A Transceiver for E-Textile Body-Area-Networks

Abstract

A transceiver for single-line communication among sensor nodes of a body-area network is presented. It is meant to operate on a mesh like network where nodes are interconnected by two conducting-textile lines, which provide both power and communication features. The textile conductors are sewn directly to the garment in order to enhance user's mobility and comfort. For the same reason, a single battery placed in a central processing module is used to supply all sensor nodes. A low-dropout voltage regulator supplied from the transmission-line via a low pass filter ensures in each node the respective 3 V DC power supply. Power-line-communication is performed using a binary phase shift keying modulation process over a non-zero direct current line voltage at a 10 Mbps rate. The transceiver includes also line-fault testing to detect hazards which are likely to occur due to the stress applied to the conductive yarns.