Adaptive frequency agility in a body area network (BAN) is enabled by a medium access control protocol by adaptively snooping channels of a frequency band utilized in the BAN. The method includes selecting an anchor channel to be scanned from a rank order list of channels (S520); periodically scanning, at a predefined snoop time interval, the anchor channel for duration of a dwell time set for the anchor channel (S535); periodically scanning all channels preceding the anchor channel in the rank order list, wherein each preceding channel is being scanned for a different predefined duration; checking if a message is received on the anchor channel or any of the preceding channels (S570); selecting a channel ranked immediately after the anchor channel in the rank order list to be a new anchor channel when a message is not received (S540, S545) for a duration of a dwell time set for the anchor channel; and determining the channel on which a message is received to be the new anchor channel (S580).