A simulation study of TaMAC protocol using network simulator 2.

A Wireless Body Area Network (WBAN) is expected to play a significant role in future healthcare system. It interconnects low-cost and intelligent sensor nodes in, on, or around a human body to serve a variety of medical applications. It can be used to diagnose and treat patients with chronic diseases such as hypertensions, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases. The lightweight sensor nodes integrated in WBAN require low-power operation, which can be achieved using different optimization techniques. We introduce a Traffic-adaptive MAC protocol (TaMAC) for WBAN that supports dual wakeup mechanisms for normal, emergency, and on-demand traffic. In this letter, the TaMAC protocol is simulated using a well-known Network Simulator 2 (NS-2). The problem of multiple emergency nodes is solved using both wakeup radio and CSMA/CA protocol. The power consumption, delay, and throughput performance are closely compared with beacon-enabled IEEE 802.15.4 MAC protocol using extensive simulations.