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European Conference on Wireless Sensor Networks

EWSN 2011: Wireless Sensor Networks pp 114–129Cite as

Opportunistic Packet Scheduling in Body Area Networks

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Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCCN,volume 6567))

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 the 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.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Real-Time Systems Research (CISTER), School of Engineering (ISEP), Polytechnic Institute of Porto, Portugal

    K. Shashi Prabh

  2. Telecommunication Networks Group, Technische Universität Berlin, Germany

    Jan-Hinrich Hauer

Authors
  1. K. Shashi Prabh
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  2. Jan-Hinrich Hauer
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Fakultät für Ingenieurwissenschaften, Abteilung Informatik, Universität Duisburg-Essen, Bismarckstraße 90, 47057, Duisburg, Germany

    Pedro José Marrón

  2. School of Engineering and Applied Science, Department of Computer Science, University of Virginia, 151 Engineer’s Way, 22904-4740, Charlottesville, VA, USA

    Kamin Whitehouse

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© 2011 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Prabh, K.S., Hauer, JH. (2011). Opportunistic Packet Scheduling in Body Area Networks. In: Marrón, P.J., Whitehouse, K. (eds) Wireless Sensor Networks. EWSN 2011. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 6567. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-19186-2_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-19186-2_8

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-19185-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-19186-2

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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