Optimized handover strategy with movement trend awareness for body sensor networks

Abstract

When a Body Sensor Network (BSN) that is linked to the backbone via a wireless network interface roams from one coverage zone to another, a handover is required to maintain network connectivity. This paper proposes an optimized BSN handover strategy which utilizes the movement trend of the BSN wearer and makes handover decisions based on the estimated future position of the user. Simulation results indicate that outage probability can be reduced by the proposed approach while unnecessary handover rate remains similar compared to that of the conventional methods. In addition, no extra equipment is needed for the proposed method. © 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd.