Lifetime estimation of wireless body area sensor network for patient health monitoring

Wireless body area sensor networks (WBASN) is an emerging technology which utilizes wireless sensor nodes to implement real-time wearable health monitoring of patients to enhance independent living. These sensor nodes can be worn externally to monitor multiple bio-parameters (such as blood oxygen saturation (SpO₂), blood pressure and heart activity) of multiple patients at a central location in the hospital. It is important to have an estimate of the time the first node will fail in order to replace or recharge the battery because the loss of critical data is not acceptable. Simulation is used to determine the lifetime of WBASN. The lifetime of the WBASN is defined as the duration of time until the first node fails due to battery depletion. In this paper, a parametric model of a health monitoring network (HMN) is created with sets of random input distributions. Probabilistic analysis is used to determine the timing and distribution of node failure in the HMN.