Comparative Analysis of MAC protocols for Wireless Body Area Networks

Abstract

Recent advancements to revolutionize health monitoring systems have enabled the development of wireless body area network (WBAN). Owing to the network specifications and stringent resource requirements including minimum energy consumption, low device complexity, and prolonged battery life, further led to the development of efficient medium access control (MAC) protocols. In this thesis, two MAC protocols based on IEEE 802.15.4 (Zigbee MAC) and IEEE 802.15.6 (Baseline BAN MAC) standards were analysed using OMNET++ based Castalia-3.2 network simulator. The performance of the protocols was accessed and compared under similar environmental variations including temporal variations, power supply and type of channel access slots. The comparisons were done on the basis of three parameters: throughput, total energy consumption, and latency recorded during the transmission of data packets. The results have shown that Zigbee MAC protocol when subjected to no temporal variations and GTS mode is ON performs better than Baseline BAN MAC protocol. It is further observed that both the protocols perform best when -10dBm of power is supplied to the nodes. However, Zigbee MAC protocol performs best when random channel access is permitted along with GTS whereas efficient functioning of Baseline MAC protocol required a proper combination of scheduled and random access slots to access the channel.