A symbol modulation system applicable to a body area network is disclosed herein. The symbol modulation system includes a symbol mapper. The symbol mapper is configured to determine a time within a predetermined symbol transmission interval at which a transmission representative of the symbol will occur. The time is determined based on a value of a symbol and a value of a time-hopping sequence. The time is selected from a plurality of symbol value based time slots, and a plurality of time-hopping sequence sub-time-slots within each symbol value based time slot. The symbol mapper is configured to generate a single guard interval within the symbol transmission interval. The single guard interval is positioned to terminate the symbol transmission interval.