Performance Evaluation of Cognitive Management Functionality for Emergency Healthcare Applications

Abstract

Enormous advances in medical sciences are depicted on their capability to approach previously past-cure diseases, as well as prevent the appearance and evolution of unpleasant situations. Those advances are often derived from interdisciplinary solutions to complex medical problems, supported by communications and electronics, which target fast, reliable and stable solutions to problems that are demanding in terms of velocity and accuracy. Recent findings in the world of wireless communications, such as the systems beyond the third generation (B3G), as well as the utilization of knowledge and experience by means of cognitive networking principles, can be efficiently exploited, in order to support electronic healthcare, especially in emergency situations. The goal of this paper is to present intelligent management functionality based on cognitive, B3G communication systems, capable of supporting emergency, electronic healthcare applications. Simulation results using the Network Simulator-2 (NS-2) are used for evaluating the performance of the proposed functionality. Results show a significant increase in the dependability and the efficiency of medical applications when supported by cognitive wireless networks.