Adaptive channel utilisation in IEEE 802.15.4 Wireless Body Sensor Networks: Adaptive Phase-Shifting Approach

Research communities have recently focused on the issues related with the internal interference in homogeneous IEEE 802.15.4 Wireless Body Sensor Networks (WBSNs). Frequency-hopping strategies seem to be an effective way to reduce the destructive impact of internal interference on WBSN performance. However, this strategy has its limitations. In this paper, a new strategy called “phase-adjustment” is considered in which occupants of the same channel are capable to communicate with each other by re-arranging their phases in such a way that they become equidistantly spread over time. The new proposed scheme is called Adaptive Phase-shifting Approach and utilises both phase-adjustment and frequency-hopping strategies. The performance of the new scheme is compared with previously introduced initial-, continuous- and blind-choice schemes, by considering satisfaction rate, carrying capacity and energy consumption. The results indicate that the Adaptive Phase-shifting scheme outperforms other considered schemes in terms of the above-mentioned performance measures.