Rate control scheme for congestion control in wireless body area networks

Congestion control is one of the most important factors when a Wireless Body Area Network (WBAN) is designed, due to its direct impact in the Quality of Service (QoS) and the energy efficiency of the network. The congestion in a WBAN can produce packet loss and high energy consumption. The IEEE 802.15.6 Standard supports QoS, but it does not suggest any explicit congestion control scheme. This paper proposes a new rate control scheme for mitigating congestion in WBANs based on an energy-efficient and emergency-aware MAC (Medium Access Control) protocol and the IEEE 802.15.6 Standard. The scheme is context-aware and responses to emergency events in any node controlling the normal traffic rate. The proposed solution improves the performance of both the MAC protocol and the IEEE 802.15.6 Standard.