Energy efficient protocol for routing and scheduling in wireless body area networks.

An energy efficient protocol for routing and scheduling in wireless body area networks is proposed by considering node energy, path loss, traffic type, and other relevant factors. First, a channel competition procedure is proposed to reduce network flooding, making use of the related information that sensor nodes collected in the initialization phase. Then, energy abundant routes are selected according to the node type and energy consumption in routing setup phase. Finally, an adaptive slot assignment method is designed to meet requirements of data rate and priority in slot assignment phase. The simulation results show that the proposed protocol not only save energy, but also improve the channel utilization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]