Prevention of Beacons Collision in IEEE 802.15.6 under Coexistence

IEEE 802.15.6 standard is designed for Wireless Body Area Network (WBAN). WBAN connects wireless sensor nodes in/on or around the human body. One of the basic concerns in IEEE 802.15.6 networks is coexistence of multiple BANs. When multiple BANs coexist then the performance of an individual BAN is degraded due to interference with neighboring BANs. Interference causes unsuccessful transmission of data, thus lowering the throughput, and energy of devices is wasted which is an important resource for WBAN devices. This work is amid at studying the coexistence issues within the WBANs. In this study, a beacon shifting scheme is proposed to solve the issue of beacons collision under coexistence by adding a beacon phase to the superframe of IEEE 802.15.6. The scheme adjusts the transmission time of beacons in the beacon phase for all coexisting BANs and allows BANs to transmit their beacons in allocated time slot in the beacon phase. Detailed simulation analysis using OPNET, concludes that proposed scheme provides greater beacon delivery ratio and higher throughput than beacon shifting technique used in IEEE 802.15.6.