Energy Efficiency in Wireless Body Area Network Using Various Radios

Abstract  Wireless Body Sensor Networks (WBSNs) promote continuous and low-cost health monitoring for a better healthcare system. Sensors connected to a human body are normally battery powered devices with brief life times. IEEE 802.15.6 standard is the typical choice for low power ingestion and reliable short-range communication for WBSNs. In this paper, we have evaluated the performance of IEEE 802.15.6 standard for WBSNs. Our tests examined three radios while varying their transmission power and data rates. The results show that altering these parameters affected the number of packets delivered and overall system energy consumption. The effects are demonstrated using Omnet++ simulator and its Castalia extension for WBANs.