Title: Secure emergency MAC protocol for wireless body area networks

Authors: Bhavana Alte; Amarsinh Vidhate

Addresses: Department of Computer Engineering, Ramrao Adik Institute of Technology, Navi Mumbai, Maharashtra, 400706, India ' Department of Computer Engineering, Ramrao Adik Institute of Technology, Navi Mumbai, Maharashtra, 400706, India

Abstract: Wireless body area networks (WBANs) connect many small body sensors for Internet of Things healthcare applications. In vivo and on-body sensor nodes allow WBANs to detect and gather biometric data on bodily changes. Wireless transmission sends observed data. This information can help patients in a critical condition or who cannot reach hospitals due to a physical handicap, or traffic, receive immediate care. Another crucial requirement for WBANs is capacity to provide quality of service (QoS) for different traffic data. Security and privacy are needed for healthcare professionals to use and store patient records securely. It is crucial for WBANs to address privacy and security concerns. The proposed method introduces the emergency MAC (E-MAC) super-frame architecture, enabling QoS. E-MAC accelerates and reliably transmits emergency data via an emergency information management system. To address security concerns, the approach is protected using elliptic curve cryptography. Results show that E-MAC outperforms IEEE 802.15.6.

Keywords: WBAN; wireless body area network; ECC; elliptic curve cryptography; MAC protocols; emergency traffic; duty-cycle MAC.

DOI: 10.1504/IJCNDS.2025.145905

International Journal of Communication Networks and Distributed Systems, 2025 Vol.31 No.3, pp.251 - 276

Received: 10 Sep 2023
Accepted: 23 Mar 2024
Published online: 30 Apr 2025 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article