A queue-size & channel quality based adaptation of the energy detection threshold in IEEE802.15.6 CSMA/CA

IEEE802.15.6 is a radio interface standard for wireless connectivity of wearable and implantable sensors and actuators located inside or in close proximity to the human body i.e., Body Area Network (BAN). Medical applications impose stringent requirements on BAN Quality of Service (QoS), including reliability and on-time availability of data. However, interference from other co-located BANs or other nearby devices sharing the same spectrum, e.g., due to BAN mobility, may cause unacceptable QoS degradation. This paper suggests that the impact of such QoS degradations can be minimized with a queue-size and channel quality based adaptation of the Energy Detection Threshold (EDT) at the transmitting nodes. Guided by known results for Q-CSMA/CA, we propose an adaptive EDT algorithm for use in the IEEE 802.15.6 BAN standard. Our preliminary simulation results demonstrate the performance gain of our algorithm compared to using a fixed EDT, and thus warrant future efforts in the adaptive EDT optimization as a mechanism to maintain QoS in various interference scenarios.