Medium access control (MAC) protocol for body area networks

A non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon computer executable code, which when executed by a processor, causes the processor to control access to a wireless medium in a body area network having two tiers of devices including a plurality of master devices and a plurality of slave devices, comprising:

• dividing an access time to the wireless medium into fixed and repeated time rounds, wherein each time round includes a plurality of superframes and each superframe includes a fixed number of time slots;
• allocating a global beacon period within a time round for transmission of global beacons to the master devices;
• and
• reserving subframes within each superframe, wherein master devices can access the wireless medium at least during the reserved subframes to communicate with one or more slave devices.

A device comprising:

• a memory;
• and
• a processor configured to form a frame structure of fixed and repeated time rounds for controlling access to a wireless body area network having two tiers of devices including a plurality of master devices and a plurality of slave devices,
• wherein each time round includes a plurality of superframes, and each superframe includes a fixed number of time slots, wherein the time slots within each superframe are reserved for subframes and a global prioritized contention access (GPCA), each time round including a global beacon period allocated for transmission of global beacons to the master devices, and the subframe time slots are reserved for communication between a master device and one or more slave devices, and for a local prioritized contention access (LPCA).