Requirements and challenges in wireless network's performance evaluation in ambient assisted living environments

Abstract

Ambient Assisted Living environments rely heavily on use of technology for providing its users with assistance or supervision in their Activities of Daily Living (ADLs). Thus, it is crucial to ensure that wireless sensor networks (WSN) have high reliability and availability in such systems. Performance of networks is measured by the packet delivery ratio, average end-to-end delay and power consumption in order to ensure QoS, especially for time sensitive traffic. During the past thirty years of research, a colossal number of MAC protocols have been developed, differing by the type of media they use as well as the performance requirements for which they have been optimized. Design of MAC layer has a major role in energy efficiency of the wireless sensor network as energy efficient protocols improve the lifetime of the network. This paper explores different protocol implementations for WSN with the goal of achieving best possible QoS in context of Ambient Assisted Living environments.