A real-time fault tolerant intra-body network

This paper designs an intra-body network (IBN) of nodes, consisting of small sensors and processing elements (SPEs) placed at different locations within the body and a personal digital assistant placed externally but in close proximity to the body. The sensors measure specific physiological attributes such as electrophysiological and biochemical changes in the myocardium (action potentials of cells), glucose level, blood viscosity etc. and forward them to the processing element. Communication protocols for configuration and data access protocols are proposed. The privacy of the IBN data, fault tolerance and real-time data acquisition are addressed.