Wireless body area networks

This chapter highlights the importance of localization in relation to on-body area networks and gives a broad overview of localization methods and technologies. Most of the material is relative to indoor localization, because that is where body-area networks are mostly relevant. The chapter provides an overview on criteria used to evaluate the performance of localization system, followed by an overview of technologies used for different types of sensors and general ways to fuse data generated by sensors. Since we envision a future where the presence of small devices communicating via packet radio is ubiquitous in most indoor and some outdoor environments, the rest of the chapter concentrates on methods and algorithms used in the context of wearable radios, most of which are based on the RSS (received signal strength) indicator available on packet radio devices.