A study on proposed IEEE 802.15 WBAN MAC protocols

Sensor networks are being researched and deployed in wide range of applications in healthcare. These networks when centered on the proximity of human body create an unique structure. The IEEE 802.15 Task Group 6 (TG6), body area networks (BAN) or Wireless BAN (WBAN) is formed to address specific needs of this area. The task group is developing a communication standard optimized for low power devices and operation in, on or around the human body. The purpose is to serve a variety of applications including medical, and non-medical such as consumer electronics/personal entertainment and others. It is still in developing stage and implementation of the standard is not finalized yet. Various institutes/groups have proposed MAC protocols specifically to address the needs of WBAN. In this paper we present an analysis of these protocols. We compared and analyzed each protocol on fifteen diverse points starting from BAN requirements to energy efficiency.