BNCP: body node coordinator placement for internet of medical things

Abstract Biosensor nodes are special nodes that measure physiological data used in healthcare and related domains. A Wireless Body Area Network (WBAN) is a system of biosensor nodes arranged in a specific network topology to measure and communicate physiological data to a central hub node, the Body Node Coordinator (BNC). A huge amount of energy is consumed to transmit the data between the BNC and biosensors. However, owing to their small size, their energy reserve is low. Thus, it becomes necessary to determine a location for the BNC to achieve lower energy consumption. There are several existing methods for BNC placement at an optimal location, which fix the BNC at an initial point and then iteratively adjust that position through a mechanism to achieve an optimal location for the BNC. The best-performing location is selected as the optimal location for the BNC. However, all such methods share some common flaws, including that they consume more energy. Moreover, the involvement of other nodes in BNC placement results in a loss of node energy, which is a relatively scarce resource. To avoid this and minimize network energy consumption, several optimization techniques are utilized to determine the placement of the body node coordinator. The proposed algorithm determines the optimal location of the BNC (Body Node Coordinator) in the shortest time and with the least energy utilization by other nodes during the placement process by Differential Evolution (DE). DE-based BNC placement framework achieved approximately 35% improvement in network lifetime compared to existing methods.