Operating Secure Mobile Healthcare Services over Constrained Resource Networks

Constrained resource (lossy) networks are characterized by low-power and low-processing capability devices. Using lossy networks for service provision is a good approach to overcoming the technological constraints that characterize remote and rural areas of developing regions. In this chapter, we propose a framework for provisioning Healthcare-as-a-mobile-service over lossy networks, as a cost-effective approach to healthcare management in remote and rural areas of developing regions. The framework allows Healthcare providers collect and share patient data obtained via body sensors that periodically report health status information. Queries can be run locally on a mobile device when the stored copy, say on a cloud, is not accessible. Since mobile storage capacity limitations can be problematic for maintaining data consistency, we propose a storage management framework based on data fragmentation and caching. The fragmentation scheme classifies data according to confidentiality and affinity. While caching optimizes mobile storage by prioritizing data fragments in terms of frequency of access. Our experimental results demonstrate that our data fragmentation and caching algorithms are scalable to varied bandwidth and download rates. The battery power consumption is reasonable with respect to bandwidth variations.