Bio-Inspired Approach for Inter-WBAN Coexistence.

When wireless body area networks (WBANs) using the same channel transmit superframes (SFs) simultaneously, they interfere with each other. To resolve this problem, we propose a co-channel inter-WBAN coexistence method adopting bio-inspired models. The proposed method avoids the inter-WBAN interference by distributing the timing at which each WBAN sends its SF in a distributed manner. We also identify the position of a contention-free period in an SF whereby the time slots in the period do not overlap with any time slots in the SFs of the coexisting WBANs. In addition, we show that the proposed method can limit the number of WBANs interfering with each other during a contention access period. Through simulation studies, we show that the proposed method can adapt to changes in the density and topology of the coexisting WBANs. We also show that in contrast to other conventional methods, our method guarantees that the data frames sent during a contention-free period in an SF are free from collisions regardless of the number of coexisting WBANs. Thus, the proposed method enhances the throughput of a WBAN by increasing the successful data frame transmission rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]