IEEE 802.15.6 superframe adjustment by using drop packet estimation technique

Wireless Body Area Network (WBAN) is a low power sensor network that operates in a close vicinity of human body. The network typically expands over the entire human body in which bio sensors are connected with a central controller (Hub) through a wireless communication channel with the purpose to monitor healthcare application in particular. IEEE 802.15.6 is specifically released for WBAN to support the wireless communication for human proximity. IEEE 802.15.6 MAC has well defined superframe structure for communication of hub and biosensors. It assigns a fixed duty cycle at the start of the superframe. In this paper, we propose a novel scheme for dynamic adjustment of superframe for IEEE 802.15.6 called drop packet estimation technique. The scheme adjusts the duty cycle based on packet drops to reduce the wastage of communication channel. The simulation results show that by increasing the EAP phase time on the basis of emergency traffic, packets reception rate is increased by 10%.