ABSTRACT
Wireless body area networks (WBANs) are a type of wireless network used to monitor and collect data from various sensors attached to the human body. WBAN has enormous applications like assisted living, healthcare, sports, defense, entertain- ment, military, and many others. The successful deployment and operation of WBANs come with several challenges, includ- ing energy efficiency, on-time data transmission, reliability, scalability, security, and network lifetime. Routing is a critical and important aspect of WBAN communication, and several optimization techniques have been proposed to improve the routing performance in WBANs. Optimization techniques plays a crucial role in optimizing and improving the performance of WBANs routing protocol. These techniques aim to optimize various parameters such as power consumption, data rate, energy efficiency, throughput, network bandwidth, delay, network lifetime etc. This paper provides an overview of the op- timization techniques used for routing in WBANs in recent years (2014–2023). These optimization techniques can signifi- cantly improve the performance of WBAN routing protocols and enable them to be used for various applications related to medical and non-medical domains. The paper discusses the various optimization techniques proposed in the literature, their strengths, weaknesses and simulators used to evaluate WBAN routing performance. By analyzing and summarizing existing research, this paper aims to provide valuable insights into the current state of optimization techniques in WBAN routing and identify potential research gaps for future exploration.
