Energy-delay tradeoffs in impulse-based ultra-wideband body area networks with noncoherent receivers

In this paper we address the problem of rate scheduling in the Impulse Radio (IR) ultra-wideband (UWB) wireless body area networks (WBANs) and the minimum energy required to stabilize the queuing system. Targeting low complexity WBAN applications, we assume noncoherent receivers based on energy detection and autocorrelation for all nodes. The coordinating node can minimize the average energy consumption of the system and achieve the queue backlog stability of the sensor nodes by controlling the number of pulses per symbol. We first illustrate the necessary and sufficient conditions of network stability for a multi-mode UWB system and then propose a feasible rate scheduling algorithm based on the Lyapunov optimization theory. The scheduling algorithm uses the instantaneous channel state information and the length of the local queue of all sensor nodes and can approach the optimal energy-delay tradeoff of the network. We apply our theoretical framework to the IR-UWB physical layer of the IEEE 802.15.6 standard and extract the optimal physical layer modes that can achieve the desired energy-delay tradeoff.