How to Implement Remote Patient Monitoring in NS2

To implement Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM) in NS2 has includes to mimic a wireless network in which the sensor nodes observes a patient’s vital signs and transfer the information to a central node (gateway or base station), that forwards it to a remote server for medical analysis. This setup can contain the regular data transmission such as heartbeat, temperature and emergency data transmission when abnormal conditions are classified. The given below is the detailed procedure to implement the remote patient monitoring in ns2:

Step-by-Step Implementation:

  1. Key Components for Remote Patient Monitoring in NS2
  • Sensors: Wearable or implantable devices that gathers patient data, like heart rate, temperature, or blood pressure.
  • Gateway/Base Station: gathers information from the sensors and forwards it to the remote server.
  • Emergency Alert: If sensor data exceeds certain thresholds, emergency alerts are created and routed with higher priority.
  1. Steps to Implement Remote Patient Monitoring in NS2
  1. Create Nodes for Sensors: These nodes mimic sensors monitoring vital signs.
  2. Set up Gateway Nodes: A gateway gathers sensor data and sends it to a remote location.
  3. Simulate Traffic (regular and emergency): To mimic normal data transmission along with emergency situations.
  4. Analyze Performance: Evaluate packet delivery, delay, and reliability for the monitoring system.

Step 1: Define Patient Sensor Nodes in TCL

Initiate by describing the nodes that behave as patient sensors. Each sensor node will create different types of data like heart rate, temperature, etc. and send it to a gateway.

# Create a simulator instance

set ns [new Simulator]

# Create trace and nam files for output

set tracefile [open remote_patient_monitoring.tr w]

set namfile [open remote_patient_monitoring.nam w]

$ns trace-all $tracefile

$ns namtrace-all $namfile

# Define network topology (500×500 meter simulation area)

set topo [new Topography]

$topo load_flatgrid 500 500

# Create the General Operations Director (GOD)

set god_ [create-god 5]

# Define wireless channel and propagation model

set chan [new Channel/WirelessChannel]

Phy/WirelessPhy set CSThresh_ 1.0e-10  ;# Carrier sensing threshold

# Create nodes for sensor and gateway

set heart_rate_node [$ns node]

set temperature_node [$ns node]

set bp_node [$ns node]

set gateway_node [$ns node]

# Set initial positions for the nodes (close proximity simulates a body area network)

$heart_rate_node set X_ 100

$heart_rate_node set Y_ 100

$temperature_node set X_ 120

$temperature_node set Y_ 100

$bp_node set X_ 140

$bp_node set Y_ 100

$gateway_node set X_ 200

$gateway_node set Y_ 200

Step 2: Implement Data Transmission from Sensors to Gateway

Each sensor generates periodic data that is sent to the gateway. The data can be regular monitoring data, like heart rate, temperature, or blood pressure.

# Function to transmit data from a sensor to the gateway

proc transmit_sensor_data {sensor_node gateway_node data_interval packet_size} {

global ns

# Create UDP agents for sensor node and gateway

set udp_sensor [new Agent/UDP]

set null_gateway [new Agent/Null]

$ns attach-agent $sensor_node $udp_sensor

$ns attach-agent $gateway_node $null_gateway

# Create CBR traffic for the sensor data (constant bit rate)

set cbr_sensor [new Application/Traffic/CBR]

$cbr_sensor set packetSize_ $packet_size

$cbr_sensor set interval_ $data_interval  ;# Interval for data transmission

$cbr_sensor attach-agent $udp_sensor

# Connect the sensor to the gateway

$ns connect $udp_sensor $null_gateway

# Start data transmission

$ns at 1.0 “$cbr_sensor start”

}

# Transmit heart rate data (512 bytes every 1 second)

transmit_sensor_data $heart_rate_node $gateway_node 1.0 512

# Transmit temperature data (512 bytes every 2 seconds)

transmit_sensor_data $temperature_node $gateway_node 2.0 512

# Transmit blood pressure data (512 bytes every 3 seconds)

transmit_sensor_data $bp_node $gateway_node 3.0 512

Step 3: Simulate Emergency Data Transmission

When abnormal sensor readings are identified such as heart rate exceeds a threshold, emergency data is created and routed with higher priority.

# Function to transmit emergency data

proc transmit_emergency_data {sensor_node gateway_node} {

global ns

# Create UDP agents for emergency data

set udp_emer [new Agent/UDP]

set null_gateway [new Agent/Null]

$ns attach-agent $sensor_node $udp_emer

$ns attach-agent $gateway_node $null_gateway

# Create CBR traffic for emergency data (larger packet size, faster interval)

set cbr_emer [new Application/Traffic/CBR]

$cbr_emer set packetSize_ 1024  ;# Emergency data size

$cbr_emer set interval_ 0.1     ;# Fast transmission interval

$cbr_emer attach-agent $udp_emer

# Connect the sensor to the gateway

$ns connect $udp_emer $null_gateway

# Start emergency data transmission

$ns at 1.0 “$cbr_emer start”

}

# Simulate an emergency condition after 5 seconds

$ns at 5.0 “transmit_emergency_data $heart_rate_node $gateway_node”

Step 4: End the Simulation and Analyse Results

End the replication after a set period and close the trace files.

# End the simulation after 100 seconds

$ns at 100.0 “finish”

# Procedure to finish the simulation

proc finish {} {

global ns tracefile namfile

close $tracefile

close $namfile

$ns halt

}

# Run the simulation

$ns run

  1. Explanation of the Script
  • Sensor Nodes: The script describes numerous sensor nodes that replicate monitoring various vital signs like heart rate, temperature, and blood pressure.
  • Data Transmission: Each sensor node creates data periodically and sends it to the gateway using CBR traffic. The transmission intervals are defined according to the type of data.
  • Emergency Data: If abnormal conditions are identified like high heart rate, the sensor sends emergency data with a larger packet size and faster transmission interval.
  • Gateway: The gateway node gathers the information from the sensors and behaves as a central node for forwarding the data to a remote server (not simulated in NS2).
  1. Running the Simulation
  1. Save the script as remote_patient_monitoring.tcl.
  2. Execute the simulation using the following command:

ns remote_patient_monitoring.tcl

  1. Analysing the Results
  • After executing the simulation, measure the trace file (remote_patient_monitoring.tr) and the NAM file (remote_patient_monitoring.nam) to assess the performance of the RPM system.
  • Metrics to observe:
    • Packet Delivery Ratio: evaluate on how efficiently the packets are delivered from sensors to the gateway.
    • Latency: measure the latency among the generation of data and its reception at the gateway, particularly for emergency data.
    • Throughput: Asses on how much data is successfully routed over time that has regular and emergency data.
  1. Further Enhancements
  • Energy Efficiency: We can expand the simulation to design energy consumption for sensor nodes, as this is critical in real-world remote patient monitoring systems.
  • Mobility: execute mobility for the patient or healthcare personnel to mimic realistic scenarios in which the nodes move during data transmission.
  • Advanced Routing Protocols: Use cutting-edge routing protocols like an AODV or DSR for routing the data in multi-hop network topologies.
  • Real-Time Monitoring: Expand the simulation to mimic real-time analytics and data processing at the gateway or remote server.

The above procedures have collected the valuable insights that including snippet codes and future enhancement that talks about how to replicate the functionalities of the Remote Patient Monitoring that were executes in ns2 environment. If you want excellent outcomes with Remote Patient Monitoring, contact the ns2project.com team. We also assist with regular data updates like heartbeat, temperature, and emergency information for your project.