Node Position Effect on Link Reliability for Body Centric Wireless Network Running Applications

Health and sport applications have been a flourishing area for deploying wireless body area networks as this technology can provide a real-time feedback, which is important for the user, coaches, doctors, and viewing public. A wireless accelerometer sensor module was used to determine the link performance by recording the data and traffic lost on different runners and for different transmitter locations around the human body (foot, leg, and arm). An approximate swing time calculation algorithm was employed to find the swing time effect on these losses. Experimental measurements showed 98% reliability at 250 kb/s, whereas 62% resulted when using a data rate of 2 Mb/s. The results also showed that the sensor on the wrist gives the best outcome from the locations tested.