A fuzzy logic based cross-layer mechanism for medium access control in WBAN

Over the past decade, advances in electronics, computer science, and wireless technologies have brought Wireless Body Area Network (WBAN) into many interesting applications. Particularly for the healthcare application, reliability is considered as a very important aspect for WBAN. Being the main focus of this paper, we aim at improving reliability by reducing the collision rate and increasing the packet delivery ratio. We also strive to enhance the performance in terms of throughput in the WBAN while maintaining message latency at a reasonable level. In an effort to achieve these goals, we introduce a new cross-layer fuzzy logic based backoff mechanism. Through this method, instead of relying merely on Medium Access Control (MAC), information from physical and application layers will be exploited as well. Moreover, since independent decision making is supported by each sensor without relying on any coordinating devices, communication in the WBAN becomes very flexible. Specifically, rather than determining Backoff Exponent (BE) in IEEE 802.15.4 through a blind try-and-error process, the proposed fuzzy logic system determines the BE by considering both the current channel condition and application requirements. This feature gives the proposed system a higher level of adaptability. The simulation results clearly show noticeable improvement in reliability and performance without significantly increasing the message latency.