A multimedia healthcare data sharing approach through cloud-based body area network

Abstract Wireless Body Area Network (WBAN), as a dramatic platform for pervasive computing and communication, has been widely applied in healthcare domains. Since the patient-related data in the form of text, image, voice, etc. is significant in the process of healthcare services, efficiently managing these media data from various WBAN is vital for various applications. Recently, Cloud-assisted WBAN has become popular that can supply massive computing, flexible storage and various software services to WBAN. Still, there are some challenging issues exist in this platform to deliver and share the huge media healthcare data to remote terminals timely with guaranteed QoS support. In the paper, we propose an efficient network model that combines WBAN and Cloud for valid data sharing. The proposed network architecture is designed as four layers: perception layer, network layer, cloud computing layer, and application layer. In the network, the integration of TCP/IP and Zigbee in the coordinator devices is utilized. Consequently, WBAN coordinators can compatibility inter-operate with various local networks such as WiFi and LTE network to support high mobility of users. Besides, we integrate Content Centric Networking (CCN) with our proposed architecture to improve the ability of the WBAN coordinator. Thus, it can support uninterrupted media healthcare content delivery. In addition, adaptive streaming technique was also utilized to reduce packet loss. Various simulations were conducted using OPNET simulator to show the feasibility of the proposed architecture in terms of transmitting a huge amount of media healthcare data in real-time under traditional IP-based network.