BOSS: Bargaining-Based Optimal Slot Sharing in IEEE 802.15.6-Based Wireless Body Area Networks

In this article, we propose a method to solve the problem of optimal distribution of slots among sensor devices associated in wireless body area networks (WBANs). Modern healthcare is witnessing a paradigm shift due to the recent developments in Internet of Things (IoT), and WBAN is a fundamental enabling component of IoT-based healthcare. In a WBAN, sensors and actuators are implanted in patients (both on-body and in-body) connected to a hub to monitor health conditions ubiquitously and in real time. WBANs deal with heterogeneous sensors with diverse resource demands and constraints. Optimal allocation of data transmission slots among these heterogeneous sensors is a real challenge. Thus, in this article, we propose a cooperative game-theoretic approach, based on the Nash bargaining solution (NBS), for allocating slots for sensor devices in WBANs where the sensors communicate with each other following the IEEE 802.15.6 standard. We also compare the performance of our work with this standard and other relevant benchmarks to show the efficacy of the proposed solution. The proposed bargaining-based optimal slot sharing (BOSS) algorithm yields 26.68% better reliability and 38.07% better throughput, on an average, than the traditional IEEE 802.15.6 standard.