A Thermal Aware Routing Algorithm for a Wireless Body Area Network

Abstract

Implanted biological sensors in an in-vivo Wireless Body Area Network (WBAN) have a wide range of medical applications. However, such sensors generate heat while sensing or communicating data to the sink node or the base station. A rise in the temperature of a sensor node above a threshold may damage the surrounding tissues. In this paper, we propose a thermal aware routing algorithm that considers the priority of the data to be sent while maintaining the temperature within a permissible limit. The empirical studies show that the proposed routing algorithm achieves a higher packet delivery ratio and lower delivery latency as compared to the existing routing algorithms for Body Area Networks. It is also evident from the experimental analysis that the proposed algorithm ensures that more number of high priority packets reach the sink node. Moreover, the proposed algorithm has a uniform temperature distribution. The algorithmic procedure is designed in such a way that less number of the nodes are made hotspot nodes.