An implementation of a lightweight end-to-end secured communication system for patient monitoring system

Abstract

Securing wireless body area network (WBAN), which is often used for collecting precious patient's data, is an inevitable challenge in a modern patient monitoring system (PMS). In general, a PMS consists of several network segments, starting from a WBAN to the user's access network via a server where the patients' data is stored. Apart from the communication links between the WBAN gateway and the server, and between the server and the user's device, the wireless link between the body sensors and the gateway remains susceptible to threat by eavesdropper or malicious users. Moreover, the sensor nodes are often battery powered and thus cannot be overloaded with highly computational algorithms and protocols. In this context, we develop and implement an end-to- end secure PMS by emphasizing on securing sensor to gateway wireless link with a lightweight encryption protocol that will consume minimal energy. In addition, we use MQ telemetry transport (MQTT) as a transport protocol rather than hypertext transport protocol (HTTP) for its simplicity and lightweight features. The encrypted sensor data thus transported and stored in the server from where an authentic user access the data and decrypt it.