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MAC layer handover mechanism for continuous communication support in healthcare mobile wireless sensor networks

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Abstract

The use of wireless sensor networks (WSNs) is growing up in the last few years. Therefore, new challenges arise every day and one of the emerging challenges in WSNs is the nodes mobility support. This feature increases the application areas of these technologies but also raises new challenges to solve. This paper proposes a new handover mechanism, called Hand4MAC (Handover mechanism for MAC layer supporting continuous communication in mobile wireless sensor networks), to deal with body sensors mobility in scenarios where patients are hospitalized. This approach tries to provide continuous monitoring and communication with these sensor nodes when they move across different access points wireless coverage range. The proposed method for medium access control (MAC) layer considers that nodes remain within the same network. The evaluation study of the proposed algorithm was performed by simulation and evaluated in comparison with the well-known RSSI-based handover algorithm. It was concluded that Hand4MAC performs better and reveals promising results for real deployment.

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Acknowledgments

This work was partially supported by the Instituto de Telcomunicações, Next Generation Networks and Applications Group (NetGNA), Portugal, by Luso-French Program of Integrated University Actions (PAUILF 2010)–Action No. F-CT-10/10, by Government of Russian Federation, Grant 074-U01, by National Funding from the FCT—Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia through the Pest-OE/EEI/LA0008/2013 Project, and by the AAL4ALL (Ambient Assisted Living for All), Project co-financed by COMPETE under FEDER via QREN Programme.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Instituto de Telecomunicações, University of Beira Interior, Covilhã, Portugal

    João M. L. P. Caldeira & Joel J. P. C. Rodrigues

  2. EST, Polytechnic Institute of Castelo Branco, Castelo Branco, Portugal

    João M. L. P. Caldeira

  3. University ITMO, Saint Petersburg, Russia

    Joel J. P. C. Rodrigues

  4. IUT, University of Haute Alsace, Colmar, France

    Pascal Lorenz

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  1. João M. L. P. Caldeira
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Correspondence to Joel J. P. C. Rodrigues.

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Caldeira, J.M.L.P., Rodrigues, J.J.P.C. & Lorenz, P. MAC layer handover mechanism for continuous communication support in healthcare mobile wireless sensor networks. Telecommun Syst 60, 119–132 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11235-014-9926-z

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