Wireless Sensor Networks: A Key Enabling Technology for Remote Healthcare

TLDR: This chapter motivates the use of WSN as a key enabler for remote health care by introducing the manifold facilities and use cases of that technology and providing insights into practical system design issues.

Abstract: Recent advances in ICT and sensing technologies have created exciting options for individualised sensing and health monitoring. Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) that are built of lightweight and autonomous devices called sensor nodes are a concrete example of such technologies. Each sensor node typically combines individual sensing, processing and wireless communication features into one small device. This chapter motivates the use of WSN as a key enabler for remote health care by introducing the manifold facilities and use cases of that technology. Based on that, it discusses the architectural basics and provides insights into practical system design issues, especially in view of reliability, energy efficiency and security of the system. After that an assessment of design goals and most critical challenges for applying WSN in health care is given. The chapter finally closes with presenting several selected solutions that successfully tackle introduced challenges.