Performance Evaluation of IEEE 802.15.6 Channel Access Procedure in WBAN

The Internet of things (IoT) is defined as connected devices that can communicate with consumers, transmit data back to companies, and compile data for third parties such as researchers, health care providers, or even other consumers [1]. Wireless Body Area Networks (WBAN) is an emerging category of IoT where the QoS is key to the functioning and performance of the network. In WBAN applications are very sensitive and need mechanisms to respect the requirement of their sensed data. IEEE 802.15.6 [2] - is a BAN management protocol that provides mechanisms for multiple accesses to shared medium - supported QoS-based channel access models. In this paper we focus on CSMA/CA and slotted Aloha algorithms. These two algorithms are compared in terms of delay performance and total drop throughout. The simulation results are clearly showing that under heavily-loaded network conditions both algorithms is underperforming with respect to various QoS parameters. Most importantly, our simulations have proven that CSMA/CA provides shorter end-to-end delay. This preliminary evaluation suggests that CSMA/CA is more suitable for BAN networks aiming to optimize the communication delay