A MAC protocol for implanted devices communication in the MICS band

Wireless Body Area Network (WBAN) is well known for accessing data from in body and on body devices. Extensive research has been done on Medium Access Control (MAC) protocol for WBAN for different unlicensed ISM bands, such as 868MHz, 915MHz, 2.4MHz and 433 MHz. However, due to vast use of those frequencies for other applications, there is an unavoidable risk for healthcare application. Inductive link method is another conventional way to communicate with an implanted device. But some limitations are also there, such as low data rate and communication range is very low (few centimeters). To emphasize a patient's health safety and to evade the limitation of inductive link method, a new and different frequency band, Medical Implant Communication System (MICS) band (402–405 MHz), has been accepted worldwide for a small range (3 meters) communication between an external device and implanted devices only. But, different international communication authorities have put some rules and restrictions to use the MICS band. Therefore, it is necessary to design a MAC protocol that will comply with the rules and suitable for the traffics of implanted devices communication network. In this paper, we propose a MAC protocol for MICS band considering the proposed rules and probable traffics in the network. A categorization of all the possible traffics is done. The MAC protocol is verified based on our proposed traffic categorization and it is observed that eight patients, each having eight implants, can be monitored simultaneously.