Improving the reliability of wireless body area networks

In this paper we propose a highly reliable wireless body area network (WBAN) that provides increased throughput and avoids single points of failure. Such networks improve upon current WBANs by taking advantage of a new technology, Cooperative Network Coding (CNC). Using CNC in wireless body area network to support real-time applications is an attractive solution to combat packet loss, reduce latency due to retransmissions, avoid single points of failure, and improve the probability of successful recovery of the information at the destination. In this paper, we have extended Cooperative Network Coding, from its original configuration (one-to-one) to many-to-many as in multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) systems. Cooperative Network Coding results in increased throughput and network reliability because of the cooperation of the nodes in transmitting coded combination packets across spatially distinct paths to the information sinks.