Research on the EAP Phase Optimization Mechanism of IEEE 802.15.6 Protocol

Wireless body area networks (WBANs) are supposed to play an important role in future health care. The IEEE 802.15.6 is the standard protocol for WBANs. In order to transmit medical emergency data with high real-time and reliability requirements, the IEEE 802.15.6 specifically sets the Exclusive Access Phase (EAP) in the superframe structure. However, setting up such an EAP phase may lead to extra price. This paper studies how to optimize EAP transmission and design a mechanism utilizing Random Access Period (RAP) to replace EAP to ensure high-priority data transmission and improve resource utilization. Simulation experiments confirmed the effectiveness of the proposed mechanism.