Performance of fault tolerant WBAN for healthcare

Abstract

This paper presents the architecture of a fault tolerant Wireless Body Area Network (WBAN) for healthcare systems. A patient's vital physiological sensor data is sent over two redundant paths to be processed, analyzed and monitored, while response could be generated if necessary. The two main communication protocols used in this system are low power Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11n) and Long Term Evolution (LTE). The system is modeled with real-time requirements and has two closed loops for data processing and two open loops for data monitoring. Riverbed Modeler is used to model different scenarios based on the failure status of the individual nodes along with the patient's health status. Simulation results were collected with a 95% confidence performed on the maximum of 33 runs. Then, two interference models were subjected to the system and its performance was quantified. It was shown that the architecture was successful in meeting all required control criteria following the design principles of Networked Control Systems (NCS).