Hybrid relaying for sensor to external communication in multi relay body area networks

Body Area Network (BAN) is a wireless network of sensors on and inside the human body. The network here must be reliable and energy efficient. Cooperative communication has recently been applied in other sensor networks to improve reliability and reduce energy consumption. Basic relaying techniques like Amplify and Forward (AF) and Decode and Forward (DF) have their own set of advantages and disadvantages. This paper proposes a hybrid relaying mechanism comprising the combination of AF and DF relaying for multi relay Ultra Wideband (UWB) BAN. Simulation results prove that the proposed hybrid relaying strategy can provide better performance compared to the existing techniques.