MAC Protocol Selection and Performance Analysis in Wireless Body Area Networks

Over the last few decades, health monitoring systems based on wireless sensor networks have seen an exceptional surge in popularity. Wireless body area networks (WBANs) play a crucial role in enhancing the efficiency of medical services via a remote monitoring environment. Several small battery-operated implanted or wearable sensors in WBAN have many challenges in improving energy, quality, and operational performance. Prioritizing sensor nodes, selecting a sink node, and reducing control packet overheads are all ways to save energy while still handling emergency data, which has always been a significant problem for Wireless Body Area Networks (WBAN). Various researchers proposed a modified super-frame architecture of the MAC layer for efficient energy utilization, emergency traffic management, reliability, etc. In this paper, we have discussed significant observations of different MAC layers along modified super-frame architectures proposed by numerous researchers. Later, we provided comparative simulation observations of IEEE 802.15.4 and IEEE 802.15.6. By utilizing Guaranteed Time Slot (GTS) and polling mechanism, these results focus on providing decisive factors for selecting the acceptable MAC protocol in the medical context. Finally, we have provided a conclusion of our analysis for selecting the appropriate MAC protocol in WBAN.