Different characteristics of radio modules in wireless body sensor network systems

Abstract

Wireless body sensor network systems (WB-SNSs) can use diverse radio modules. However, previous studies did not consider different characteristics of radio modules, which deeply impact the performance of WB-SNSs. In this paper, we analyze the performance of WB-SNSs using the representative radio modules CC2420 and CC1000. In this environment, we collected log data from real sensor devices deployed on the human body. After log data collection, we first show that CC2420 and CC1000 have different radio characteristics from diverse views, such as the received signal strength indication (RSSI) average and deviation, transmission power levels, and body movement. Through the analysis, we also find that an efficient transmission power control (TPC) algorithm should consider these diverse factors due to different radio modules. © IFIP International Federation for Information Processing 2012.