An end-to-end middleware solution with multiple concurrent applications support for wireless body area networks

WSNs have gained increasing attention for monitoring various parameters of interest for a wide variety of applications, ranging from environmental conditions to healthcare. WSNs aimed at medical and healthcare applications are known as Wireless Body Area Network or WBANs. WSNs are very resource-constraint and mostly deployed in environments where physical access is difficult or impossible. WBANs however lack those limitations as they are easy to reach and their energy sources, e.g. batteries, can be recharged frequently. In terms of software, existing solutions for both WSNs and WBANs are either tightly-coupled hardware and software or very application-specific. Such diversity introduces many challenges for application developers. In this paper we will demonstrate how Sensomax, which is an agent-based multi-application WSN middleware, can be an ideal candidate for healthcare application, where multiple subjects such as patients and elderlies need to be monitored simultaneously. Our proposed architecture runs on Java (SE and ME) programming platforms for easy task distribution and data gathering with integrated supports for multiple concurrent applications, dynamic reprogramming, good scalability, and multiple operational paradigms.