Analyzing the Performance of WBAN Links during Physical Activity Using Real Multi-Band Sensor Nodes
Wireless body area networks (WBANs) present unique challenges due to their specific characteristics of mobility and over-the-body radio propagation. A huge amount of factors—both internal and external to the network—affect WBAN channel conditions, so a reliable and comprehensive theoretical model of...
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doaj-23d7fcfd2f2043ed979936f2a64994c12021-03-26T00:00:18ZengMDPI AGApplied Sciences2076-34172021-03-01112920292010.3390/app11072920Analyzing the Performance of WBAN Links during Physical Activity Using Real Multi-Band Sensor NodesAlba Rozas0Alvaro Araujo1Jan M. Rabaey2B105 Electronic Systems Lab, ETSI Telecomunicación, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Avenida Complutense 30, 28040 Madrid, SpainB105 Electronic Systems Lab, ETSI Telecomunicación, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Avenida Complutense 30, 28040 Madrid, SpainBerkeley Wireless Research Center, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94704, USAWireless body area networks (WBANs) present unique challenges due to their specific characteristics of mobility and over-the-body radio propagation. A huge amount of factors—both internal and external to the network—affect WBAN channel conditions, so a reliable and comprehensive theoretical model of these communications is unfeasible and impractical in real scenarios. Thus, an empirical performance analysis of several WBAN channels is presented in this work, based on the receiver signal strength indicator (RSSI) and packet reception rate (PRR) metrics. Four different static and dynamic activities have been characterized: standing, sitting, cycling and walking. This analysis confirms the theoretical notions of path attenuation due to body parts obstructing the signal path, while serving as a benchmark for the design of future algorithms. The experiments have been carried out with real hardware nodes with wireless interfaces in three ISM bands: 433 MHz, 868 MHz and 2.4 GHz, evaluating the effect of the transmit power and node placement for different subjects. In all scenarios, the PRR metric reaches its maximum of 100% for both sub-GHz bands. Finally, our study concludes that the RSSI metric is sufficient to exploit the periodicity of dynamic activities, without the need for any extra hardware resources.https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/11/7/2920wireless body area network (WBAN)channel characterizationphysical activityposturereceived signal strength indicator (RSSI)packet reception rate (PRR) |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
Alba Rozas Alvaro Araujo Jan M. Rabaey |
spellingShingle |
Alba Rozas Alvaro Araujo Jan M. Rabaey Analyzing the Performance of WBAN Links during Physical Activity Using Real Multi-Band Sensor Nodes Applied Sciences wireless body area network (WBAN) channel characterization physical activity posture received signal strength indicator (RSSI) packet reception rate (PRR) |
author_facet |
Alba Rozas Alvaro Araujo Jan M. Rabaey |
author_sort |
Alba Rozas |
title |
Analyzing the Performance of WBAN Links during Physical Activity Using Real Multi-Band Sensor Nodes |
title_short |
Analyzing the Performance of WBAN Links during Physical Activity Using Real Multi-Band Sensor Nodes |
title_full |
Analyzing the Performance of WBAN Links during Physical Activity Using Real Multi-Band Sensor Nodes |
title_fullStr |
Analyzing the Performance of WBAN Links during Physical Activity Using Real Multi-Band Sensor Nodes |
title_full_unstemmed |
Analyzing the Performance of WBAN Links during Physical Activity Using Real Multi-Band Sensor Nodes |
title_sort |
analyzing the performance of wban links during physical activity using real multi-band sensor nodes |
publisher |
MDPI AG |
series |
Applied Sciences |
issn |
2076-3417 |
publishDate |
2021-03-01 |
description |
Wireless body area networks (WBANs) present unique challenges due to their specific characteristics of mobility and over-the-body radio propagation. A huge amount of factors—both internal and external to the network—affect WBAN channel conditions, so a reliable and comprehensive theoretical model of these communications is unfeasible and impractical in real scenarios. Thus, an empirical performance analysis of several WBAN channels is presented in this work, based on the receiver signal strength indicator (RSSI) and packet reception rate (PRR) metrics. Four different static and dynamic activities have been characterized: standing, sitting, cycling and walking. This analysis confirms the theoretical notions of path attenuation due to body parts obstructing the signal path, while serving as a benchmark for the design of future algorithms. The experiments have been carried out with real hardware nodes with wireless interfaces in three ISM bands: 433 MHz, 868 MHz and 2.4 GHz, evaluating the effect of the transmit power and node placement for different subjects. In all scenarios, the PRR metric reaches its maximum of 100% for both sub-GHz bands. Finally, our study concludes that the RSSI metric is sufficient to exploit the periodicity of dynamic activities, without the need for any extra hardware resources. |
topic |
wireless body area network (WBAN) channel characterization physical activity posture received signal strength indicator (RSSI) packet reception rate (PRR) |
url |
https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/11/7/2920 |
work_keys_str_mv |
AT albarozas analyzingtheperformanceofwbanlinksduringphysicalactivityusingrealmultibandsensornodes AT alvaroaraujo analyzingtheperformanceofwbanlinksduringphysicalactivityusingrealmultibandsensornodes AT janmrabaey analyzingtheperformanceofwbanlinksduringphysicalactivityusingrealmultibandsensornodes |
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