An Android-Based Mobile 6LoWPAN Network Architecture for Pervasive Healthcare

Abstract

Embedded sensors are increasingly seen in modern mobile and wearable devices to support better user activities and vital signs monitoring. While more wireless sensing devices are becoming available, network connectivity and scalability remain the key obstacles in achieving seamless information flow and service provision as envisaged by the vision of the Internet of Things. In this paper, a mobile 6LoWPAN network architecture is proposed by engaging Android-based mobile devices as edge routers to address the connectivity and scalability issues with the wider IP network for pervasive healthcare applications. The 6LoWPAN-based wireless sensor network, together with the Android edge router, form a mobile sub-network that allows seamless information exchange with the Internet and improves service availability for each end user. The proposed architecture includes a customised bare-metal 6LoWPAN protocol designed for ultra low power wireless sensor nodes for long term vital signs monitoring and integrated with Android devices for mobile internet access. The proposed network architecture is demonstrated and validated on a pervasive healthcare monitoring application.

Internet of Things: A Scientometric Review

“…On IoT 923 publications are related to RFID, where security authentication [153][154][155], wireless sensors networks [156,157], privacy [158,159], and electronic product code (ECP) [160,161] were major applications. Next, 6LoWPAN appears in 230 publications, with documents related to upper layer protocols such as Constrained Application Protocol (CoAP) [162,163], Routing Protocol for Low power and Lossy Networks (RPL) [164,165], and operating systems like Contiki [166,167], and Android [168,169]. With similar growth, ZigBee follows with 222 documents, and research integrates this protocol with solutions such as RFID [170][171][172], or applications like smart home [95,173,174], and health care [175][176][177].…”

Development of a novel 6LoWPAN‐based multipurpose sensor monitoring and notification system

“…Wang et al 13 propose a healthcare system using 6LoWPAN. An Android smartphone is used to act as a border router, and AWSAM‐3 is used as wearable sensor node to measure the patient's vital signs and relay collected information to a remote server.…”

Um Middleware para Gerenciamento de Sensores de Saúde Corporais em Dispositivos Móveis

“…A m-health faz uso de sensores IoT afixados ao corpo para a medição dos sinais vitais formando, dessa maneira, uma rede chamada de Wireless Body Area Network (WBAN) [Castillejo et al 2013]. Todavia, esses sensores dispõem de capacidade limitada de processamento e possuem um rádio integrado para transmissão dos dados coletados [Wang et al 2015], sendo necessário um equipamento externo que receba e envie esses dadosàs aplicações externas que os requisitem, ou ainda que cada aplicação conecte-se diretamente ao(s) sensor(es) corporais desejados.…”