A protocol architecture for energy efficient and pervasive eHealth systems

The design of new and more pervasive healthcare systems has been fostered by the increased expectancy of life in the coming years. In this field, distributed and networked wireless embedded systems, such as Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs), suit well with the requirements of continuous monitoring of aged people for their own safety, without affecting their daily activities. WSN4QoL is a Marie Curie project which involves academic and industrial partners from three EU countries, and aims to propose new WSN-based technologies to meet the specific requirements of pervasive healthcare applications. This paper focuses on presenting a protocol stack architecture designed to support the solutions proposed in that project to enhance energy efficiency.