Transmit-Only Ultra Wide Band Body Sensors and Collision Analysis

Ultra wide band (UWB) stands out from other wireless technologies used for wireless physiological signal monitoring due to its low power transmitter, immunity from interference, small sized antenna, and high data rate. Although a UWB transmitter has low power consumption, the UWB receiver is generally complex and consumes more power. This paper investigates the use of a transmit-only mechanism for data transfer in wireless body area network (WBAN) applications. A transmit-only medium access control mechanism that can be used in low-power WBANs is developed. Detailed attention is given to the simulation-based analysis of collisions between data which occur in such a scheme. A performance enhancement scheme is suggested to achieve optimum data transmission. Results are validated using a hardware implementation of the proposed system.