An Opportunistic Transmission Protocol for Body Sensor Networks using RSSI and on-board accelerometer

Inter-communication between nodes in Body Sensor Networks can be interrupted by body movement. Body parts can reflect and absorb radio frequencies or block the radio signal that can disrupt the radio communication. In this paper, we have proposed an opportunistic radio transmission that uses the Received Signal Strength Indicator as feedback mechanism to improve the transmission reliability. By combining the RSSI and the accelerometer reading to analyse the person´s gait cycle, we determine the best time for packet transmission to improve the Packet Delivery Ratio (PDR). Our extensive experimental results obtained from 50 participants have shown that above 90% PDR has been achieved for users walking with different strides and 78% PDR when running.