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Main Author: Khan, Koffka
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.24062
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author Khan, Koffka
author_facet Khan, Koffka
contents Human-body communication (HBC) is a promising physical substrate for wearable body-area networks because it can localize communication around the body and reduce the burden of conventional radio links. Federated learning (FL) is a promising learning substrate because it can reduce raw-data centralization for physiological and behavioral sensing. Yet these two literatures remain weakly connected: FL for wearables usually abstracts the communication layer, whereas HBC research usually abstracts learning and model-update traffic. This article surveys the intersection of HBC, wireless body-area networks, wearable FL, Internet-of-Bodies privacy, and edge-intelligence optimization. We propose a taxonomy that distinguishes intra-body, body-hub, cross-user, and clinical-cloud FL deployments, and we identify the open problem of body-channel-aware FL: learning protocols whose client selection, update compression, and aggregation are controlled by posture-dependent HBC links, residual energy, sensor memory, and privacy risk. To make the research agenda concrete, we introduce BODYFED-HBC as a reference architecture and provide an optimization formulation and scheduling algorithm. We further specify a reproducible simulation vignette that combines public wearable datasets with empirical body-coupled-communication signal-loss models. The article concludes with open datasets, evaluation metrics, limitations, and research directions for computer scientists working above the hardware layer.
format Preprint
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institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Federated Learning over Human-Body Communication for On-Body Edge Intelligence: A Survey, Taxonomy, and BODYFED-HBC Scheduling Vignette
Khan, Koffka
Machine Learning
Artificial Intelligence
C.2.1; C.2.4; C.3; I.2.6; J.3
Human-body communication (HBC) is a promising physical substrate for wearable body-area networks because it can localize communication around the body and reduce the burden of conventional radio links. Federated learning (FL) is a promising learning substrate because it can reduce raw-data centralization for physiological and behavioral sensing. Yet these two literatures remain weakly connected: FL for wearables usually abstracts the communication layer, whereas HBC research usually abstracts learning and model-update traffic. This article surveys the intersection of HBC, wireless body-area networks, wearable FL, Internet-of-Bodies privacy, and edge-intelligence optimization. We propose a taxonomy that distinguishes intra-body, body-hub, cross-user, and clinical-cloud FL deployments, and we identify the open problem of body-channel-aware FL: learning protocols whose client selection, update compression, and aggregation are controlled by posture-dependent HBC links, residual energy, sensor memory, and privacy risk. To make the research agenda concrete, we introduce BODYFED-HBC as a reference architecture and provide an optimization formulation and scheduling algorithm. We further specify a reproducible simulation vignette that combines public wearable datasets with empirical body-coupled-communication signal-loss models. The article concludes with open datasets, evaluation metrics, limitations, and research directions for computer scientists working above the hardware layer.
title Federated Learning over Human-Body Communication for On-Body Edge Intelligence: A Survey, Taxonomy, and BODYFED-HBC Scheduling Vignette
topic Machine Learning
Artificial Intelligence
C.2.1; C.2.4; C.3; I.2.6; J.3
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.24062