A Robust MAC Protocol for Wireless Body sensor network

Abstract

In recent years, wireless sensor networks prove to be pervasivefor the deployment of innovative healthcare applications. It provides remote monitoring of patient vital body parameters such as ECG, blood pressure, temperature etc. The main advantage is that it removes traditional wired patient monitoring system. In the wireless body area sensor network (WBASN/WBAN), different sensors attached to the human body contend for the wireless channel and hence the MAC protocol plays a vital role in deciding the power consumption. The design of MAC protocol highly depends on the intended application. In this paper a modification is done on the XMAC announcement size to make it compatible for the body area sensor network. The results show that for an optimum value of announcement size the percentage of radio usage decreases by 7% which confirm the reduction in power consumption. An analysis has been done on the energy efficiency and packet loss. The work has been implemented in real time using TelosB motes with biological sensors after careful analysis.