Energy Efficiency and Reliability Considerations in Wireless Body Area Networks: A Survey

Abstract

In this paper, we have reviewed and presented a critical overview of “energy-efficient and reliable routing solutions” in the field of wireless body area networks (WBANs). In addition, we have theoretically analysed the importance of energy efficiency and reliability and how it affects the stability and lifetime of WBANs. WBAN is a type of wireless sensor network (WSN) that is unique, wherever energy-efficient operations are one of the prime challenges, because each sensor node operates on battery, and where an excessive amount of communication consumes more energy than perceiving. Moreover, timely and reliable data delivery is essential in all WBAN applications. Moreover, the most frequent types of energy-efficient routing protocols include crosslayer, thermal-aware, cluster-based, quality-of-service, and postural movement-based routing protocols. According to the literature review, clustering-based routing algorithms are the best choice for WBAhinwidth, and low memory WBAN, in terms of more computational overhead and complexity. Thus, the routing techniques used in WBAN should be capable of energy-efficient communication at desired reliability to ensure the improved stability period and network lifetime. Therefore, we have highlighted and critically analysed various performance issues of the existing “energy-efficient and reliable routing solutions” for WBANs. Furthermore, we identified and compiled a tabular representation of the reviewed solutions based on the most appropriate strategy and performance parameters for WBAN. Finally, concerning to reliability and energy efficiency in WBANs, we outlined a number of issues and challenges that needs further consideration while devising new solutions for clustered-based WBANs.

Selected Energy Consumption Aspects of Sensor Data Transmission in Distributed Multi-Microcontroller Embedded Systems

“…The book [27] gives a foundation for WSNs and can be a good basis for further consideration of WBANs network architectures. An interesting summary of WSBANs, especially in terms of energy efficiency and reliability of operation, can be found in [35]. The authors of this article covered key issues in developing WSBANs applications and analyzed various performance issues of existing "energy-efficient and reliable routing solutions" for WBANs.…”

Improved QoS Aware Routing Protocol (IM-QRP) for WBAN Based Healthcare Monitoring System

“…From the previous mentioned scenario the medical emergency server in introduced at layer 5 can receive the patient's health status information from layer 4 using internet. The medical emergency server is connected to the doctors at remote locations, ambulance for emergency operations and hospitals for medical diagnosis and intelligent decision-making [65]. Layer 5 consists of Medical emergency server.…”

Optimized Distributive Cross-Layer and Thermal-Aware Convergecast Protocol for Wireless Body Area Network

“…The source node broadcasts route requests to neighbors, who respond with authentic routes in relay cooperative mode. [19].…”

“…The packet error rate (𝑷 𝑬𝑹 ) is used to calculate the number of packets that arrive in their original form at the sink or base station. The bit error probability (𝑷 𝑩𝑬 ) is a standard technique to calculate the bit difference between the transmission sequence and received bits [34] is given in (19).…”