Context-Aware Optimal Assignment of a Chain-Like Processing Task onto Chain-Like Resources in M-Health

This paper focuses on the optimal assignment of a chain-structured medical task onto a chain of networked devices, a need identified in context-aware mobile healthcare applications. We propose a graph-based method to compute the assignment which has the minimal end-to-end process and transfer delay. In essence, the method transforms the assignment problem to a shortest path problem in a graph representing all possible assignments. Compared to earlier work, our method relaxes a so-called contiguity constraint, which is a necessity in the earlier case but unnecessarily constraining in the healthcare applications. The proposed method reduces the time and space complexity in case it is adapted to include the contiguity constraint.