Mutual interference in large populations of co-located IEEE 802.15.4 body sensor networks—A sensitivity analysis

We consider scenarios where a large number of wireless body sensor networks (WBSN) meets at the same location, as can happen for example at sports events, and assess the impact of their mutual interference on their achievable transmission reliability. In particular, we consider several of MAC- and application parameters for a range of static and dynamic schemes for allocating WBSNs to frequencies, and determine their relative impacts on achievable performance. Our results indicate that parameters related to the MAC backoff scheme have by far the largest impact on performance, and that frequency adaptation can provide substantial performance benefits.