A repeated game approach for interference mitigation of priority-based Body Area Networks

Abstract

In this paper, we address the issue of interference between Wireless Body Area Networks(WBANs) with different medical emergency levels. The inter-WBAN interference could potentially degrade the Quality of Service (QoS) performance of sensor nodes. Furthermore, such interference leads to a fatal situation when WBANs belong to patients with different emergency condition. A game-theoretic scheme is proposed to tackle the inter-WBAN interference issue and improve the reliability of data for WBANs with different emergency levels. We formulate the interference between WBANs as “infinite repeated game” and model the emergency levels using the heterogeneous discount factors. We propose a “grim” strategy for the repeated game and investigate the conditions in which this strategy holds “Subgame Perfect Equilibrium” property. Finally, we evaluate the performance of our approach using simulation model.