Availability measure model for Assistive Care Loop Framework using wireless sensor networks

Abstract

Nowadays, body area wireless sensor networks (BAWSNs) applications are increasingly being used in in-house health monitoring systems. These applications have stringent timing requirements and often run continuously without interruptions. Hence, it becomes imperative to determine the operational continuity of the BAWSN applications by measuring their availability. The BAWSN applications rely on the collection of data within a critical time from all of the source sensor nodes rather than the data from an individual source. Subsequently, the measure of availability for a BAWSN application should be based on the time and the data delivery from all the sensor nodes. Taking into account these specific characteristics and the constraints of the BAWSN, we develop a model to measure the availability of a BAWSN application based on the unavailable time. The proposed model is evaluated through a series of experiments conducted in our existing Assistive Care Loop Framework (ACLF). Furthermore, we also develop an analogous theoretical model to evaluate the availability of a BAWSN application.