Two-stage robust wireless body area network design

The Internet of Things (IoT) has reshaped technology paradigms through the integration of intelligent components like sensors, paving the way to the development of Wireless Body Area Networks (WBANs) specifically tailored for healthcare applications. However, designing an efficient WBAN requires addressing several challenges, including energy-efficient routing and data rate uncertainty. In response to these challenges, this paper proposes a novel approach — a two-stage robust programming formulation — for WBAN design. The primary aim is to minimize both energy consumption and relay placement costs, all while accounting for the inherent uncertainty in data rates. The proposed formulation explicitly addresses data rate uncertainties, leveraging robust optimization techniques to handle this uncertainty. We prove that efficiently solving an approximation of this robust formulation is achievable. Numerical results, measured in a set of realistic WBAN scenarios, demonstrate the effectiveness of the introduced two-stage robust programming formulation in achieving notable reductions in energy consumption and relay placement costs within the context of WBANs.