standards, SLOs, and compliance.Related rails & guardrails
RF & Mobility → /wlan • /private-5g • /cbrs • /mobile-connectivity
IoT & Edge → /suite-of-internet-of-things-iot • /edge-data-centers
Security & Privacy → /nac • /ztna • /sase • /dlp • /key-management • /secrets-management
Evidence & Ops → /siem-soar • Healthcare overlays → /hipaa
🎯 Outcomes (telecom first, people-centric)
- Deterministic capture — low-jitter streams (SpO₂, ECG, motion, audio) with graceful degradation and store-and-forward when radios fade.
- Secure by default — device identity, mutual auth, encrypted links, signed OTA updates, and privacy labels for PHI/PII.
- Interference-aware — coexistence across BLE/Wi-Fi/UWB/5G, tuned duty-cycle/power, EMC compliance.
- Battery-sane — adaptive intervals/datarates and local edge filters to ship signals that matter.
- Evidence on demand — pairing logs, firmware hashes, consent & policy decisions, QoS/SAR/EMC tests into SIEM/SOAR.
🧭 BAN Reference Architecture (telecom view)
On/Inside Body Layer
- Sensors & wearables: ECG/PPG patches, glucose monitors, EEG, IMU, pulse oximeters, thermistors; hearing aids, AR glasses, haptics, badges, exoskeletons; implants where applicable.
- Short-range radios: Bluetooth LE (incl. LE Audio/ISO), IEEE 802.15.6 (WBAN), 802.15.4 (Thread/Zigbee), UWB (802.15.4z), NFC; human-body/EQS capacitive coupling (where supported) for ultra-short links.
Body Gateway
- Phone/badge/hub (Android/iOS/embedded) that aggregates data, enforces pairing/keys, runs edge filters and consent policies, and uplinks via Wi-Fi 6/6E/7, Private 5G/CBRS, LTE-M/NB-IoT/5G RedCap, or satellite.
→ /wlan • /private-5g • /mobile-connectivity
Access & Backhaul
- Identity-first campus access (802.1X NAC), ZTNA for private apps/APIs, SASE for web/SaaS, private APN for cellular fleets; optional Anycast edges for real-time apps.
→ /nac • /ztna • /sase
Edge & Cloud
- Edge data centers for streaming analytics/vision and privacy-preserving transforms; cloud for long-term storage, AI/RAG, and collaboration apps.
→ /edge-data-centers • /solveforce-ai
Observability & Evidence
- Telemetry (RSSI/SINR/PHY errors), attach/latency, packet loss, battery, firmware versions, consent state → /siem-soar with drill artifacts.
📦 Radio & Use-Case Matrix (on-body → gateway → uplink)
| Link | Typical Range | Data Rate | Power | Sweet Spots | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bluetooth LE (5.2/5.3) | 1–15 m | kb/s–Mb/s | Very low | Health wearables, audio (LE Audio), badges | LE Secure Connections; periodic adv; ISO streams |
| IEEE 802.15.6 WBAN | ~0.5–3 m | kb/s–Mb/s | Very low | Medical WBAN (ECG/EEG/SpO₂) | PHYs incl. narrowband/ultrawideband; body-centric |
| 802.15.4 (Thread/Zigbee) | 5–30 m | 250 kb/s+ | Low | Low-rate sensors, facility | Mesh; great for ambient sensors |
| UWB (802.15.4z) | 1–10 m | Mb/s | Low | Precise ranging, secure unlock, AR anchors | cm-level ranging; anchor+tag topology |
| NFC / inductive | cm | kb/s | Ultra-low | Pairing, PT/charging, IDs | Energy transfer + data |
| Wi-Fi 6/6E/7 | 5–50 m | 100s Mb/s–Gb/s | Higher | AR video, high-rate sensors | Corp SSID EAP-TLS; voice/video QoS |
| LTE-M / NB-IoT / 5G RedCap | city-wide | kb/s–10s Mb/s | Low | Direct uplink (field) | Private APN + IPsec; power-save features |
| Private 5G/CBRS | campus | 10s–100s Mb/s | Med | Deterministic mobility | SIM/eSIM, slices/QoS; vendor spectrum plans |
We engineer coexistence: channel plans, duty cycle, transmit power, and gateway scheduling to keep radios out of each other’s way—and still meet SLOs.
🧱 What We Deliver & Operate
1) RF & Coexistence Engineering — BLE/Wi-Fi/UWB/channel plans; DFS awareness; interference testing near MRI/EM equipment where applicable.
2) Device Identity & Pairing — X.509 device certs, LE Secure Connections, UWB secure ranging, attestation at pairing; allow-lists, rotating keys. → /key-management • /secrets-management
3) Edge Policies & Consent — per-user/device consent, purpose tags, retention windows; on-gateway DLP/tokenization for sensitive fields. → /dlp • /data-governance
4) QoS & Scheduling — sampling intervals, connection intervals, burst windows, priority queues (e.g., alarm vs background).
5) Uplink Strategy — Wi-Fi for high-rate; Private 5G/CBRS for mobility; LTE-M/NB-IoT/RedCap for power/coverage; SD-WAN priorities upstream. → /sd-wan
6) Secure OTA — signed firmware (SBOM), staged rings, rollback; device posture in NAC.
7) Observability & Evidence — PHY/MAC stats, pairing logs, firmware hashes, consent state, QoS adherence → /siem-soar.
🧭 Sector Playbooks (telecom patterns)
- Healthcare & RPM — ECG/SpO₂/Temp → phone/badge → Wi-Fi/Private 5G → cloud EHR/analytics; HIPAA labels, consent, role-based access, BAA; alarm QoS. → /healthcare-networks • /hipaa
- Worker Safety / PPE — fall detection, gas sensors, proximity (UWB), lone-worker SOS → site hub → SD-WAN; evidence packs for EHS.
- First Responders — vitals + location → Private 5G pack; NG911 tie-ins; encrypted backhaul; dispatch evidence.
- Sports / Fitness / Rehab — IMU/EMG to edge analytics; coach/therapist dashboards; privacy-by-design.
- AR/Assistive Audio — LE Audio hearing aids; Wi-Fi 6E for AR feeds; priority lanes; accessibility overlays.
- Industrial / Exoskeletons — deterministic RF for motion control; private 5G + Wi-Fi split; OT segmentation. → /industry-4-0-in-automation
🔐 Security & Privacy (baked in)
- Identity & Auth — device certs, LE Secure Connections, UWB secure ranging, EAP-TLS to Wi-Fi; SIM/eSIM with private APN for cellular.
- Least privilege — allow-lists, scoped topics/characteristics, broker ACLs; ZTNA to private APIs; NAC posture at campus edge.
- Custody — KMS/HSM for keys; vault for secrets; OTA signing; SBOM tracking.
- Data handling — label PHI/PII; tokenize/redact on gateway; DLP egress policies; residency and retention timers.
- Compliance — HIPAA for PHI flows; GDPR/CCPA for consent; FCC/CE EMC/SAR; medical device regs where applicable (e.g., 21 CFR, IEC 60601/62304).
→ /hipaa • /grc
📐 SLO Guardrails (targets you can tune)
| Domain | KPI / SLO (p95 unless noted) | Baseline Target |
|---|---|---|
| On-body link | Join/pair time (BLE/WBAN) | ≤ 2–5 s |
| Vital telemetry | End-to-end latency (edge→cloud) | ≤ 200–500 ms (alarms ≤ 50–150 ms) |
| Packet error rate | On-body & uplink | < 1% on-body; < 0.3–0.5% uplink |
| Availability | Gateway online time | ≥ 99.9% (dual uplinks) |
| Battery budget | Duty-cycle adherence | Meets model (e.g., > 24–72 h per profile) |
| Security | Signed OTA & key rotation | = 100% in scope |
| Privacy | Labeled/tokenized PHI flows | = 100% |
| Evidence | Logs/artifacts → SIEM | ≤ 60–120 s |
| Unapproved changes | Policy gate | = 0 |
Breaches auto-open a case and trigger SOAR playbooks (reduce sample rate, switch channel/uplink, re-pair with new keys, roll back firmware, quarantine gateway), attaching artifacts. → /siem-soar
🧪 Acceptance Tests & Artifacts (we keep the receipts)
- RF/Coexistence — spectrum scans, channel/band plans, PER under motion, interference near machinery/medical gear.
- Join & Pairing — EAP-TLS/BLE SC success matrix, re-pair flows, key rotation logs.
- QoS & Latency — end-to-end timers (sensor→gateway→cloud), alarm paths, jitter under mobility.
- Battery & Duty-Cycle — measured avg/peak draw vs model; sleep/advertising intervals; temperature envelopes.
- OTA & SBOM — signature verification, staged rings, rollback; SBOM diffs archived.
- Privacy & Consent — consent UI/logs, label propagation, DLP hits, residency & retention exports.
Artifacts stream to /siem-soar and bundle into QBR/audit packs.
🧱 Design Notes & Best Practices
- Minimize SSIDs and radio chatter; schedule bulk uploads; compress & filter at edge.
- Separate alarm vs bulk flows (connection intervals, priority, topics).
- Favor EAP-TLS and LE Secure Connections; never ship static secrets in firmware.
- Consider UWB for secure ranging and location; keep BLE for control/telemetry.
- Use Private 5G/CBRS for deterministic mobility outdoors; Wi-Fi 6E inside for bandwidth; steer by role.
- Validate EMC/SAR and critical environments (clinics/labs/industrial).
- Log consent and data use; enforce retention; tokenize sensitive fields at gateway.
📝 BAN Intake (copy-paste & fill)
- Use-cases (clinical RPM, safety, AR/assistive audio, exoskeletons, sports) & KPIs (latency, PER, battery, availability)
- Devices (types/models/radios), implantables/wearables, OTA needs, SBOM availability
- Gateway (phone/badge/hub OS), security posture, consent UX requirements
- RF environment (Wi-Fi plan, CBRS/5G presence, interference, MRI/industrial gear)
- Uplink strategy (Wi-Fi vs Private 5G vs LTE-M/NB-IoT; private APN; SD-WAN policy)
- Security/Privacy (IdP/SSO/MFA, ZTNA/NAC, KMS/vault, DLP/labels, consent/retention)
- Compliance (HIPAA/GDPR/CCPA, FCC/CE EMC/SAR, medical device regs), BAAs/DPAs
- Operations (managed vs co-managed, SIEM destination, change windows), OTA ring cadence
- Timeline & budget, success metrics (SLOs, battery targets, PER, alarm latency)
We’ll return a design-to-quote with radios, gateways, uplinks, SLO-mapped pricing, compliance overlays, and an evidence plan you can reuse in audits and QBRs.
Or start at /customized-quotes.
📞 Build a Body Area Network That’s Telecom-Grade—Secure, Reliable, and Auditable
- Call: (888) 765-8301
- Email: contact@solveforce.com
From clinical wearables and worker safety to AR audio/vision and industrial mobility, we’ll engineer a BAN/WBAN that performs, protects, and proves it.