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. 2015 May 22;15(5):11993–12021. doi: 10.3390/s150511993

Table 2.

Main features of different communication protocols.

PROTOCOL BLE ZIGBEE WIFI 4G LTE ANT+ NFC NIKE+
PROS

  1. Continua Health Alliance technology (continuaalliance.org).

  2. Trade-off between energy consumption and bandwidth.

  3. In smartphones, sensors, tablets and laptops.

  4. Advanced encryption standard-128 algorithm.

  1. Continua Health Alliance technology.

  2. Supports large-scale networks

  3. Transmits data over long distances.

  4. Low duty cycle.

  1. Enabled in smartphones, tablets and laptops.

  2. The most efficient technology.

  3. Collision avoidance.

  4. High-speed wireless connectivity and allows communication between several devices.

  1. High speed connectivity.

  2. Allows high definition video streaming.

  3. Mobility management system.

  4. Long range of connectivity.

  1. Powered by a coin cell.

  2. Applications in healthcare and telemedicine.

  3. Sensors can remain in sleep mode for prolonged periods.

  4. Products from different manufacturers are interoperable.

  1. The Passive component do not require energy source.

  2. Passive component can adopt simple forms [35].

  3. Passive component can securely store personal data (e.g., credit or debit card information) [35].

  1. Allow monitoring of physical activity.

  2. Powered by a coin cell.
CONS

  1. Electromagnetic interference.

  2. Communication between only 2 devices at the same time.

  3. Cyclic sleep options not enabled. (but can be programmed)

  1. Low Bandwidth (only 250 kbps).

  2. Existing smartphones.

  3. ZB doesn’t implement a coexistence scheme.

  4. Very few medical devices for sale

  1. High energy consumption.

  2. Not suited for body sensors.

  3. Need to improve security.

  4. High cost technology.

  1. High energy consumption, inefficiency of Periodic Transfers and overhead.

  2. Bad congestion Control and security.

  3. Large urban areas.

  1. Compared with BLE, ANT+ is less adopted by devices.

  2. Low scalability due to random access transmissions [41].

  3. High power consumption in master nodes compared with BLE [41].

  1. Short range wireless link.

  2. Higher energy consumption compared with BLE and ANT+

  3. Not enabled for healthcare

  4. Passive component contents data read-only.

  1. Only works with Apple and Nike devices.

  2. Higher energy consumption compared with BLE and ANT+.
STANDARD RANGE [33,35,42] 1 to 100 m 10 to 100 m ~100 m 1–10 miles ~30 m <0.2 m ~10 m
TOPOLOGY [33,34,42] Star-bus Mesh, Star, Point to Point Star, Point to Point. Ring, Star, chain, mixed. Peer to Peer, Mesh Point to Point Point to Point
EFFICIENCY [33] 0.153 µW/bit 185.9 µW/bit 0.00525 µW/bit 0.011 µW/bit 0.71 µW/bit Not specified 2.48 µW/bit
LATENCY [33,39,42] <3 ms <5 ms (beaconless mode, at 250 kbps) 1.5 ms 10 ms Zero Polled typically every second ~1 s
USES FOR WBSNs Intra-BAN Communication: glucose, Blood pressure, SPO2, Temperature, Heart Rate, ECG, watches and smartphones Intra-BAN Communication: glucose, Blood pressure, SPO2, Temperature, Heart Rate and ECG. Inter-BAN and Beyond-BAN Communication: Smartphones, wireless modems, tablets, laptops. Inter-BAN and Beyond BAN Communication: Smartphones, wireless usb modems, tablets. Intra-BAN communication: Heart Rate, Temperature, Blood pressure, glucose and smartphones. Not applications for BAN’s Intra-BAN communication: Heart Rate, smartphones, wrist bands and watches.