title: Cognitive LF-Ant: a novel protocol for healthcare wireless sensor networks.
abstract: In this paper, the authors present the Cognitive LF-Ant protocol for emergency reporting in healthcare wireless sensor networks. The protocol is inspired by the natural behaviour of ants and a cognitive component provides the capabilities to dynamically allocate resources, in accordance with the emergency degree of each patient. The intra-cluster emergency reporting is inspired by the different capabilities of leg-manipulated ants. The inter-cluster reporting is aided by the cooperative modulation diversity with spectrum sensing, which can detect new emergency reporting requests and forward them. Simulations results show the decrease of average delay time as the probability of opportunistic access increases, which privileges the emergency reporting related to the patients with higher priority of resources' usage. Furthermore, the packet loss rate is decreased by the use of cooperative modulation diversity with spectrum sensing.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Advanced Studies in Communications (Iecom), Federal University of Campina Grande (UFCG), Campina Grande 58429-900, Brazil. marcelo.portela@ee.ufcg.edu.br
authors.forename: Marcelo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sousa
authors.forename: Waslon
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Lopes
authors.forename: Francisco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Madeiro
authors.forename: Marcelo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Alencar
mesh_terms: D016000:Cluster Analysis; D003195:Computer Communication Networks; D003198:Computer Simulation; D017143:Fuzzy Logic; D006801:Humans; D008991:Monitoring, Physiologic / Q000379:methods*; D017216:Telemedicine / Q000379:methods*; D013686:Telemetry / Q000379:methods*; D059015:Wireless Technology
keywords: ant colony optimization; fuzzy inference; healthcare networks; opportunistic access; wireless sensor networks