A novel priority-based channel access algorithm for contention-based MAC protocol in WBANs

Wireless body area networks (WBANs) which is standardized by IEEE 802.15 TG6 support communication service with in/on/around body. Similar to wireless sensor network (WSN) environment, devices of WBAN may be densely deployed. Compared with WSN, however, WBAN operates in a centralized manner, and thus, contention complexity on contention-based phase of WBAN may be larger than WSN. In this paper, we propose a novel channel access algorithm for contention based MAC protocol in WBANs. The proposed algorithm classifies the contention-based access phase into 4-levels by the priority of packet that is defined in WBAN draft document, and divides the contention-based access phase into sub-period by calculated offset. Extensive simulation results show that the proposed algorithm achieves low complexity such as reduced collisions, low power consumption, and high channel utilization compared with the IEEE 802.15.6 baseline MAC protocol.