PONE-D-24-42537Research on Intelligent Routing in the Internet of BodyPLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Zhang,

Thank you for submitting your manuscript to PLOS ONE. After careful consideration, we feel that it has merit but does not fully meet PLOS ONE’s publication criteria as it currently stands. Therefore, we invite you to submit a revised version of the manuscript that addresses the points raised during the review process.

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We look forward to receiving your revised manuscript.

Kind regards,

Zeheng Wang

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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Additional Editor Comments:

Please refer to the enclosed comments from the reviewers in your revision. Pay attention to the reference list to ensure that the forms obey the journal's requirements.

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Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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2. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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3. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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4. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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5. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: In this paper the authors proposed an artificial intelligence routing algorithm, combines the variational autoencoder (VAE) and the generative adversarial network model (GAN) to construct a VAE-GAN model to generate multiple sets of data to achieve data enhancement in the Internet of Body. The optimization goals are to maximize the throughput of the Internet of Body and minimize the transmission cost. Here are my comments:

1. Title of the paper doesn’t reflect the body or contribution of the work. Title should be revised.

2. Paper has some merit but it is not well written. Very poor type setting.

3. Introduction and related work is incomplete and no flow in the paper. It’s really difficult to read the paper.

4. Even through many recent works in WBAN domain the authors provide only 13 references and most of them are old.

5. Various modeling like channel model, network model is missing in the paper.

6. Algo. 1 is confusing and it did not reflect well in the body of the paper.

7. Simulation parameters are not provided in the paper. Only 3 outputs can not justify the novelty of the work.

8. I suggested to the author to read recent articles and add them in related works. Some suggestion: 10.1109/JSEN.2024.3440412, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.iot.2024.101151, 10.1109/ACCESS.2023.3236403, 10.1109/TCE.2024.3412942, 10.1109/JIOT.2024.3458976, 10.1109/ACCESS.2024.3476424

Reviewer #2: I think the article is excellent, I congratulate the authors. Some suggestions could be considered:

1. Algorithm specificity: Explaining more clearly why VAE and GAN were combined instead of other approaches could add value.

2. Results and conclusions: While it is mentioned that the experiments demonstrated good results, it would be useful to briefly indicate what type of improvement or specific metric was achieved (e.g., latency reduction, increased network efficiency, lower error rate, etc.).

3. Although I do not see it as 100% necessary, I think it would be great to incorporate a comparison with fuzzy logic. This could significantly strengthen the work; I recommend it for the following reasons:

1. Combination with AI: Fuzzy logic is not incompatible with artificial intelligence techniques such as neural networks, GANs, or VAE. In fact, one can explore how systems based on fuzzy logic can complement or be combined with generative models, to handle additional uncertainties in the data generation or route prediction process. 2. Increased Interpretability: One of the problems with AI-based models, such as GANs, is the “black box” they are based on, which makes it difficult to interpret their decisions. Fuzzy logic could offer a way to add interpretability to the model, as routing decisions can be explained in terms of fuzzy rules, such as “If congestion is high and latency is low, then this route is suitable.” This could make your model more understandable and reliable in medical or critical settings.

3. Efficiency and Computational Resources: Fuzzy logic can be computationally lighter than complex models based on deep or generative neural networks, which could be an important advantage if real-time performance and resource efficiency are crucial in the use case (as mentioned in your abstract about the need to use few computational resources).

4. Routing Optimization: Fuzzy systems can be effectively integrated into routing algorithms to optimize network resource usage by dynamically adjusting routing decisions based on context and changing network conditions. You could compare whether fuzzy logic offers an advantage over your VAE-GAN model, especially when dealing with non-deterministic routes and decisions based on multiple imprecise factors.

5. Simplicity and Flexibility: Fuzzy logic allows for simpler and more flexible representation of relationships between variables, without the need for strict, discrete rules. In the case of your work, you could integrate fuzzy logic to handle different degrees of “quality” or “reliability” of routing paths, rather than simply classifying paths as optimal or non-optimal, which could be a more robust approach to varying network conditions.

In summary, how could you integrate this recommendation in your paper: You could include a section in your paper where you briefly describe the advantages of fuzzy logic compared to deep learning-based methodologies (such as VAE-GAN), and discuss how they could complement or compare each other to solve the routing problem in "Internet of the Body" networks.

Additionally, I dare to send you a small idea of a proposal.

"Although the proposed model based on VAE-GAN has shown a significant improvement in real-time route optimization, it is interesting to consider the integration of fuzzy logic as a possible alternative or complement. Fuzzy logic could offer advantages in making more interpretable and robust decisions in the face of uncertain and fluctuating network conditions, such as congestion or variability of sensor data. Furthermore, the simplicity and flexibility of fuzzy logic could reduce computational complexity in situations where resources are limited. Comparing these approaches and exploring their combination could result in even more efficient optimization of routing in the Internet of the Body, especially in dynamic and high-performance scenarios."

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: Yes: Magister Manuel María Batista Rodríguez

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PONE-D-24-42537R1Research on Intelligent Routing with VAE-GAN in the Internet of BodyPLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Zhang,

Thank you for submitting your manuscript to PLOS ONE. After careful consideration, we feel that it has merit but does not fully meet PLOS ONE’s publication criteria as it currently stands. Therefore, we invite you to submit a revised version of the manuscript that addresses the points raised during the review process.

Please submit your revised manuscript by Feb 12 2025 11:59PM. If you will need more time than this to complete your revisions, please reply to this message or contact the journal office at plosone@plos.org. When you're ready to submit your revision, log on to https://www.editorialmanager.com/pone/ and select the 'Submissions Needing Revision' folder to locate your manuscript file.

Please include the following items when submitting your revised manuscript:

• A rebuttal letter that responds to each point raised by the academic editor and reviewer(s). You should upload this letter as a separate file labeled 'Response to Reviewers'.
• A marked-up copy of your manuscript that highlights changes made to the original version. You should upload this as a separate file labeled 'Revised Manuscript with Track Changes'.
• An unmarked version of your revised paper without tracked changes. You should upload this as a separate file labeled 'Manuscript'.

If you would like to make changes to your financial disclosure, please include your updated statement in your cover letter. Guidelines for resubmitting your figure files are available below the reviewer comments at the end of this letter.

If applicable, we recommend that you deposit your laboratory protocols in protocols.io to enhance the reproducibility of your results. Protocols.io assigns your protocol its own identifier (DOI) so that it can be cited independently in the future. For instructions see: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/submission-guidelines#loc-laboratory-protocols. Additionally, PLOS ONE offers an option for publishing peer-reviewed Lab Protocol articles, which describe protocols hosted on protocols.io. Read more information on sharing protocols at https://plos.org/protocols?utm_medium=editorial-email&utm_source=authorletters&utm_campaign=protocols.

We look forward to receiving your revised manuscript.

Kind regards,

Zeheng Wang

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Journal Requirements:

Please review your reference list to ensure that it is complete and correct. If you have cited papers that have been retracted, please include the rationale for doing so in the manuscript text, or remove these references and replace them with relevant current references. Any changes to the reference list should be mentioned in the rebuttal letter that accompanies your revised manuscript. If you need to cite a retracted article, indicate the article’s retracted status in the References list and also include a citation and full reference for the retraction notice.

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Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. If the authors have adequately addressed your comments raised in a previous round of review and you feel that this manuscript is now acceptable for publication, you may indicate that here to bypass the “Comments to the Author” section, enter your conflict of interest statement in the “Confidential to Editor” section, and submit your "Accept" recommendation.

Reviewer #1: All comments have been addressed

Reviewer #3: All comments have been addressed

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2. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #1: Partly

Reviewer #3: Partly

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3. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #3: Yes

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4. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #3: Yes

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5. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #3: Yes

**********

6. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: Thanks for the revision. Authors address all of my comments. Current version of the paper is better than previous version.

Reviewer #3: 1. The necessity to design intelligent routing algorithms in the internet of body should be well clarified, since some other kinds of methods can be also used for routing designs.

2. The recent Q-learning based routing scheme in UAV networks can be also considered for comparison with this work#Deleted according to Editorial Policy#.

3. In the related works, the authors are suggested to explain discuss the Transfer learning.

4. The scenario and system model for IOB are not clear in the third section.

5. The algorithm analysis should be well provided.

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7. PLOS authors have the option to publish the peer review history of their article (what does this mean?). If published, this will include your full peer review and any attached files.

If you choose “no”, your identity will remain anonymous but your review may still be made public.

Do you want your identity to be public for this peer review? For information about this choice, including consent withdrawal, please see our Privacy Policy.

Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #3: No

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[NOTE: If reviewer comments were submitted as an attachment file, they will be attached to this email and accessible via the submission site. Please log into your account, locate the manuscript record, and check for the action link "View Attachments". If this link does not appear, there are no attachment files.]

While revising your submission, please upload your figure files to the Preflight Analysis and Conversion Engine (PACE) digital diagnostic tool, https://pacev2.apexcovantage.com/. PACE helps ensure that figures meet PLOS requirements. To use PACE, you must first register as a user. Registration is free. Then, login and navigate to the UPLOAD tab, where you will find detailed instructions on how to use the tool. If you encounter any issues or have any questions when using PACE, please email PLOS at figures@plos.org. Please note that Supporting Information files do not need this step.

Research on Intelligent Routing with VAE-GAN in the Internet of Body

PONE-D-24-42537R2

Dear Dr. Zhang,

We’re pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been judged scientifically suitable for publication and will be formally accepted for publication once it meets all outstanding technical requirements.

Within one week, you’ll receive an e-mail detailing the required amendments. When these have been addressed, you’ll receive a formal acceptance letter and your manuscript will be scheduled for publication.

An invoice will be generated when your article is formally accepted. Please note, if your institution has a publishing partnership with PLOS and your article meets the relevant criteria, all or part of your publication costs will be covered. Please make sure your user information is up-to-date by logging into Editorial Manager at Editorial Manager® and clicking the ‘Update My Information' link at the top of the page. If you have any questions relating to publication charges, please contact our Author Billing department directly at authorbilling@plos.org.

If your institution or institutions have a press office, please notify them about your upcoming paper to help maximize its impact. If they’ll be preparing press materials, please inform our press team as soon as possible -- no later than 48 hours after receiving the formal acceptance. Your manuscript will remain under strict press embargo until 2 pm Eastern Time on the date of publication. For more information, please contact onepress@plos.org.

Kind regards,

Zeheng Wang

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Additional Editor Comments (optional):

Reviewers' comments: