Emergency Traffic Handling in WBAN using Polling-based Access Mechanism MAC Protocol

Wireless Body Area Network (WBAN) generates heterogeneous traffic consisting of periodic and emergency events. During periodic (non-emergency) conditions, the traffic rate is relatively low, while emergency situations cause a significant increase in traffic rate, requiring efficient channel access to ensure immediate and reliable transmission. Medium Access Control (MAC) protocols are crucial in optimizing WBAN performance under varying traffic conditions. Therefore, this paper proposes a poll-based MAC protocol that integrates polling and scheduled-based access mechanisms to dynamically allocate additional slots during high traffic rate conditions. Simulations conducted using Castalia-3.3 in OMNeT++ environment demonstrate that the proposed protocol outperforms TDMA-MAC and IEEE 802.15.6-MAC, achieving up to a $\mathbf{4 4} \%$ improvement in Packet Delivery Ratio (PDR), a 70% reduction in packet delay, and a 33% reduction in energy consumption.