IB-MAC: Transmission Latency-Aware MAC for Electro-Magnetic Intra-Body Communications

Intra-body Communication (IBC) is a communication method using the human body as a communication medium, in which body-attached devices exchange electro-magnetic (EM) wave signals with each other. The fact that our human body consists of water and electrolytes allows such communication methods to be possible. Such a communication technology can be used to design novel body area networks that are secure and resilient towards external radio interference. While being an attractive technology for enabling new applications for human body-centered ubiquitous applications, network protocols for IBC systems is yet under-explored. The IEEE 802.15.6 standards present physical and medium access control (MAC) layer protocols for IBC, but, due to many simplifications, we find that its MAC protocol is limited in providing an environment to enable high data rate applications. This work, based on empirical EM wave propagation measurements made for the human body communication channel, presents IB-MAC, a centralized Time-division multiple access (TDMA) protocol that takes in consideration the transmission latency the body channel induces. Our results, in which we use an event-based simulator to compare the performance of IB-MAC with two different IEEE 802.15.6 standard-compliant MAC protocols and a state-of-the art TDMA-based MAC protocol for IBC, suggest that IB-MAC is suitable for supporting high data rate applications with comparable radio duty cycle and latency performance.

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A Power Optimization Algorithm for Ad Hoc Networks with Variable Rate Control

Applied Mechanics and Materials ◽

10.4028/www.scientific.net/amm.470.611 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 470 ◽

pp. 611-616

Author(s):

Xuan Jie Ning ◽

Hai Zhao ◽

Mao Fan Yang ◽

Dan Wu

Keyword(s):

Ad Hoc Networks ◽

Rate Control ◽

Ad Hoc ◽

Transmission Rate ◽

Mac Protocol ◽

Network Capacity ◽

Data Rate ◽

Medium Access ◽

High Data ◽

Hoc Networks

This paper is concerned with the capacity of ad hoc networks employing pure ALOHA medium access control (MAC) protocol under the effect of different transmission power levels and variable data rate control. The data rate of a certain link is related to the signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR), and SINR is, in turn, related to the transmitted power and link distance. The increasing power conducts a high data rate, resulting in the high interference of networks. Consequently, the optimum power that yields maximum network throughput is a tradeoff between transmission rate and network interference. Mathematical model analysis for the ad hoc network capacity are presented in the paper. A revised expression to the approximate calculating of the capture probability in networks is proposed.

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A MAC Protocol for Terahertz Ultra-High Data-Rate Wireless Networks

Applied Mechanics and Materials ◽

10.4028/www.scientific.net/amm.427-429.2864 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 427-429 ◽

pp. 2864-2869

Author(s):

Zhi Ren ◽

Ya Nan Cao ◽

Shuang Peng ◽

Hong Jiang Lei

Keyword(s):

Wireless Networks ◽

Electromagnetic Waves ◽

Mac Protocol ◽

Terahertz Wave ◽

Data Rate ◽

High Data Rate ◽

Control Mechanisms ◽

High Data ◽

Large Bandwidth ◽

Data Rates

The terahertz wave is a kind of electromagnetic waves which locates between millimeter waves and infrared lightwaves, and the frequency range is 0.14THz~10THz. Terahertz is used as a carrier wave to communicate with each other because it has large bandwidth which can support Gbps wireless data rates. Therefore, terahertz communication technologies become research hot spots in recent years. However, its still rare in MAC protocol of terahertz ultra-high data-rate wireless networks at present. In order to realize wireless access of ultra-high data-rate under the condition of terahertz carrier frequency, a novel MAC protocol is proposed in this paper. The improved MAC protocol which makes the maximum data rates reach up to 10Gbps or higher is designed by new MAC control mechanisms, new time-slots allocation schemes and new superframe structure. Theoretical analysis and simulation results show that the new proposed MAC protocol of terahertz ultra-high data-rate wireless networks can operation normally, and the maximum data rate can reach up to 19.2Gbps. This maximum data rate is 2 times higher than 5.78 Gbps which IEEE 802.15.3c can achieve.

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