Abstract

A novel neighbour network discovery mechanism targeted especially for wireless body area networks (WBANs) is defined and analysed in this paper. The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) standard 802.15.6 and the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) technical committee SmartBAN define physical (PHY) and medium access control (MAC) specifications for packet-based short-range communications in WBANs. Neither the aforementioned standards provides a solution for discovery of operating WBAN networks by another operating WBAN using the same standard specifications in near vicinity. The proposed method provides a SmartBAN-compliant mechanism to discover other neighbouring SmartBAN networks while maintaining uninterrupted operations of both the wireless network carrying out the discovery and the wireless networks to be discovered. A SmartBAN network operates in two physical channels: a control channel (CCH) and a data channel (DCH). The key feature of the mechanism is the utilisation of the Inactive Periods of the discovering SmartBAN’s DCH by alternating the Inactive Period durations for scanning CCH beacons of the target SmartBAN. Based on the analysis, it can be concluded that the proposed mechanism outperforms a mechanism in which the scan is performed in a fixed cyclical mode in terms of probability of discovery and discovery time. Currently, the discovery mechanism is under consideration for the revision of MAC specifications in TC SmartBAN.