Wireless Body Area Networks: Energy-Efficient, Provably Socially-Efficient, Transmit Power Control

Transmit power control is vital to wireless body area networks (BANs), where due to their prevalence many BANs may be required to coexist reliably, with a requirement for reduced power consumption to significantly increase sensor battery lifetime. In this paper, we propose a socially optimal finite repeated non-cooperative transmit power control game, in order to mitigate radio interference amongst coexisting BANs, improve throughput and reduce power consumption. The game is shown to have a unique Nash equilibrium. We also prove that the outcome of the game is socially efficient, given reasonable constraints, across all players at the unique Nash equilibrium. Using a realistic channel model, the game is shown to be very energy-efficient, significantly reducing power consumption and improving packet delivery ratio (PDR) with respect to other potential schemes, consuming 67% less circuit power than transmitting constantly at 0 dBm.