Volume 7, Issue 5, May 2017 ISSN: 2277 128X

International Journal of Advanced Research in

Computer Science and Software Engineering
Research Paper
Available online at: www.ijarcsse.com
Understanding Personal Area Networks
Matthew N. O. Sadiku, Mahamadou Tembely, and Sarhan M. Musa
Roy G. Perry College of Engineering, Prairie View A&M University, Prairie View, TX 77446,
United States
DOI: 10.23956/ijarcsse/SV7I5/0207

Abstract— A personal area network (PAN) connects IT devices or gadgets (such as cell phones, PCs, laptop
computers, PDAs, printers, pagers, or other wearable computer devices) within the environment of an individual
user. Because PAN enables low-power, low-rate communications between the devices near the user, it has received a
lot of attention in the recent years. This paper provides a brief introduction to PAN.

Keywords— home area networks, smart homes, smart grid

I. INTRODUCTION
As electronic devices become smaller, low power, and low cost, we have begun to adorn our bodies with
wearable computer devices such cell phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), palmtops, pocket video games, wrist-
watch, pagers, digital camera, and GPS receiver. As our homes continue to contain an increasing number of them, there
is a growing demand for networking them together in a manageable fashion [1]. The concept of personal area networks
(PANs) has arisen as a means of enabling these devices to share data.
A personal area network (PAN) is a computer network that handles interconnection of digital devices at the
surrounding of a single user. It involves battery-operated, wearable and portable digital devices that draw very little
current and are located within 1 m to 100 m of each other. It allows these devices to communicate with each other. PAN
is for personal use only. The reach of a PAN is typically few meters. Every device in a PAN can plug into any other
device provided they are in close proximity.
A PAN may be either wired or wireless. It is wired when it is carried over wired computer buses such as USB
and FireWire. Wireless PAN or WPAN is based on the standard IEEE 802.15 and employs wireless technologies such as
infrared, ZigBee, Bluetooth, and ultrawideband. WPAN allows devices such as keyboards, audio head sets, and printers
to connect to personal digital assistants, cell phones, or computers wirelessly [2]. It allows connection to the Internet.
The concept of personal area network originated at M.I.T.'s Media Lab. PAN is different from a LAN in a sense
that it requires little or no infrastructure. The range coverage of PANs is smaller than that of LANs. An example of a
WPAN is shown in Figure 1 [3].

II. PAN TECHNOLOGIES

We now examine three of the most popular PAN technologies: ZigBee, Bluetooth and ultrawideband [4]:
 ZigBee is a short-range, low-power computer networking protocol that complies with the IEEE 802.15.4
standard. It is less complex and expensive than Bluetooth. Bluetooth devices are classified into one of three
"Classes", with the power classes having signal ranges of approximately 100m, 10m, and 1m.
 Bluetooth is a networking technology for low-cost, short-range radio links. It operates in the unlicensed 2.4 GHz
band, which is shared with other wireless standards. It was named after King Harald Bluetooth, ruler of
Denmark and Norway in the late 10th century. Bluetooth WPAN is often referred to as Pico nets, which are ad
hoc networks.
 Ultrawideband (UWB) is a radio technology useful for short-range, high-bandwidth communications. It is also
known as WiMedia. It operates by spreading pulses across a very wide frequency spectrum (3.1 to 10.6 GHz),
approved by FCC.

Bluetooth is the most widely-accepted of these technologies. ZigBee does not provide a data rate high enough
for some applications. WPAN standard uses the industrial, scientific, and medical frequency bands at 2.45 GHz, 915
MHz in the United States and 868 MHz in Europe.

III. APPLICATIONS
PANs are emerging technologies for short-range communications. PAN is designed to be an enabler technology.
It can be used in computer, industrial, and many control systems [5]. A popular application area of PAN is in medicine.
A number of wearable medical sensors could communicate using PAN. PAN can be used in telemedical environment and
also in intelligent control of medication delivery using wireless sensing [6]. PAN can serve as aids for disabled
individuals. WPAN has been adopted in wireless sensing networks, where battery life is at a premium. Other applications
of PAN include RFID and mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs).
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 Sadiku et al., International Journal of Advanced Research in Computer Science and Software Engineering 7(5),
May- 2017, pp. 628-629
IV. BENEFITS AND CHALLENGES
PAN is portable allowing a person to move from one to another while carrying his portable devices such as
laptops, cell phones, and PDA. This way there is secure file transfer between devices. Though mobility support is
essential in WPAN, mobility can lead to collision when two WPANs operating in the same wireless channel are in close
proximity. Devices operating in the 2.4 GHz band must expect interference from other device operating in the band.
In the case of WPAN, security and reliability are important issues. WPAN is subject to various security
vulnerabilities found in wireless LANs such as spoofing, snooping, man-in-the-middle, and denial of service. To protect
sensitive information, security can be preserved using the data encryption Confidentiality is also required to ensure that
sensitive data is not disclosed to entities other than the intended receiver [7].
PAN implementation suffers for the inherent limitations and design challenges of the enabling technologies such
as Bluetooth and ZigBee. For example, there is limitation on the achievable data rates of a PAN. It also has distance
limits. Sometimes it experiences a bad connection to other networks at the same radio bands. A complex technology such
as PAN needs standardization nationally and internationally to care for the proliferation of wearable devices. The IEEE
P802.15 Working Group for WPAN has provided leadership in this area [8].

V. CONCLUSION
As electronic devices become low power and affordable, it is common for homes to contain an increasing
number of them. These digital devices are connected by personal are networks. PAN is a wired or wireless
communication network that allows digital devices on and near the human body to exchange information through near-
field electrostatic coupling. Although PAN is expedient and handy, it has its own inherent limitations. PAN is an
emerging technology for future short range indoor and outdoor multimedia and data centric applications.

REFERENCES
[1] K. A. Ali and H. T. Mouftah, “Wireless personal area networks architecture and protocols for multimedia
applications,” Ad Hoc Networks, vol. 9, 2011, pp. 675–686.
[2] “Personal area network,” Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_area_network
[3] “Personal area (PAN) networks. Computer and Network Examples,” http://www.conceptdraw.com/How-To-
Guide/personal-area-networks
[4] J. M. Jacobsmeyer, “Connecting on a personal level,” 2017, http://urgentcomm.com/personal-area/connecting-
personal-level
[5] S. Okdem, “A cross-layer adaptive mechanism for low-power wireless personal area networks,” Computer
Communications, vol. 78, 2016, pp. 16–27.
[6] E. Jovanov et al., “Wireless personal area networks in telemedical environment,” Proceedings of IEEE EMBS
International Conference on Information Technology Applications in Biomedicine, November 2000, pp. 22-27.
[7] T. Kennedy and R. Hunt, “A Review of WPAN Security: Attacks and prevention,” Proceedings of the
International Conference on Mobile Technology, Applications, and Systems, September 2008.
[8] T. M. Siep et al., “Paving the way for personal area network standards: an overview of the IEEE P802.15
working group for wireless personal area networks,” IEEE Personal Communications, February 2000, pp. 37-43.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Matthew N.O. Sadiku is a professor at Prairie View A&M University, Texas. He is the author of several books
and papers. He is a fellow of IEEE.

Mahamadou Tembely is a Ph.D student at Prairie View A&M University, Texas. He received the 2014
Outstanding MS Graduated Student award for the department of electrical and computer engineering. He is the author of
several papers.

Sarhan M. Musa is a professor in the Department of Engineering Technology at Prairie View A&M
University, Texas. He has been the director of Prairie View Networking Academy, Texas, since 2004. He is an LTD
Spring and Boeing Welliver Fellow.

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