A Time-slot Scheduling Algorithm for e-Health Wireless Sensor Networks

Oscar Gama¹, Paulo Carvalho¹, and P. M. Mendes²

Universidade do Minho, Campus de Gualtar¹
Departamento de Informática
P-4710-057 Braga, Portugal

E-mail: {osg,pmc} at di.uminho.pt

Universidade do Minho, Campus de Azurém²
Departamento de Electrónica Industrial
P-4800-058 Guimarães, Portugal

E-mail: {paulo.mendes} at dei.uminho.pt

Abstract
For e-health wireless sensor networks presenting significant traffic loads, MAC protocols based on deterministic scheduling algorithms are consensually considered more adequate than protocols based on random access algorithms. Indeed, TDMA-based MAC protocols are able to control the delay bound and save power by eliminating collisions. However, these protocols always require some expedite scheme to assign the superframe time-slots to the network devices that need to transmit data. Knowing that patients of an e-health wireless network are normally monitored by the same number and types of motes, originating a regular traffic pattern, a simple collaborative time-slot allocation algorithm can be achieved, as introduced in this paper. In the proposed algorithm, the announcement of time-slot allocation by the network coordinator is avoided, which helps to improve the packet delivery ratio and reduce the energy consumption in the e–health wireless network.

IEEE Healthcom 2010