Asynchronous MAC Protocol for Spectrum Agility in Wireless Body Area Sensor Networks

A Wireless Body Area Sensor Network (WBASN) is a special-purpose Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) that supports remote monitoring and entertainment applications. The energy consumption plays an important role in the design of this specific sensor network. Unfortunately, the performance of WBASNs decreases in high interference environments such as the Industrial, Scientific and Medical (ISM) band where wireless spectrums are getting crowded. In this paper, an energy-efficient Medium Access Control (MAC) protocol named C-RICER (Cognitive-Receiver Initiated CyclEd Receiver) is specifically designed for WBASN to cognitively work in high interference environment. C-RICER protocol adapts both transmission power and channel frequency to reduce the interferences and thus, the energy consumption. The protocol is simulated thanks to OMNET++ simulator. Simulation results show that, depending on the interference level, C-RICER is able to outperform the traditional RICER protocol in terms of energy consumption, packet delay, and network throughput.