Intra-Mobility Support Solutions for Healthcare Wireless Sensor Networks–Handover Issues

At present, several solutions are available for monitoring patient health using body sensors. In hospitals, healthcare wireless sensor networks (HWSNs) offer support to access these sensors to allow for continuous patient monitoring. To improve the quality-of-life of the hospitalized patients, it is important to let them walk around the monitored area. This ability brings several challenges to HWSNs with mobility support. Because of the crucial importance of the sensed parameters, the HWSNs must be in continuous communication with the body sensors. The connection between body sensors and a HWSN is performed through an access point. Indoor communications are limited in terms of signal propagation and, therefore, several access points to cover large areas are deployed. To maintain the sensors' accessibility, these should frequently change their point of attachment by performing a mechanism known as a handover. Handover mechanisms are able to support the intra-mobility of sensors in networks within the same domain. This paper surveys the most recent intra-mobility solutions with special focus on handover approaches that can be used in HWSNs. An in depth review of the related literature is performed in order to present the state of the art on this paper, to discuss the available solutions, and to point out open issues for further research.

[1]  Yasar Guneri Sahin,et al.  Animals as Mobile Biological Sensors for Forest Fire Detection , 2007, Sensors.

[2]  Kok-Kiong Yap,et al.  To Hop or Not to Hop: Network Architecture for Body Sensor Networks , 2009, 2009 6th Annual IEEE Communications Society Conference on Sensor, Mesh and Ad Hoc Communications and Networks.

[3]  Peng Yu,et al.  GEMS: A WSN-based greenhouse environment monitoring system , 2011, 2011 IEEE International Instrumentation and Measurement Technology Conference.

[4]  Antonio F. Gómez-Skarmeta,et al.  Mobile IP-Based Protocol for Wireless Personal Area Networks in Critical Environments , 2011, Wirel. Pers. Commun..

[5]  Prajakta Kulkarni,et al.  Requirements and design spaces of mobile medical care , 2007, MOCO.

[6]  Srdjan Capkun,et al.  GPS-free Positioning in Mobile Ad Hoc Networks , 2001, Proceedings of the 34th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences.

[7]  Jorge Sá Silva,et al.  Mobility solutions for wireless sensor and actuator networks with performance guarantees , 2011, 2011 18th International Conference on Telecommunications.

[8]  Valeria Loscrì,et al.  Controlled mobility in mobile sensor networks: advantages, issues and challenges , 2013, Telecommun. Syst..

[9]  Ki-Hyung Kim,et al.  LoWMob: Intra-PAN Mobility Support Schemes for 6LoWPAN , 2009, Sensors.

[10]  JeongGil Ko,et al.  Connecting low-power and lossy networks to the internet , 2011, IEEE Communications Magazine.

[11]  Athanasios V. Vasilakos,et al.  Body Area Networks: A Survey , 2010, Mob. Networks Appl..

[12]  David E. Culler,et al.  Transmission of IPv6 Packets over IEEE 802.15.4 Networks , 2007, RFC.

[13]  Jorge Sá Silva,et al.  Mobile multimedia in wireless sensor networks , 2012, Int. J. Sens. Networks.

[14]  Hossam S. Hassanein,et al.  WSN application in the harsh industrial environment of the oil sands , 2011, 2011 7th International Wireless Communications and Mobile Computing Conference.

[15]  R.L. Moses,et al.  Locating the nodes: cooperative localization in wireless sensor networks , 2005, IEEE Signal Processing Magazine.

[16]  Waltenegus Dargie,et al.  Analysis of the Cost of Handover in a Mobile Wireless Sensor Network , 2012, WWIC.

[17]  Kim Fowler.  Sensor survey results , 2009, IEEE Instrumentation & Measurement Magazine.

[18]  Jorge Sá Silva,et al.  Mobility in WSNs for critical applications , 2011, 2011 IEEE Symposium on Computers and Communications (ISCC).

[19]  Alexandros Pantelopoulos,et al.  A survey on wearable biosensor systems for health monitoring , 2008, 2008 30th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society.

[20]  Xiao Zheng,et al.  Radio Characterization of 802.15.4 and Its Impact on the Design of Mobile Sensor Networks , 2008, EWSN.

[21]  Chenyang Lu,et al.  Reliable clinical monitoring using wireless sensor networks: experiences in a step-down hospital unit , 2010, SenSys '10.

[22]  Zoltan Gy. Kovacs,et al.  Case study of a simple, low power WSN implementation for forest monitoring , 2010, 2010 12th Biennial Baltic Electronics Conference.

[23]  Heikki Karvonen,et al.  Soft handover method for mobile wireless sensor networks based on 6LoWPAN , 2011, 2011 International Conference on Distributed Computing in Sensor Systems and Workshops (DCOSS).

[24]  Gordon L. Stüber,et al.  Overview of radiolocation in CDMA cellular systems , 1998, IEEE Commun. Mag..

[25]  Xiao Su,et al.  Mobility handling in MAC for wireless ad hoc networks , 2009, Wirel. Commun. Mob. Comput..

[26]  Rong Zhou,et al.  A mobility support scheme for 6LoWPAN , 2012, Comput. Commun..

[27]  Antonio F. Gómez-Skarmeta,et al.  HWSN6: Hospital Wireless Sensor Networks Based on 6LoWPAN Technology: Mobility and Fault Tolerance Management , 2009, 2009 International Conference on Computational Science and Engineering.

[28]  Vasos Vassiliou,et al.  Inter-mobility support in controlled 6LoWPAN networks , 2010, 2010 IEEE Globecom Workshops.

[29]  Kim R. Fowler.  The future of sensors and sensor networks survey results projecting the next 5 years , 2009, 2009 IEEE Sensors Applications Symposium.

[30]  Antonio J. Jara,et al.  Intra-mobility for Hospital Wireless Sensor Networks Based on 6LoWPAN , 2010, 2010 6th International Conference on Wireless and Mobile Communications.

[31]  JeongGil Ko,et al.  Wireless Sensor Networks for Healthcare , 2010, Proceedings of the IEEE.

[32]  Nikolaos G. Bourbakis,et al.  A Survey on Wearable Sensor-Based Systems for Health Monitoring and Prognosis , 2010, IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, Part C (Applications and Reviews).

[33]  Sandeep Mann,et al.  Coverage in Wireless Sensor Networks : A Survey , 2013 .

[34]  Cem Ersoy,et al.  Wireless sensor networks for healthcare: A survey , 2010, Comput. Networks.

[35]  Andrew H. Kemp,et al.  Overview of the IEEE 802.15.4 standards family for Low Rate Wireless Personal Area Networks , 2010, 2010 7th International Symposium on Wireless Communication Systems.

[36]  A. Molisch,et al.  IEEE 802.15.4a channel model-final report , 2004 .

[37]  Antonio F. Gómez-Skarmeta,et al.  An Initial Approach to Support Mobility in Hospital Wireless Sensor Networks based on 6LoWPAN (HWSN6) , 2010, J. Wirel. Mob. Networks Ubiquitous Comput. Dependable Appl..

[38]  Joel J. P. C. Rodrigues,et al.  Routing and mobility approaches in IPv6 over LoWPAN mesh networks , 2011, Int. J. Commun. Syst..

[39]  Dong He,et al.  The water quality monitoring system based on WSN , 2012, 2012 2nd International Conference on Consumer Electronics, Communications and Networks (CECNet).

[40]  Marcos Augusto M. Vieira,et al.  Survey on wireless sensor network devices , 2003, EFTA 2003. 2003 IEEE Conference on Emerging Technologies and Factory Automation. Proceedings (Cat. No.03TH8696).

[41]  Deborah Estrin,et al.  Guest Editors' Introduction: Overview of Sensor Networks , 2004, Computer.

[42]  M. Kosanovi,et al.  Power Management and Energy Harvesting Techniques for Wireless Sensor Nodes , 2009 .

[43]  Carlos F. García-Hernández,et al.  Wireless Sensor Networks and Applications: a Survey , 2007 .

[44]  Dunfan Ye,et al.  Application of wireless sensor networks in environmental monitoring , 2009, 2009 2nd International Conference on Power Electronics and Intelligent Transportation System (PEITS).

[45]  Lei Wang,et al.  GPS-Free Localization Algorithm for Wireless Sensor Networks , 2010, Sensors.

[46]  Waltenegus Dargie,et al.  A Survey on Mobility and Mobility-Aware MAC Protocols in Wireless Sensor Networks , 2013, IEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorials.

[47]  Gu-Yeon Wei,et al.  Survey of Hardware Systems for Wireless Sensor Networks , 2008, J. Low Power Electron..

[48]  R.N. Murty,et al.  CitySense: An Urban-Scale Wireless Sensor Network and Testbed , 2008, 2008 IEEE Conference on Technologies for Homeland Security.

[49]  D. Puccinelli,et al.  Wireless sensor networks: applications and challenges of ubiquitous sensing , 2005, IEEE Circuits and Systems Magazine.

[50]  G. Shobha,et al.  Medical Applications of Wireless Networks , 2007, 2007 Second International Conference on Systems and Networks Communications (ICSNC 2007).

[51]  Biswanath Mukherjee,et al.  Wireless sensor network survey , 2008, Comput. Networks.

[52]  Fernando Boavida,et al.  A proposal for proxy-based mobility in WSNs , 2012, Comput. Commun..

[53]  Carlos Fernández-Valdivielso,et al.  Performance Analysis of IEEE 802.15.4 Compliant Wireless Devices for Heterogeneous Indoor Home Automation Environments , 2012 .

[54]  Shivendra S. Panwar,et al.  A wireless biosensor network using autonomously controlled animals , 2006, IEEE Network.

[55]  Ashraf Darwish,et al.  Wearable and Implantable Wireless Sensor Network Solutions for Healthcare Monitoring , 2011, Sensors.

[56]  F. Feliciani,et al.  OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES OF EHEALTH AND TELEMEDICINE VIA SATELLITE , 2005 .

[57]  Anis Koubâa,et al.  On a Reliable Handoff Procedure for Supporting Mobility in Wireless Sensor Networks , 2010 .

[58]  Victor C. M. Leung,et al.  Mobility Support for Health Monitoring at Home Using Wearable Sensors , 2011, IEEE Transactions on Information Technology in Biomedicine.

[59]  Sajal K. Das,et al.  Data Collection in Wireless Sensor Networks with Mobile Elements: A Survey , 2011, TOSN.

[60]  Giuseppe Anastasi,et al.  A WSN-based testbed for energy efficiency in buildings , 2011, 2011 IEEE Symposium on Computers and Communications (ISCC).

[61]  Christoforos Panayiotou,et al.  A Survey on Routing Techniques Supporting Mobility in Sensor Networks , 2009, 2009 Fifth International Conference on Mobile Ad-hoc and Sensor Networks.

[62]  Carsten Bormann,et al.  6LoWPAN: The Wireless Embedded Internet , 2009 .

[63]  Anis Koubaa,et al.  F-LQE: A Fuzzy Link Quality Estimator for Wireless Sensor Networks , 2010, EWSN.

[64]  K. Fowler.  Sensor survey: Part 2 sensors and sensor networks in five years [Sensor Survey Results] , 2009, IEEE Instrumentation & Measurement Magazine.

[65]  Joel J. P. C. Rodrigues,et al.  Application of Wireless Sensor Networks to Healthcare Promotion , 2008 .