Design of packet erasure mitigation technique using a digital fountain code for wearable wireless body area networks

This paper presents a digital fountain code as a design criterion in order to mitigate packet erasure in wireless wearable body area networks (WBANs). First, we measure its radio propagation around the human body between two antennas attached to participants, and then analyze the measurement results from the standpoint of occurrence ratio of packet erasure. Then, we evaluate the application of digital fountain code into such WBANs where a rateless code is introduced as such code in order to provide a design criterion for the code.