Using Multiple RPL Instances to Enhance the Performance of New 6G and Internet of Everything (6G/IoE)-Based Healthcare Monitoring Systems

• Published in: Mobile networks and applications 2021-06, Vol.26 (3), p.952-968
• Main Authors: Mardini, Wail, Aljawarneh, Shadi, Al-Abdi, Amnah
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Communications Engineering; Computer Communication Networks; Decision analysis; Electrical Engineering; Engineering; Health care; Internet; IT in Business; Monitoring; Monitoring systems; Network latency; Networks; Performance evaluation; Performance measurement; Routing (telecommunications); Systems analysis; Telemedicine; Wireless networks; Wireless sensor networks
• ISSN: 1383-469X; 1572-8153
• DOI: 10.1007/s11036-020-01662-9

In healthcare organizations such as hospitals, it is important to have an efficient healthcare monitoring system in which the patients’ vital signs are collected from multiple sensors and transformed into the decisions makers to be analyzed and take the appropriate actions. The IPv6 Routing Protocol for Low-Power and Lossy Networks (RPL) was developed to act as an appropriate routing protocol in new 6G and Internet of Everything (6G/IoE)-based networks with the underlying Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs). In the RPL, a set of nodes, which are connected and have a common objective, are grouped to represent an instance. This paper investigates the use of multiple RPL instances in healthcare monitoring systems to enhance the performance of such systems. The authors evaluate the performance of their proposed approach using Cooja simulator in terms of two key routing performance metrics: average Packet Delivery Ratio (PDR) and average latency. The results of the simulation showed that, by using the proposed approach, the performance of healthcare monitoring systems is enhanced in all cases, in terms of latency, from tens of seconds to less than one second.