2014 Volume E97.B Issue 11 Pages 2378-2385
IEEE 802.15.6 provides PHY and MAC layer profiles for wearable and implanted Wireless Body Area Networks (WBANs). The critical requirements of QoS guarantee and ultra-low-power are severe challenges when implementing IEEE 802.15.6. In this paper, the key problem in IEEE 802.15.6 standard that “How to allocate EAP (Exclusive Access Phase)?” is solved for the first time: An analysis of network performance indicates that too much EAP allocation can not promote traffic performance obviously and effectually. However, since EAP allocation plays an important role in guaranteeing quality of service, a customized and quantitative EAP allocation solution is proposed. Simulation results show that the solution can obtain the optimal network performance. Furthermore, the estimated models of delay and energy are developed, which help to design the WBAN according to application requirements and analyze the network performance according to the traffic characteristics. The models are simple, effective, and relatively accurate. Results show that the models have approximated mean and the correlation coefficient is greater than 0.95 compared with the simulations of IEEE 802.15.6 using NS2 platform. The work of this paper can solve crucial practical problems in using IEEE 802.15.6, and will propel WBANs applications widely.