An analysis of requirements to supporting mobility in Body Area Networks

Body Area Networks (BANs) form a strongly growing research field, motivated by increasing need for remote and improved patient healthcare solutions and driven by the development of the IEEE 802.15.6 standard. While most research focuses on single hop star topologies, more studies point towards multi-hop topologies as more preferable. Related with this multi-hop topology however, comes the cost of supporting mobile nodes. Initial research shows the feasibility of adapting protocols to support mobility. This work analyzes two requirements to fulfill mobility support, more specifically location independence and increased clock drifting resiliency. Simulations show the need to fulfill both requirements and motivate that location independence should always be strived for, while clock drift resiliency is shown to be required in larger networks.