IEEE 802.15.6-based Prototype System for WBAN: Design and Implementation

Various current trends such as ever growing population and accelerated aging effects have effectively promoted the growth of Wireless Body Area Network (WBAN). Being the specialized standard of WBAN, the burgeoning IEEE 802.15.6 is on its way to refinement and perfection. Since experiments are the foundation of research in WBAN that reproduce system operating patterns, yet existing platforms in WBAN are mainly simulations that could not highly conform to reality with strict requirements to some degree. Thus, a reliable and efficient system based on the IEEE 802.15.6, named WBAN prototype system, is proposed and implemented in this paper. The prototype system is ascertained to be valid, authentic and efficient via analyses of scenario tests. Running in circumstances much closer to reality, the system obtains experimental results that meet rigid requirements preferably. Furthermore, based on the valid platform we created, optimizations of two parameters in the IEEE 802.15.6 by actual measurements are derived. We obtain an optimum number of transmission retries and relationship of payload length within 30 with FER, making a trade-off between waste of resource and high packet loss rate.