A time-slot scheduling algorithm for e-health wireless sensor networks

• Author(s): Gama, Oscar ; Carvalho, Paulo ; Mendes, P. M.
• Date: 2010
• Persistent ID: http://hdl.handle.net/1822/14510
• Origin: RepositóriUM - Universidade do Minho
• Subject(s): Wireless sensor network; E-health; MAC; CSMA; TDMA; Superframe; Time-slot
• Document Type: Conference Object
• Language: English

Description

http://www.ieee-healthcom.org/2010/about.html For e-health wireless sensor networks presenting significant traffic loads, MAC protocols based on deterministic scheduling algorithms are consensually considered more adequate than protocols based on random access algorithms. Indeed, TDMA-based MAC protocols are able to control the delay bound and save power by eliminating collisions. However, these protocols always require some expedite scheme to assign the superframe time-slots to the network devices that need to transmit data. Knowing that patients of an e-health wireless network are normally monitored by the same number and types of motes, originating a regular traffic pattern, a simple collaborative time-slot allocation algorithm can be achieved, as introduced in this paper. In the proposed algorithm, the announcement of time-slot allocation by the network coordinator is avoided, which helps to improve the packet delivery ratio and reduce the energy consumption in the e–health wireless network.