An open and reconfigurable Wireless Sensor Network for pervasive health monitoring

Abstract

Sensor networks constitute the backbone for the construction of personalized monitoring systems. Currently, a plethora of sensor networks for diverse pervasive healthcare applications has been proposed and implemented. However, there is a significant lack of open architectures in the field, resulting in closed, non-interoperable, and difficult to extend solutions. In this context, we propose an open and reconfigurable Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) for pervasive health monitoring, with particular emphasis in its easy extension with additional sensors and functionality by incorporating embedded intelligence mechanisms. We consider a generic WSN architecture comprised of diverse sensor nodes (with communication and processing capabilities) and a Mobile Base Unit (MBU) operating as the gateway between the sensors and the medical personnel, formulating this way a Body Area Network (BAN). The primary focus of this work is on the intra-BAN data communication issues, adopting SensorML as the data representation mean. Our prototype implementation illustrates the underlying design conceptualization and virtue of the proposed approach.