Hybrid Unified-Slot Access Protocol for Wireless Body Area Networks

Wireless body area network (WBAN) solution is an emerging new technology to resolve the small area connection issues around human body, especially for the medical applications. Based on the integrated superframe structure of IEEE 802.15.4, a modified medium access control (MAC) protocol, named Hybrid Unified-slot Access (HUA) protocol for WBANs is proposed with focus on the simplicity, dependability and power efficiency. Considering the support to multiple physical layer (PHY) technologies including ultra-wide band (UWB), the slotted ALOHA is employed in the contention access period (CAP) to request the slot allocation. Mini-slot method is designed to enhance the efficiency of the contention. Moreover, sufficient slot allocation in the contention-free period (CFP) makes HUA adaptive to the different traffic including the medical and non-medical applications. Simulation results show that the protocol effectively decreases the probability of collision in a CAP and extends the CFP slots to support more traffic with quality of service (QoS) guarantee.

[1]  Kyung Sup Kwak,et al.  A study on proposed IEEE 802.15 WBAN MAC protocols , 2009, 2009 9th International Symposium on Communications and Information Technology.

[2]  Misun Yu,et al.  NACA: A New Adaptive CSMA/CA Algorithm of IEEE 802.15.4 in Beacon-enabled Networks , 2007, The 9th International Conference on Advanced Communication Technology.

[3]  Eryk Dutkiewicz,et al.  BodyMAC: Energy efficient TDMA-based MAC protocol for Wireless Body Area Networks , 2009, 2009 9th International Symposium on Communications and Information Technology.

[4]  Tei-Wei Kuo,et al.  AGA: Adaptive GTS Allocation with Low Latency and Fairness Considerations for IEEE 802.15.4 , 2006, 2006 IEEE International Conference on Communications.

[5]  Katia Obraczka,et al.  Energy-Efficient, Collision-Free Medium Access Control for Wireless Sensor Networks , 2006 .

[6]  Victor C. M. Leung,et al.  Enabling technologies for wireless body area networks: A survey and outlook , 2009, IEEE Communications Magazine.

[7]  Wook Hyun Kwon,et al.  An Enhanced CSMA-CA Algorithm for IEEE 802.15.4 LR-WPANs , 2007, IEEE Communications Letters.

[8]  Ryuji Kohno,et al.  An Adaptive Superframe Structure Algorithm for IEEE 802.15.4 WPANs , 2008, IEICE Trans. Commun..

[9]  Feng Shu,et al.  Optimizing the IEEE 802.15.4 MAC , 2006, TENCON 2006 - 2006 IEEE Region 10 Conference.

[10]  Liang Cheng,et al.  Efficient Channel Reservation for Multicasting GTS Allocation and Pending Addresses in IEEE 802.15.4 , 2007, 2007 Third International Conference on Wireless and Mobile Communications (ICWMC'07).

[11]  Qian Zhang,et al.  Energy-Efficient Localized Topology Control Algorithms in IEEE 802.15.4-Based Sensor Networks , 2007, IEEE Transactions on Parallel and Distributed Systems.

[12]  William P. Marnane,et al.  Energy-Efficient Low Duty Cycle MAC Protocol for Wireless Body Area Networks , 2009, IEEE Transactions on Information Technology in Biomedicine.

[13]  Benton H. Calhoun,et al.  Body Area Sensor Networks: Challenges and Opportunities , 2009, Computer.

[14]  Jelena V. Misic,et al.  Avoiding the Bottlenecks in the MAC Layer in 802.15.4 Low Rate WPAN , 2005, 11th International Conference on Parallel and Distributed Systems (ICPADS'05).

[15]  Gang Lu,et al.  Energy latency tradeoffs for medium access and sleep scheduling in wireless sensor networks , 2005 .

[16]  Sandeep S. Kulkarni,et al.  TDMA service for sensor networks , 2004, 24th International Conference on Distributed Computing Systems Workshops, 2004. Proceedings..

[17]  Jinsung Cho,et al.  A Dynamic CFP Allocation and Opportunity Contention-Based WBAN MAC Protocol , 2010, IEICE Trans. Commun..

[18]  Eduardo Tovar,et al.  GTS allocation analysis in IEEE 802.15.4 for real-time wireless sensor networks , 2006, Proceedings 20th IEEE International Parallel & Distributed Processing Symposium.

[19]  Christofer Toumazou,et al.  Energy Efficient Medium Access Protocol for Wireless Medical Body Area Sensor Networks , 2008, IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Circuits and Systems.

[20]  Wook Hyun Kwon,et al.  DCA: Duty-Cycle Adaptation Algorithm for IEEE 802.15.4 Beacon-Enabled Networks , 2007, 2007 IEEE 65th Vehicular Technology Conference - VTC2007-Spring.

[21]  Klaus Kabitzsch,et al.  A new beacon order adaptation algorithm for IEEE 802.15.4 networks , 2005, Proceeedings of the Second European Workshop on Wireless Sensor Networks, 2005..

[22]  Shivendra S. Panwar,et al.  Performance analysis and a proposed improvement for the IEEE 802.15.4 contention access period , 2006, IEEE Wireless Communications and Networking Conference, 2006. WCNC 2006..

[23]  Wook Hyun Kwon,et al.  ECAP: A Bursty Traffic Adaptation Algorithm for IEEE 802.15.4 Beacon-Enabled Networks , 2007, 2007 IEEE 65th Vehicular Technology Conference - VTC2007-Spring.