A new energy-efficient topology for wireless body area networks

Abstract

Wireless body area networks consist of several devices placed on the human body, sensing vital signsand providing remote recognition of health disorders. Low power consumption is crucial in thesenetworks. A new energy-efficient topology is provided in this paper, considering relay and sensor nodes’energy consumption and network maintenance costs. In this topology design, relay nodes, placed on thecloth, are used to help the sensor nodes forwarding data to the sink. Relay nodes’ situation is determinedsuch that the relay nodes’ energy consumption merges the uniform distribution. Simulation results showthat the proposed method increases the lifetime of the network with nearly uniform distribution of therelay nodes’ energy consumption. Furthermore, this technique simultaneously reduces network maintenancecosts and continuous replacements of the designer clothing. The proposed method alsodetermines the way by which the network traffic is split and multipath routed to the sink.