Out of Band Pairing Methodsfor MBANs

Abstract

Epilepsy is a medical condition which is caused by excessive or synchronous neuronal activity of the brain cells. These activities can lead to attacks where the patient can lose conciseness or experiences random muscle cramps at seemingly any point in time. Using implantable on body sensors these seizure attacks could be detected and even prevented. These sensors would form a Medical Body Area Network (MBAN) which interconnects all of the sensors. This project looks at a proof of concept implementation of such an MBAN and focuses on a secure connection between an implant and a gateway device, which is a mobile phone. The implant and mobile phone will communicate with each other using Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE). This form of communication does not provide a secure pairing method for devices that lack in- and output capabilities, such as an implant. To set up a secure connection the data will be encrypted with an encryption key, which has to be shared between the implant and mobile phone. In order to do this in a secure way, an Out Of Band (OOB) channel will be used to pair the two devices. This thesis looks at three different OOB channels, Near Field Communication (NFC), ultrasound and galvanic coupling and compares them in therms of security, health safety, data rate, power consumption and feasibility.