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Opportunistic Packet Scheduling in Body Area Networks
Ref: HURRAY-TR-111201       Publication Date: 15, Dec, 2011

Opportunistic Packet Scheduling in Body Area Networks

Ref: HURRAY-TR-111201       Publication Date: 15, Dec, 2011

Abstract:
Significant research efforts are being devoted to body area networks (BAN) due to their potential for revolutionizing healthcare practices. Energy-efficiency and communication reliability are critically important for these networks. In an experimental study with three different mote platforms, we show that changes in human body shadowing as well as those in the relative distance and orientation of nodes caused by common human body movements can result in significant fluctuations in the received signal strength within a BAN. Furthermore, regular movements, such as walking, typically manifest in approximately periodic variations in signal strength. We present an algorithm that predicts the signal strength peaks and evaluate it on real-world data. We present the design of an opportunistic MAC protocol, named BANMAC, that takes advantage of the periodic fluctuations of the signal strength to achieve high reliability even with low transmission power.

Authors:
Shashi Prabh
,
Jan-Hinrich Hauer


WOS ID: 000296829600008.

Notes: EWSN 2011



Record Date: 15, Dec, 2011