Abstract:

Recent advances in wireless communication have led to the introduction of a novel network of miniaturized, low power, intelligent sensors that can be placed in, on, or around the body. This network is referred to as Wireless Body Area Network (WBAN). The main purpose of WBAN is to physiologically monitor patient’s vital signs and consequently route the related data towards a base station. Since the environment of such a network is principally the human body, data routing mechanisms used in traditional wireless networks (e.g. WSN, WANET) need to be revised, and more restrictions have to be addressed in order to adapt it to WBAN routing challenges. Compared to those dedicated to on-body WBAN, in-body WBAN routing protocols have more constrains and restrictions and are expected to be efficient and robust. As better as we know, only few routing protocols have been proposed in literature and the research field stills underexplored. Therefore, in this paper we present an overview of the main existing routing protocols proposed for wireless in-body sensor networks (WIBSN).

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