Heartbeat-Driven Medium-Access Control for Body Sensor Networks

Heartbeat-Driven Medium-Access Control

for Body Sensor Networks

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY IN BIOMEDICINE, VOL. 14, NO. 1, JANUARY 2010

click here to download!!

Abstract—In this paper, a novel time division multiple access
based MAC protocol designed for body sensor networks (BSNs)
is presented. H-medium-access control (MAC) aims to improve
BSNs energy efficiency by exploiting heartbeat rhythm information,
instead of using periodic synchronization beacons, to
perform time synchronization. Heartbeat rhythm is inherent in
every human body and observable in various biosignals. Biosensors
in a BSN can extract the heartbeat rhythm from their own
sensory data by detecting waveform peaks. All rhythms represented
by peak sequences are naturally synchronized since they
are driven by the same source, i.e., the heartbeat. Following the
rhythm, biosensors can achieve time synchronization without having
to turn on their radio to receive periodic timing information
from a central controller, so that energy cost for time synchronization
can be completely eliminated and the lifetime of the network
can be prolonged.An active synchronization recovery scheme
is also developed, including two resynchronization approaches.
The algorithms are simulated using the discrete event simulator
OMNet++ with real-world data from the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology–Boston’s Beth Israel Hospital multiparameter
database Multiparameter Intelligent Monitoring for Intensive
Care. The results show that H-MAC can prolong the network life
dramatically.