Optimal Relay Selection and Power Control With Quality-of-Service Provisioning in Wireless Body Area Networks

A game-theoretic approach is proposed to investigate the problem of relay selection and power control with quality of service constraints in multiple-access wireless body area networks (WBANs). Each sensor node seeks a strategy that ensures the optimal energy efficiency and, at the same time, provides a guaranteed upper bound on the end-to-end packet delay and jitter. The existence of Nash equilibrium for the proposed non-cooperative game is proved, the Nash power control solution is analytically calculated, and a distributed algorithm is provided that converges to a Nash relay selection solution. The game theoretic analysis is then employed in an IEEE 802.15.6-based WBAN to gauge the validity and effectiveness of the proposed framework. Performance behaviors in terms of energy efficiency and end-to-end delay and jitter are examined for various scenarios. Results demonstrate the merits of the proposed framework, particularly for moving WBANs under severe fading conditions.