A Survey of Thermal-Aware Routing Protocols in Wireless Body Area Networks

Wireless body area networks (WBANs) have risen great concern among the society in the fields such as health care and disease control and prevention. However, the radio frequency radiation produced by frequent communication and utilization of nodes leads to temperature rise, which does great harm to human bodies. For that reason, the thermal-aware technology is of great value in research, which also provides a guarantee for the further development of WBANs. This paper provides brief overview, analysis and comparison of a variety of important thermal-aware routing protocols in WBANs. A detailed statement of the advantages and shortcomings of the routing protocols will be given according to their parameters and performance metrics. This paper aims to find the most suitable thermal-aware routing protocol in common environment.