Design and Simulation of Multi-channel V-TDMA for IoT-Based Healthcare Systems

Abstract

Internet of things (IoT)-based geriatric healthcare monitoring system monitors physiological and biological parameters of members in an elderly care home. This system consists of multiple network elements—wearable nodes for monitoring parameters, master nodes to process the collected information and raise alarms on observing any anomalies and intermediate nodes to relay information between the sensor nodes and master nodes. Maximum reliability, energy efficiency, and minimal latency during the data communication are the major requirements of such a system. Media access control (MAC) layer plays a significant role in achieving the above-mentioned requirements. In this paper, we propose a multi-channel variable time division multiple access (multi-channel V-TDMA) MAC protocol which includes the strengths of both standard time division multiple access (TDMA) and frequency division multiple access (FDMA) protocols. The proposed protocol efficiently provides a solution to the problem of continuous and reliable data transmission by the wearable nodes, along with the freedom of mobility.