School of Information Engineering, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan 430070, China.
Key Laboratory of Fiber Optic Sensing Technology and Information Processing, Wuhan University of Technology, Ministry of Education, Wuhan 430070, China.
Sensors (Basel). 2018 Feb 8;18(2):515. doi: 10.3390/s18020515.
Network lifetime maximization of wireless biomedical implant systems is one of the major research challenges of wireless body area networks (WBANs). In this paper, a mutual information (MI)-based incremental relaying communication protocol is presented where several on-body relay nodes and one coordinator are attached to the clothes of a patient. Firstly, a comprehensive analysis of a system model is investigated in terms of channel path loss, energy consumption, and the outage probability from the network perspective. Secondly, only when the MI value becomes smaller than the predetermined threshold is data transmission allowed. The communication path selection can be either from the implanted sensor to the on-body relay then forwards to the coordinator or from the implanted sensor to the coordinator directly, depending on the communication distance. Moreover, mathematical models of quality of service (QoS) metrics are derived along with the related subjective functions. The results show that the MI-based incremental relaying technique achieves better performance in comparison to our previous proposed protocol techniques regarding several selected performance metrics. The outcome of this paper can be applied to intra-body continuous physiological signal monitoring, artificial biofeedback-oriented WBANs, and telemedicine system design.
无线生物医学植入系统的网络寿命最大化是无线体域网 (WBAN) 的主要研究挑战之一。本文提出了一种基于互信息 (MI) 的增量中继通信协议，其中几个体上中继节点和一个协调器附着在患者的衣服上。首先，从网络角度对系统模型进行了全面的信道路径损耗、能量消耗和中断概率分析。其次，只有当 MI 值小于预定阈值时才允许进行数据传输。通信路径选择可以是从植入式传感器到体上中继器，然后转发到协调器，也可以是从植入式传感器直接到协调器，具体取决于通信距离。此外，还推导了与相关主观函数相关的服务质量 (QoS) 指标的数学模型。结果表明，与我们之前提出的协议技术相比，基于 MI 的增量中继技术在几个选定的性能指标方面具有更好的性能。本文的研究结果可应用于体内连续生理信号监测、面向人工生物反馈的 WBAN 和远程医疗系统设计。
