Abstract
Herein, we propose a hybrid multi-channel medium access control (HM-MAC) protocol for wireless body area networks (WBANs) that mitigates inter-WBAN interference significantly. In HM-MAC, a superframe consists of a random access phase and a scheduled access phase. That is, a carrier sensing multiple access with collision avoidance (CSMA/CA) phase and a time division multiple access (TDMA) phase are included in a superframe. The random access phase allows higher-priority users to transmit data packets with low latency and high reliability. The retransmission of data packets is also performed in the random access phase. The periodic data are transmitted in the scheduled phase, resulting in no contention and high reliability. A channel selection algorithm is also proposed to avoid collision between neighboring WBANs. The HM-MAC protocol allows multiple transmissions simultaneously on different channels, resulting in high throughput and low collision. The sensor nodes update idle channels by listening to the beacon signal; consequently, the sensor nodes can change the working channel to reduce inter-WBAN interference. According to our simulation results, HM-MAC achieves a higher packet delivery ratio and higher throughput with lower energy consumption than the conventional scheme in multi-WBAN scenarios. HM-MAC also causes lower end-to-end delays for higher-priority users.
Highlights
With developments in technology, wireless sensor nodes can be attached to the human body to monitor the vital signals of patients in hospitals or elders for medical purposes [1]
For high-priority traffic, hybrid multi-channel medium access control (HM-medium access control (MAC)) achieves higher Packet delivery ratio (PDR) owing to the proposed channel selection algorithm and carrier sensing multiple access with collision avoidance (CSMA/CA)-based transmission
In HM-MAC, a superframe consists of the random access CSMA/CA phase and the scheduled access time division multiple access (TDMA) phase
Summary
Wireless sensor nodes can be attached to the human body to monitor the vital signals of patients in hospitals or elders for medical purposes [1]. Wireless body area networks (WBANs) are widely used in various applications in the medical field, personal healthcare, and movement detection [2]. In real scenarios, when many people wearing a WBAN are within a small area such as a bus station or hospital, the wireless signals from the sensors to the coordinator in a WBAN may interfere with each other, resulting in the degradation of throughput [3,4]. The interference mitigation and the associated medium access control (MAC) protocol have to be taken into design consideration to improve the network performance in WBANs
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