FEELS: fuzzy based energy efficient and low SAR routing protocol for wireless body area networks

A patient's body gets exposed to RF radiation due to node data transmissions in a Wireless Body Area Network (WBAN). Therefore, in addition to energy efficiency, the adverse effect of node radiation on human health is also an important concern for WBAN. The quantum of radiation exposure is measured in terms of the specific absorption rate (SAR). SAR indicates the rate of absorption of radiation energy per kilogram of tissue by the human body when exposed to radiation. The majority of existing data routing schemes for WBAN neglect radiation-factor during data path selection. This paper presents the Fuzzy based Energy Efficient and Low SAR routing protocol (FEELS) for WBAN. FEELS is a clustering-based protocol that incorporates the provision of reducing the radiation effect on the human body. In cluster routing, the nodes transmit data packets to an intermediary cluster head (CH) node instead of transmitting directly to the hub. Hence, the nodes require lower signal power for data transmission. CH compiles the received packets and passes them to the hub node. Low signal power helps in reducing the radiation effect. However, body tissues near CH feel increased radiation as it receives and transmits a larger data set for the entire transmission round. For reducing the radiation effect of CH, the proposed scheme considers the sensitivity of a node's body location to RF radiation along with node signal transmission power for CH selection. A Fuzzy-logic based approach is utilized for CH selection. The selected CH node requires minimum transmission power and its body location is least sensitive to RF radiation to minimize the radiation effect. The proposed scheme, as compared to other relevant schemes is computationally simpler that offers energy-efficient and low SAR performance.