# BNS: A Framework for Wireless Body Area Network Realistic Simulations
## 5 Conclusions  
Performing evaluations in environments as close as possible to real scenarios is necessary for WBAN. To provide a realistic WBAN simulation system, this work proposes the BNS framework for developing WBAN realistic simulations. In contrast to the existing WBAN simulation systems, additional modules were implemented to provide greater flexibility in the construction of WBAN scenarios. The BNS framework includes a wireless channel model considering radio-propagation on human body; an updated WBAN MAC layer with functionalities of the IEEE 802.15.6 standard; a mobility model for simulating intra-WBAN communication; a temperature module to model node temperature variation; and a Healthcare Application Layer according to the ISO/IEEE 11073 standard.  
We presented three WBAN simulations using the BNS framework: a remote healthcare monitoring scenario using the application layer based on the ISO/IEEE 11073 standard, a generic scenario to analyze the temperature behavior of the nodes of a WBAN using dif  
Figure 14: Energy spent per transmitted application bit in 12 nodes topology.  
ferent routing protocols and a comparison of the performance of a WBAN using TDMA and CSMA/CA techniques. These simulations are examples that show the use of the proposed BNS framework and show the flexibility to build different realistic scenarios, concluding that our framework is a valid alternative for the evaluation of WBAN through simulation.  
The BNS framework is focused on communication between sensors/actuators nodes and the sink node (intra-WBAN communication). Technologies such as 3G/4G/5G/6G are alternatives to use in Inter-WBAN and Beyond-WBAN communications. Thus, the sink node with the corresponding radio interface acts as an aggregator of the information collected by the sensor nodes, performing its role as a gateway. To perform simulations considering the different levels of the WBAN architecture defined in the standard (including Inter-WBAN and Beyond-WBAN), it is necessary to continue improving the proposed framework, which would be an interesting future work. As future work, we also intend to increase the support for other types of personal health devices in the BNS framework application layer; support other body mobility patterns; additional WBAN channel models and provide the IEEE 802.15.6 security support. With that, the framework could support a greater number of configurations and increase the diversity of WBAN scenarios. Moreover, we intend to develop a real testbed with real personal health devices, which would allow the performance of realistic emulations, in addition to creating new models to be implemented in the BNS framework.  
Conceptualization, E.C., V.F., R.A.L., D.M.-S. and C.A.; methodology, E.C., V.F., R.A.L., J.C.H.S., D.M.-S. and C.A.; software, E.C., V.F. and R.A.L.; validation, E.C., V.F. and R.A.L.; investigation, E.C., V.F. and R.A.L.; resources, D.M.-S. and C.A.; data curation, E.C., V.F. and R.A.L.; writing-original draft, E.C., V.F., R.A.L. and J.C.H.S.; writing-review and editing, D.M.-S. and C.A.; supervision, D.M.-S. and C.A.; funding acquisition, D.M.-S. and C.A. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.  
This research was funded in part by the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES), CAPES PRINT, the Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq), the Foundation to Research Support in the State of Rio de Janeiro (FAPERJ), Foundation to Research Support in the State of Sao Paulo (FAPESP) grant 2015/24144-7 and The National Institute of Science and Technology for Medicine Assisted by Scientific Computing (INCT-MACC).  
The authors declare no conflict of interest.