Mody University International Journal of Computing and Engineering Research Vol. 1 Issue 1 (December 2016), p.p.11-15 11 A Study on Various Routing Techniques and QoS Issues in WBAN Jyoti Anand, Deepak Sethi College of Engineering and Technology, Mody University of Science & Technology, Lakshmangarh, India janand136@gmail.com, deepaksethi@live.in Received 11 Nov. 2016, Revised 13 Dec. 2016, Accepted 31 Dec. 2016 Abstract: Wireless Body Area Network (WBAN) is an active research area in the field of Wireless Sensor Network (WSN). WBAN consists of miniature, portable, autonomous and heterogeneous sensor nodes. It is mainly used in health monitoring system. WBAN is a three tier architecture, in which architecture of WBAN can be divided into inter-BAN, intra-BAN and beyond-BAN communication. Quality of Service (QoS) of WBAN is an area that is needed to be explored. QoS is one of the most important features for any applications. QoS in WBAN can be characterized by reliability, robustness, availability, data transmission, packet loss, error rates and security. It is used in medical as well as in non-medical fields. Routing protocols of WBAN play an important role because communication or transmitting & receiving of data depend on routing. Different routing schemes are proposed for to make efficient network. Single-hop and multi-hop routing are used to transmit the information to the sink node. Single-hop means transmission of information from nodes to the sink node directly and multi-hop routing means information is reached to the sink node through multiple nodes. Reliable delivery of data and QoS are the main issues of WBAN. In this paper, we provide an overview about routing techniques and QoS issues in WBAN. Keywords: WBAN, applications, QoS of WBAN, routing in WBAN, WSN and WBAN 1. INTRODUCTION Rapid growth in wireless technology born a new generation of Wireless Sensor Network called ‘Wireless Body Area Network’ (WBAN). WBAN is an active field of research in WSNs. WBANs consists of miniaturized, portable, lightweight and autonomous sensor nodes [1]. WBAN is a called location independent portable patients’ monitoring system in which different-different biological sensors are used. These sensors are chosen on the basis of which type of disease is to be monitored like diabetes, temperature, blood pressure, heart attack and many others [2]. Sensors are placed inside the body or outside the body to monitor the diseases. Sensors communicate with each other and collect the information from body and forward to the sink node or coordinator. Two types of communication are used direct and indirect, direct communication is used to send emergency data\information to the base station (sink node) and indirect communication is used to send normal data of patients to the base station in which data is transmitted via multiple nodes. So, WBANs are intended to be low-power and light- weight devices for portability and user convenience. The healthcare industry have to face the population problem, WBANs is only one solution to overcome from this problem [3]. The old and disabled persons are also benefited due to the WBAN, through remotely checkup. It brought a major revolution in health sector. Quality of Service (QoS) management in WBANs is an area yet to be explored. It is a new concept for WBANs. QoS is defined as: Overall performance of a network, particularly the performance seen by the users. QoS in WBANs can be characterized by reliability, robustness, availability, data transmission, packet loss, error rates and security. Since, WBAN is used in various areas like health monitoring, military areas etc. Different applications of WBANs may require different types of QoS. In WBANs, the QoS are resource capability, network lifetime, dimensions, energy efficiency etc. QoS metrics are used to measure the degree of satisfaction of user. The main goal of QoS is to maximize the use of network service using optimum energy. In this paper, we discussed about architecture of WBAN, routing in WBAN, differences among WBAN and WSN, routing in WBAN and QoS in WBAN. The ability to deploy sensor nodes on human body leads to the developing a large number of applications in several fields like sports, music, military etc. In this paper we are also discussing about advantages and disadvantages of WBAN and how sensors affected our body. Different routing protocols are compared in table 1.