MAC Protocols in Wireless Body Area Networks: A Review

Wireless Body Area Network (WBAN) has emerged as an advanced technology for e-healthcare where sensors are placed in, on, and around the human body to monitor various physiological signs. To design appropriate protocols in Wireless Body Area Network (WBAN), issues such as reliability, latency and energy consumption need to be considered. The MAC Layer is the most suitable layer to address these issues. To tackle these issues various MAC protocols are designed for WBAN. In this survey paper some of the protocols have been investigated, their strengths and weaknesses are highlighted and are compared on various parameters. Finally numbers of research issues are discussed for future work.