Wireless Body Area Network (WBAN) represents one of the most promising approaches for improving the quality of life, which allows continuous remote patient monitoring especially in case of patients suffering from age-related chronic diseases such as heart disease. WBANs allow miniaturized, low power, intelligent and invasive/non-invasive sensor nodes to be placed strategically in or on the human body for constantly monitoring the body functions. Ultrashort wireless range and postural mobility

more »

... ad to a frequent change in the topology resulting in the network partitioning. To deal with this situation, we propose a mechanism for reliable data delivery to the coordinator in the proposed scheme. To achieve this, each sensor node maintains two paths, i.e., a primary path and secondary path. The primary path uses an RF link to transmit the normal data whereas the secondary path uses BCC link and is used in case of emergency data or in case of failure of the primary path. The sensor node switches to the secondary path to inform the coordinator about the failure and to re-configure the network. Simulation results show that the performance of the proposed scheme is better in terms of the convergence period and network lifetime. The proposed scheme also reduces delays in data transmission and energy consumption.