Towards an energy saving MAC for wireless body sensor networks

Body sensors consume a significant amount of power when data is either transmitted or received. This paper evaluates the energy efficiency per utile bit as a function of the network load and data frame length while introducing power management solutions for a high-performance distributed queuing medium access control (DQ MAC) protocol in wireless body sensor networks. To do so, a new energy analytical model derived from delay theoretical studies is provided. Simulation results are displayed to further validate the protocol energy performance using IEEE 802.15.4 system parameters. The achieved outcome shows that the proposed scheme outperforms IEEE 802.15.4 MAC in all possible scenarios.