Routing Protocols in

WBAN
Outlines
 Temperature-Aware Routing Protocols
 Cluster-Based Routing Protocols
 QoS Routing Protocols
 Postural movement based Routing Protocols
 Cross-Layered Routing Protocols
 Routing Issues and Challenges
Taxonomy of WBAN’s Routing Protocols

Routing 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2013 2014

Protocol
Temperature TARA 1.LTR HPR 1.LTRT TSHR M- RE-
aware routing 2. ALTR 2. RAIN ATTEMPT ATTEMPT
protocols
Routing Protocol 2003 2007
cluster based routing protocols HIT ANYBODY
Routing Protocol 2007 2008 2009 2011 2012 2013
QoS routing QoS-Aware Protocol RL-QRP LOCAL DMQoS 1. ERP QPPR
protocols MOR 2. QPRD

Routing Protocol 2009 2010 2011 2012

Postural movement based 1.OBSFR DVRPLC Opprotunistic… 1.ETPA
routing protocols 2.PRPLC 2.PSR
Routing Protocol 2006 2007 2009
Cross layering protocols WASP 1.CICADA 1.Biocomm
2.TICOSS 2.Biocomm-D
Temperature-Aware Routing Protocols

 Routing protocols for in-body and on-body are

different from the existing Wireless Sensor Networks
 researchers are being tried to design innovative
protocols and reduce damages of in-body tissues
and skin of out-body
 major issues which heats up the tissues and skin
addressed in [14]
◦ that are Radio Frequency (RF) power, biosensors antenna
radiation and sensor node circuitry.
Specific Rate Absorption
(SAR)
     SAR =

 Where E is used for the radiation range of

electric field in the body, while is used for
transmission of electrical heat and is the
density of tissue.
 developed by Pennes bioheat in 1948.
Cluster Head Selection
 Most of the temperature rise is happened in
the selection of the cluster head
 The cluster head produces high radiation and

heats up the surrounding of sensors and their

paths
 Three approaches are used for the selection

of the cluster head in the 5 sensors

 in order to reduce the temperature of sensors

[14].
Contd…
  ◦ The First approach is: Nearest Node Rotation (NNR)
means 1 2 3 45
◦ second approach is: Farthest Node Rotation (FNR)
13 5 2 4,
◦ and third approach is: Ideal Node Rotation (INR) 13
5 2 4, as shown in the figure .
TARA Temperature-Aware RP
 Thermal Aware Routing Algorithm for
Implemented Sensor Networks (TARA)
 It has the following objectives:

◦ a)to keep data away from high temperature routes

(hotspots) in the Body
◦ b) send back the packets from that received node to
the previous sender node
◦ and c) re-schedule the routes to send the packets
on other alternate paths to the destination as
shown in the Figure
Example of TARA

High Temperature node (hot spot)

Sender Destination

Alternate Route
Challenges in TARA
 the high temperature node changes the
topology structure on run time which creates
overheads, high energy consumption, cannot
identify less energy sensors for sending data
and addresses, low Reliability and high ratio
of packets dropped addressed.
LTR- ALTR RP
 Least Temperature Routing (LTR) and Adaptive
Least Temperature Routing (ALTR)
 Improved version of TARA RP
 Aims are to reduce high temperature of
biosensors, energy consumption and increase
network throughput.
 LTR consisted of four phases;
◦ setup phase
◦ Routing
◦ packet discard
◦ and reduce unnecessary hops and loops in the network
Contd…
 The dropping of data depends on the hop
counts.
 If the destination node is far away from the

sender node then the sender node uses the

intermediate nodes routes for sending the
data.
 Due to using these intermediate nodes, it

increases the intermediate nodes temperature

high and consumes high energy by using
MAX-HOP counts
ALTR RP
 Adaptive Least Temperature Routing (ALTR) [10]
does not drops the packets as compared to the
LTR
 Packets is sent based on two conditions
◦ First, if the Hop-Count is less than or equal to the
MAX-HOP-ADAPTIVE threshold values then the packet
is routed towards the destination.
◦ Second, if the Hop-Count is greater than MAX-HOP-
ADAPTIVE threshold values then the packets is routed
on the shortest path by using shortest hop algorithm
(SHA).

HRP RP
 Hotsopt Preventing Routing (HPR) measures
the average packet delivery delay in the
network
 Also checks the temperature of the nodes in
the network whether nodes are hotspots or
not
 HRP is composed of setup and routing phases
◦ In the Setup phase, all the existing nodes in the
network exchange information of the node
temperature and the available shortest paths in the
network.
Contd…
 In the routing phase, most of the information
is used of LTRT routing protocol
LTRT RP
 The packet delay problem reduces in the
proposed Least Total-Route-Temperature
(LTRT) protocol
 This protocol forwards the packets to the

destination based on the node energy and

number of hop-counts to the destination.
 In the path selection, each node assigns a

weight to all the directed connected paths of

the network to the destination 11 33

 as shown in the figure

22 44
Contd…
 In the figure, a node 1 exchanges information
directly with nodes 2, 3, 4 and further node 2
exchanges information directly with 1, 3, 4
and so on with the concepts of Dijkstra
Algorithm for choosing the shortest path.
33
11

44
22
RAIN RP
 The Routing Algorithm of homogenous
networks and id-less biomedical sensor
(RAIN) protocol is to keep the nodes away
from the high temperature nodes zone,
reduces high energy consumption and high
packet delivery to the destination.
 The RAIN works on three phases that are

◦ setup phase
◦ Routing phase
◦ Status update phase
Phases in RAIN Contd…
 Setup Phase: the node informs all the nodes in the network
by sending a broadcast ‘Hello’ packet about its ID
 The recipient node replies by ‘HelloACK’ as

acknowledgement of received packet.

 Routing Phase: Every packet contains three information [N,

T, R] when the packet is routed to the destination.

◦ ‘N’ shows the sender Id,
◦ ‘T’ shows the time of the packet when generated
◦ ‘R’ is the random number generator.
 in the status phase, the sink updates the routing table of
the neighbors about the packet receiving acknowledgment.
◦ aim of this phase is to reduce energy-hole problems.
TSHR RP
 Thermal-Aware Shortest Hop Routing (TSHR) is to
reduce temperature level of nodes without effecting
the entire network performance such as high energy
consumption and delay in packet delivery
 It has the same Setup phase and Routing phase as
discussed in the previous
 Setup phase specially designed for high priority
data to carry to the destination in the shortest
available paths.
 If the packet is dropped due to the hotspot of the
nodes then node will retransmit the data.
Contd…
  In routing phase, the nodes will update the
routes and also update the nodes information to
worry about the high temperature paths

 TDn = temp_n+0.25 + 0.25

  
 Temp_n is the node temperature, avg_n is
average temperature of the neighbor node and
TDn is the sum of node temperature and threshold
value.
M-ATTEMPT RP
 Mobility-supporting Adaptive Threshold-
based Thermal-aware Energy-efficient Multi-
hop ProTocol (M-ATTEMPT)
 The sink node is installed in the central of all

the nodes and the high data rates nodes are

positioned in the diverse places in human
body where they have difficulties of signals
and sensing of data and must increase their
transmission power during transmission of
data.
The Proposed Framework
Contd…
RE-ATTEMPT RP
 Reliability Enhanced-Adaptive Threshold
based Thermal unaware Energy-efficient
Multi-hop ProTocol (RE-ATTEMPT) is the
improved version of M-ATTEMPT.
 This protocol examines the path loss and

energy consumption by considering four

phases
◦ Initialization phase– for broadcasting of Hello
message. Also, identify the shortest routes to the
destination for the high priority data packets
Contd…
◦ In the second routing phase, the emergency data
(high priority packet) sends directly to the sink or
by using shortest hop-count paths

◦ third is scheduling phase, the TDMA scheme is

used for the normal data transmission, while
Contention Free Period (CFP) of the MAC layer is
used for the emergency data.

◦ Final phase is the data transmission phase used to

allocate the slots to the nodes and also avoid
collision between nodes.
Summary of various approaches discussed in the
Temperature-aware routing protocols
Protocol Name Summary Identified Problem(s) Proposed Solution Limitation(s)

TARA Keeps data away from Calculate high Thermal Aware Routing High energy
(2005) hot spot routes and temperature nodes and Algorithm for consumption,
nodes, routes Implemented Sensor Low Reliability and
Reschedule the routes Networks Very high delay

LTR Reduce high Identify high Least Temperature Packets drop,

(2006) temperature of temperature nodes in Routing High energy
biosensors by using the network and energy consumption and delay
threshold values, consumption
energy consumption
and increase network
throughput,
Also discarded packets
when all nodes are
hotspot
ALTR Achieve to reduce End-to-end delay drop Adaptive Least High energy
(2006) energy consumption high number of Temperature Routing consumption,
and node temperature. packets Delay reduced by using
Network to network Max_hop count
delay performance
 Contd…
HPR measure the average Temperature and Hotsopt Preventing Nodes update
(2007) packet delivery delay energy consumption Routing temperature
in the network and information and
checks the exchange it with
temperature of the other nodes in the
nodes in the network network so it
increases energy
consumption but
reduce temperature.
Packet dropping also
noticed
LTRT Calculates temperature How to select lowest Least Total-Route- heats up other sensors
(2008) of node and converts temperature node and Temperature which are being used
into weight, helps in the routs for packets for routing and
selection of the nodes transmission? updating the routing
for the packets routing. table of the sender
Once the node selection node. Best for sending
is performed then next data at once then check
step is to select paths the temperature of the
node and routes.
Contd…
RAIN keep nodes away In advance keep Routing Algorithm Low temperature of
(2008) from high information of the of homogenous nodes and least
temperature nodes high temperature networks and id- energy
zone, reduce high node, routes delay less biomedical consumption
energy and energy sensor achieved. But drops
consumption and consumption. the packets
high packet  
delivery. Setup,
routing and status
phases used
TSHR reduce temperature Shortest paths for Thermal-Aware Energy consumption
(2009) level of nodes high priority node Shortest Hop Routing and reduction of high
without effecting the packets, temperature paths.
entire network retransmission of discarding of packets
performance. Setup packets is high
and Routing phase
introduced for high
priority node
packets.
Contd…
M-ATTEMPT Classification of the Classification of low Mobility-supporting If single hop count is
(2013) high priority (on- and high priority data Adaptive Threshold- busy for sending of
demand request) and by using single hop and based Thermal-aware other high priority data
low priority (ordinary multi hop counts. Also Energy-efficient Multi- or single hop is high
data) data with using to reduce energy hop ProTocol temperature, then
single hop and multi consumption multipath will be used
hop routes respectively for high priority data
in heterogeneous and lock for the normal
environment data. But this approach
discards a number of
packets.
RE-ATTEMPT Remove the deficiencies Calculating nodes to Reliability Enhanced- High priority data node is
(2014) of the M-ATTEMPT, destination, links Adaptive Threshold based far away from the sink
examine path loss and temperature and energy. Thermal unaware Energy- then this node can send
energy consumption.   efficient Multi-hop data to the intermediate
RE-ATTEMPT different ProTocol nodes if intermediate
from M-ATTEMPT nodes are active
because it used only three otherwise must send
sub headers in hello directly to the sink.
header. High energy consumption
and packets drop when
sink is very far away
Cluster based Routing protocols
 it divides the whole communication area into
various small area for better connectivity among
the sensors.
 The Cluster Head (CH) is selected on based of high

energy and computation power for the small area.

 The CH is responsible to send data to the

Sink/Base station.
 There are two protocols in the cluster based

routing which is
◦ Hybrid Indirect Transmission (HIT)
◦ Anybody
HIT RP
 based on LEACH protocol and uses the CSMA/CA scheme for
idle listening and collision detection during transmission.
 CH selection is based on the high energy and extra

computation capabilities for the single and multi-cluster

heads (for Intra & Inter-cluster)
 Node forwards data through multi hops to the CH
 CH advertises its status in the coverage area, for

◦ creates relationships with upstream and downstream children in the

cluster coverage
◦ allocation of the time slots to the nodes with respect to the availability
of channels,
◦ and finally inculcates the data transmission
 Drawback is the energy efficiency and reliability not
investigated
AnyBody RP
 Based on self-organization for reducing the
direct communication overheads with the
sink
 divides the whole communication node areas

into different density levels

 The density level is represented by tree

structure
 Each upper high density level node is

responsible for lower density nodes to catch

their data and put on the efficient routes
AnyBody Example

Clusters

Legend
Sensor:
Source:
Destination:
Cluster:
Gateway:
Summary of various approaches discussed in
cluster based routing protocols

Protocol Name Summary Identified Problem Proposed Solution Limitation

HIT Adopted clustering idle listening and Hybrid Indirect Energy efficiency and
(2003) concepts along with collision detection Transmission reliability are not
parallel during transmission investigated in the
communication. HIT protocol.
Cluster Head (CH)  
selection is based on
the high energy and
extra computation
capabilities for single
and multi-cluster
heads

AnyBody self-organization and How many levels the self-organization and Did not consider the
(2007) reduce the direct node is far away for reduce direct energy consumption
communication the cluster node and communication and delay.
overheads with the how this node can overheads with
outside sink communicate to the outside sink, select
-using Tree concept sink? the best features for
the selection of CH
Quality of Service (QoS) based
Routing Protocols
 Patient data contains information of the vital
signs and needs a guaranteed based
dedicated network bandwidth to transmit the
patient information in the appropriate time.

 Therefore, Quality of Service (QoS) is a

challenging task in the congested network
QoS-Aware RP
 Cross layer routing protocol is the QoS aware
routing service framework to provide
prioritized based routing services
Contd…
RL-QRP RP
 Reinforcement Learning based routing protocol
(RL-QRP) uses distributed Q-learning and
geographical information for the desirable
paths selection
 Path selection is based on the experiences and

rewards from the neighbor nodes to the sender

node.
 Q-table information could help in future for

neighbor nodes to select the optimal path

under the mobility model is Random Waypoint
Mobility Model (RWMM).
LOCALMOR RP
 LOCALMOR protocol is to fulfill the requirements of the
node and measures the QoS in the capacity of
◦ energy efficiency,
◦ reliability
◦ and latency in the diverse environment of the WBAN
 the Primary sink and secondary sink are used to collect
the data from the patient’s body and forward to the Sink
 Routing architecture is comprised of four modular
schemes
◦ power efficiency module,
◦ Reliability-sensitive module,
◦ delay sensitive module
◦ and the Neighbor Manager
DMQoS RP
 Data-centric multiobjective QoS aware
routing procotol (DMQoS) is based on the
concept of the modularization.
 End-to-end QoS is provided and checked at

the each local intermediate node decision

without discovery of the full path
 This strategy helps for scalability of the

network, self-adaptability and provides

different QoS to route the packets on the
urgency level
Contd…
Five Modules are
provided:

dynamic packet
classifier,

energy-aware
geographic routing,

reliability control
module,

delay control module,

and multi-objectives
QoS aware queuing
scheduling
ERP RP
 Energy-Aware Peering Routing (EPR) is designed for the
indoor hospital activities
 uses centralized and distributed approaches for the load
balancing
 the BAN provides three modes of communication which are:
◦ Nursing Station Coordinator (NSC),
 device with high energy supply which establishes a connection with the
BAN coordinator (e.g; p-p & p-mp)
◦ Medical Display Coordinator (MDC)
 MDC is responsible to get the data from the BAN coordinator of the
patient and displays on the MDC display unit (e.g. show data to doctors
at home or during the travelling)
◦ and Body Area Network Coordinator–BANC.
 BANC collects the routine data and high critical data from the patients
ERP Framework
Contd…
QPRD & QPRR RP
 EPR handles only ordinary packets in the
network and does not focus to handle the
delay sensitive packet data
 Due to this problem, QoS-aware Peering

Routing protocol for the Delay sensitive

packets (QPRD).
◦ primary goal is to calculate the path delay from
source to destination and finds the energy reliable
path for the high delay sensitive data
Contd…
 Seven Modules
presented that are:
◦ MAC receiver, Delay
Module (DM), Packet
Classifier (PC), Hello
Protocol Module (HPM),
Routing Services
Module (RSM), QoS-
aware Queuing Module
(QQM), and the MAC
transmitter
Summary of various approaches discussed in
Quality of Service (QoS) Aware Routing Protocols
Protocol Name Summary Identified Problem Proposed Solution Limitation

QoS-Aware Protocol Proposed QoS aware routing Differentiate between high four main modules Not considered
(2007) service framework is to and low priority packets, proposed: Energy
provide prioritized routing channel access. Application consumption and
services and the user Programming delay. Not
specific QoS. interface (API), suitable for large
packet queuing and network
scheduling, and
system information
repository

RL-QRP Achieve end-to-end QoS QoS issues end-to-end reinforcement high delay and
(2008) uses distributed Q-learning network learning based energy
and geographical routing protocol consumption
information for desirable with support of the
paths based on the QoS
experiences and rewards
from the neighboring nodes
to the sender nodes
LOCALMOR Fulfills the requirements of QoS issues for high and low four modular High energy
(2009) the system and measures the priority data. schemes introduced: consumption with
QoS in the capacity of energy power efficiency low delay
efficiency, reliability and module, Reliability-
latency in the diverse sensitive module,
environment of WBANs. delay sensitive
A high critical alarming module and Neighbor
situation data of the patient is Manager
sent through delay sensitive
module

DMQoS The end-to-end QoS is checked QoS based is to route the data-centric Very low throughput
(2011) and provided at each local packets depending on urgency multiobjective QoS
intermediate node decision level of the data and achieve a aware routing protocol
without discovery of the full good throughput
path to the destination, use for
large networks

Body Area network (BAN) Proposed architecture uses Managing of Body Area Network BAN traffic can High energy
framework EPR centralized and distributed resources. Classification of transmit by a point- consumption and
(2012) approaches for load balancing routine and high critical data to-point (p-p) or delay.
of the peer BAN traffic, high with mobility. point-to-multipoint
reliability and high mobility with (p-mp) with mobility
least energy. Best for small as known is
network Energy-Aware Peering
Routing (EPR)
QPRD Calculate paths EPR handles only QoS-aware Suitable for small
(2012) from source to ordinary packets Peering networks, average
destination with in the network Routing energy consumption
least energy but not focuses protocol for
consumption to handle the Delay
delay sensitive sensitive
packet data packets

QPPR Improve end-to- Classification of QoS-aware Did not consider delay

(2013) end delay with high and low Peering and suitable for the
mobility priority data Routing small types of networks
Protocol for
Reliability
sensitive
data
Postural Body Movement Based Routing
Protocols
 The postural body movements frequently changing the body
position of the person.
 For instance: sitting on the sofa, quick or slow walking, running
and the defective bed rest
 Causes
◦ Topological partitioning degrades the performance of the network such as
end-to-end delay and the energy consumption becomes high
◦ the energy consumption increases the chances of the packet loss.
 These effects bring changes in the network topology and fading
the signals between the nodes.
 In WBAN, various existing routing protocols are being carried out
to solve these problems of the signal disconnection.
OBSFR RP
 the unique solution is storing and forwarding technique
of the on-body packet routing always preferred.
 On-Body Store and Flood Routing (OBSFR) protocol is
the modified version of the existing flooding protocols
to connect the multiple partitioned mesh topologies.
 With this, transmit data on multiple paths.
 destination receives the same packet from multiple
paths, then destination calculates and obtains the
shortest reliable path data.
Contd…
 experimental results show the signals fading
for 20 seconds on the various postural
positions of the body
PRPLC RP
 Probabilistic Routing with Postural Link Costs
(PRPLC)
 The PLCF observes the time variation in each link

of the WBAN and applies the probabilistic routing

technique to achieve high reliable paths.
 PLCF is automatically

adjust the link cost

and forwards the
packets through next hop
counts with less buffer
and storage delay
DVRPLC RP
 Distance vector routing with postural link costs
(DVRPLC) uses approach of store and forward
packet based on the minimum link cost.
 predefined postures with mobility tested and
obtained an efficient link as shown in the link
cost Factor (LCF)
 Both DVRPLC and OBSFR have the same routing
protocols except that DVRPLC tries to select
the lowest cost links to the destination with
minimum end-to-end delay.
Opportunistic RP
 Opportunistic routing protocol reduces the energy
consumption and increases the life time of the
network
 sink and relay (intermediate) nodes are placed on the

wrist for the efficient communication between the

nodes
 Line of Sight (LOS) & None-Line of Sight (NLOS) used

for communication
 if a chest node sends data to the sink, this node will

first verify whether the wrist sink is on the LOS or on

NLOS
 Uses different RTS,CTS and ACK.
ETPA RP
 Energy Efficient Thermal and Power aware Routing (ETPA) is
used to reduce the node temperature, energy and calculates
the residual energy of all nodes in the network in order to
send the packet on the efficient paths.
 same architecture as used in the PRPLC
 In frame transmission, the TDMA assigns the time slots to
each node in the network
 divides the time slots into three 60ms and one 20ms
◦ first 60ms is used for requesting of allocation of the channel
◦ the second 60ms is used for sending the hello and the data message
◦ and third 60ms is used for sending the data to the external server
◦ While one 20ms is reserved for the guard time between nodes.
PSR RP
 Prediction based Secure and Reliable routing
framework (PSR) is to improve QoS and the
security performance
 Protects data from eavesdropper
 Selects the best paths for data transmission

based on the high prediction of quality of

path
 selection of the high quality path is based on

the prediction of the previous path used for

transmission
Summary of existing approaches discussed in
Postural Body Movement Based Routing Protocols

Protocol Name Summary Identified Problem Proposed Solution Limitation

OBSFR Flood concept is used Changing the position On-Body Store and High signals fading
(2009) for sending the data of the body degrades Flood Routing when suddenly change
from source to the performance of the in the position so it
destination. 5 end-to-end delay and consumes high energy.
experiments performed energy consumption
on the body postural becomes high and
positions with mobility increases the chance of
packet lost

PRPLC Observes time variation Calculate link cost Probabilistic Routing increase delay and
(2009) in each link of WBAN (energy) and forwards with Postural Link Costs energy consumption
and applies the the data on the reliable during calculation of
probabilistic routing. path the link cost
automatically adjust the
link cost and forwards
the packets, less buffer
and storage delays
DVRPLC store and reduce end-to- Distance vector Sudden
(2010) forward packets end packet routing with changing in the
based with delay postural link position of the
minimum link costs body causes
cost and also signals become
mobility weak
included
Opprotunistic… Reduces energy disconnection of Proposed The LOS & NLOS
(2011) consumption and network, loss of Opportunistic antennas cannot
increase the life packets and Routing protocol be used for the
time of the consumes high for Body Area high level of
network during energy Networks mobility
postural
movement high
mobility
ETPA reduces nodes Reduce node Proposed Energy High energy
(2012) temperature and, temperature and Efficient Thermal consume when all
energy. ETPA select energy and Power aware adjacent nodes
calculates the efficient path for exchange their
residual energy of End-to-end temperature and
all the nodes in delivery of energy level.
the network in packets Packets drop if
order to send buffer time is
packet on the exceeded from
efficient paths certain threshold
value
PSR The selection of Improve QoS Proposed Consumes high
(2012) qualitative and routing protocol Distributed energy and
shortest path is and security Prediction based increases delay
based on highest performance Secure and Reliable during
prediction and routing framework authentication of
prediction comes the nodes and
from recently packets
visited nodes.
Cross-layered Routing Protocols
 The Cross-layer protocol is used to increase
the multi-level functionalities of the routing
protocol as well as the MAC layer at the same
time
WASP RP
 WASP (Wireless Autonomous Spanning tree Protocol) is
used for MAC and routing layers in order to achieve
multi hop counts communication with less energy
 The WASP scheme is used for implanted (intra) body
communication and is comprised of 6 steps as follows.
◦ Assigning the addresses to nodes (parent and children)
◦ Tree / Child follow the WASP scheme
◦ In the silent mode, the child receives only data
◦ The parent sends the received data to the destination node
◦ Contention slot (new node uses JOIN-REQUEST) use for a new
node
◦ Acknowledgement (ACK-0 means Not Received, 1 Means
received)
CICADA RP
 CICADA protocol has same frame format as
IEEE 802.15.4 MAC layer
 CICADA uses the tree like topology and every

child node in the tree becomes the parent

node of its sub-children nodes depends on
the density level of tree.
 uses two subcycles : Control subcycles and

Data subcycles
 Controls come from parent to child
 While Datum come from child to parent
TICOSS RP
 TImezone Coordinated Sleep Scheduling
(TICOSS) designed for multihop
communication.
 V-table maintains the following information:

◦ information of the sender and the receiver data,

◦ keep the radio signal off when the node is not
transmitting the data,
◦ addresses of the nodes,
◦ transmission schedule and division of the whole
network into different time zones
Biocomm RP
 the Cross layer Messaging Interface (CMI) is
designed and used as the intermediate path between
routing layer and MAC layer for exchanging the
important information as stated below.
◦ Indicate high temperature nodes and routes (e.g. hot
spots).
◦ Save energy of the nodes
◦ Preventing the network from data congestion during
transmission of the data.
 The Biocomm-D is the extended version of the
Biocomm and is aimed to take care of the delay
sensitive medical application data.
Summary of various approaches discussed
in Cross-Layered Routing Protocols
Name of the Identified Problems (s) Remarks Limitation(s)
Technique
WASP Intra body communication problems, WASP scheme used and No security added for a new node to
(2006) Single hops require more energy, comprised of 6 steps to join the tree, collision detection is
Minimum throughput of packets, achieve high throughput not supported, delay occurred if new
long bits addresses with multi hops node request to join the network, no
transmission, 6 bits long mobility supported, 6 bit address is
address used not enough for scalable networks,
Acknowledgement (ACK) is limited
definition (0 and 1), in case of
damage frame received then what to
say to the sender about the damage
frame.

CICADA High energy consumption, path Control subcycles and Data Disjoining of the children/parent will
(2007) allocation between various nodes, subcycles used for efficient check for more than 2 consecutive
joining or leaving nodes in the paths, low energy cost, cycles, as wastage of energy and
network differentiate between high bandwidth.
and low priority data New children or parent can join
network, No security approach
followed in CICADA.
TICOSS 802.15.4 designed for single TICOSS TImezone Not focused on the high
(2007) hop, cluster based star mechanism proposed temperature routes and
topology, overlapping areas for issues of routing nodes,
and packet collision issues, and MAC, Security issues
unaware of the detection of
hidden node problem,
interference with other near
nodes,
Keep all the nodes active
causes high energy
consumption
Biocomm & Indicate high temperature nodes achieve better No mobility, Average
Biocomm D and routes (e.g. hot spots), performance of all consumption of energy and
High energy consumption, networks’ nodes delay
Preventing network from data by using Biocomm and
congestion during transmission Biocomm-D
Routing Issues and Challenges
 Design and development of efficient routing
protocols for WBSNs is a challenging job due
to their unique requirements and specific
characteristics. Following issues and
challenges in WBAN as follows:
 Network Topology

◦ Network topology describes the logical way in

which the different communicating devices
communicate with each other
 Proper network topology is very important for
WBSNs because of
◦ energy constraint,
◦ body postural movements,
◦ heterogeneous nature of the sensors and short
transmission range.
 Some researchers use single hop
communication, where each node
communicates directly with the destination,
while others use cluster based multi-hop
routing
Topological Partitioning
 The network topology of WBSNs often faces
the problem of disconnection or partitioning
because of body postural movements and
short range transmissions.
 Existing solutions are:

◦ Line-of-Sight (LoS)
◦ None-Line-of-Sight (NLoS) communication
◦ store-and-forward
Energy Efficiency
 For implanted bio-medical sensors, it is not
possible to replace the power source
 while for wearable bio-medical sensors

replacing the batteries might lead to

discomfort of patients.
 Therefore, both energy consumption and

network lifetime are major challenges in

wireless body sensor networks
Limited Resources
 Along with limited energy source, WBSNs also
have short Radio Frequency (RF) transmission
range, poor computation capabilities, limited
storage capacity, as well as low bandwidth—
which may keep on changing due to noise
and other interferences
Quality of Service (QoS)
 Data is divided into
◦ critical data (like EEG, ECG etc.),
◦ delay sensitive data (for example video streaming),
◦ reliability-sensitive data (like vital signals
monitoring respiration monitor, and PH monitor)
◦ and ordinary data
 Different types of data require different
quality of services as it deals with vital signs
of the human body
Radiation Absorption and
Overheating
 Sources of temperature rise of a node are
antenna radiation absorption and power
consumption of node circuitry
 affect the heat sensitive organs of the human

body and may damage some tissues

Heterogeneous Environment
 Different types of sensor nodes are required
to sense and monitor the different health
parameters of human beings, which may also
differ in computation, storage capabilities
and energy consumption
 heterogeneous nature of WBSNs also imposes

some more challenges

Path Loss
 Path loss or path attenuation is a measure of
the decline in power density of an
electromagnetic wave as it propagates
through the wireless medium.
 wireless communication between the

implanted sensor nodes is through the

human body, where the path loss exponent
varies from four to seven seconds
Security and Privacy
 It is impossible to apply the conventional
techniques of security and privacy because of
the low energy availability, limited resources
and other constraints

 Researchers should take care of the privacy

and security of the patient’s data while
designing routing protocols for WBSNs