Flexible polling-based scheduling with QoS capability for Wireless Body Sensor Network

A flexible polling-based access scheme with QoS capability for Wireless Body Sensor Network (WBSN) is proposed in this paper. The proposed access scheme uses the polling technique in a flexible way, switching the regular operation mode to the urgent operation mode when the nodes need more data acquisition in an emergency situation. The proposed communication protocol is simple, giving the sink node majority of controls and leaving the nodes with only the function of packet transmission, thus saving energy. The performance of the proposed scheme is studied using mathematical models known in the literature for the regular operation mode. In the case of urgent operation mode which works with priority scheme, the mathematical model known in the literature is modified to introduce the walk time in the formula. The numerical analyses show that the proposed scheme can be efficient for WBSN application.