PHY- MAC Cross-Layer Design for Body Pathloss Mitigation

The rapid expansion of Internet of Things (IoT) applications has prompted to the development of wireless communication standards that are tailored to address varied connectivity needs. The IEEE 802.11ah standard has emerged as a feasible choice for IoT deployments because of its extended coverage and improved energy efficiency. However, in applications such as healthcare, when wearable devices are employed for continuous monitoring, the attenuation of signals between the body and the device poses a significant challenge to reliable communication. Traditional MAC protocols may struggle to adapt effectively to dynamic pathloss scenarios, potentially leading to increased packet errors and degraded performance. This paper presents a novel cross-layer protocol designed specifically for IEEE 802.11ah IoT networks with the aim of mitigating the impact of body pathloss. The results demonstrate significant improvements in the packet error rate (PER) while maintaining a similar level of throughput compared to the conventional protocol.