Data aggregation in body sensor networks: A power optimization technique for collaborative signal processing

Body sensor networks (BSNs) have proved their viability to greatly improve quality of medical care by providing continuous and in-home monitoring solutions. Highly constrained nature of the platform demands a design that efficiently utilizes limited resources of the system. Energy optimization techniques are especially desirable as the system lifetime is constrained by small batteries that power sensor nodes in a BSN. In this paper, we introduce a novel data-centering routing model to minimize communication energy, taking collaborative nature of signal processing for healthcare applications into consideration. Transmission energy for a path is determined as a compromise between the path length and the amount of data being transmitted along the path. Data produced by different nodes are aggregated to form packets of large size that consume smaller energy per bit. We formulate the problem as a minimum concave cost multicommodity flow problem and propose two approaches to find both optimal and approximate solutions. We evaluate performance of our energy minimization techniques on a variety of synthesized signal processing task graphs, as well as a real application for evaluating human postural control system. The results show an average of 35% energy saving with the proposed routing against a simple shortest path approach.