Abstract
Wireless Body Area Networks (WBANs) can provide real-time and reliable health monitoring, attributing to the human-centered and sensor interoperability properties. WBANs have become a key component of the ubiquitous eHealth (electronic health) revolution that prospers on the basis of information and communication technologies. The prime consideration in WBAN is how to maximize the network lifetime with battery-powered sensor nodes in energy constraint. Novel solutions in Medium Access Control (MAC) protocols are imperative to satisfy the particular BAN scenario and the need of excellent energy efficiency in healthcare applications. In this paper, we propose a hybrid Lifetime Extended Directional Approach (LEDA) MAC protocol based on IEEE 802.15.6 to reduce energy consumption and prolong network lifetime. The LEDA MAC protocol takes full advantages of directional superiority in energy saving that employs multi-beam directional mode in Carrier Sense Multiple Access/Collision Avoidance (CSMA/CA) and single-beam directional mode in Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) for alternative in data reservation and transmission according to the traffic varieties. Moreover, the impacts of some inherent problems of directional antennas such as deafness and hidden terminal problem can be decreased owing to that all nodes generate individual beam according to user priorities designated. Furthermore, LEDA MAC employs a Dynamic Polled Allocation Period (DPAP) for burst data transmissions to increase the network reliability and adaptability. Extensive analysis and simulation results show that the proposed LEDA MAC protocol achieves extended network lifetime with improved performance compared with IEEE 802.15.6.
Highlights
In Wireless Body Area Network (WBAN), sensors are attached to or implanted in human body to monitor physiological, behavioral and other health-related information and propagate their readings back to hub or the base station for diagnosis and prescription
We have made a comparison of Lifetime Extended Directional Approach (LEDA) Medium Access Control (MAC) protocol and IEEE 802.15.6
The burning problem of how to minimize energy consumption of sensor nodes to prolong network lifetime in WBAN is in the spotlight of attention for both industry and academia
Summary
In Wireless Body Area Network (WBAN), sensors are attached to or implanted in human body to monitor physiological, behavioral and other health-related information and propagate their readings back to hub or the base station for diagnosis and prescription. High energy efficiency and transmission reliability of directional antenna technology supplies more optional choices in wireless networks, especially in battery-operated networks. We propose a hybrid Lifetime Extended Directional Approach (LEDA) MAC protocol for energy-efficient and reliable data transmissions on the basis of IEEE 802.15.6 [9]. Directional antenna technology and scheduled access mechanism are integrated in LEDA MAC protocol to release the burden of energy consumption, which can largely extend the nodes’ lifetime and guarantee the reliability of periodic data transmissions. Data request frames for reservation access the channel in contention-based mechanism and packet transmissions are in scheduled mechanism, achieving high link utilization and low packet delay in unsaturated network and reducing collision probability in saturated network.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary 
Published Version (
Free)
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call