Decode and merge cooperative MAC protocol for intra WBAN communication

Wireless Body Area Network (WBAN) consists of a set of sensor nodes deployed on or implanted in the body and these nodes send sensed physiological data to the personal assistant. Some of these sensor nodes can be located far from the personal assistant or due to body posture the link between the node and the personal assistant is obstructed and so require an intermediate node to help relay their data. As defined in the IEEE 802.15.6 standard, a node can initiate the two-hop extension cooperative communication to relay other nodes data. However, it is impossible to accept relaying for more than one node at the same time. In addition, when a relay node has data to send too, it has to choose either to leave the relaying mode or to maintain it. In this paper we propose a Decode and Merge technique that maintains the relaying mode by merging frames from relayed and relaying nodes. By doing so, a MAC format resizing is required. Apart from maintaining cooperative communication, this technique increases the general throughput without increasing the energy consumption, management and control flows. Furthermore, it increases the ability to resist against interference.