Energy Efficient Transmission Approach for WBAN Based on Threshold Distance

Energy efficiency is a key concern for wireless sensor nodes, especially for wireless body area network (WBAN) in which sensors operate in close vicinity to, on or even inside a human body. In this paper, we first present a system-level energy consumption model associated with transmission distance d and transmission data rate over on-body wireless communication link. Then, based on the analysis of tradeoff between circuit energy and transmission energy on distance, a threshold distance d
_th
which is responsible for the proportion of transmission energy and circuit energy is derived for energy saving in WBAN. With the case of d ≤ d
_th
, since circuit energy is comparable with transmission energy consumption, the total energy consumption can be saved by optimizing the transmission data rate R. Simulation results show that a 59.77% or even more energy saving is achievable using the optimized scheme, compared with baseline scheme. With d > d
_th
, since the total energy consumption is monotonically decreasing with respect to time t, an offline algorithm is applied to energy saving by prolonging transmission time within the deadline time. In addition, on the basis of the offline algorithm, a battery-aware transmission approach is presented for WBAN using battery electrochemical property. Experimental results show that, using the presented battery-aware approach, 71.05% and 60.81% energy saving can be obtained, in comparison with the baseline and offline schemes, respectively.