Policy-based Management for Body-Sensor Networks

Body sensor networks e.g., for health monitoring, consist of several low-power on-body wireless sensors, higher-level devices such as PDAs and possibly actuators such as drug delivery pumps. It is important that such networks can adapt autonomously to changing conditions such as failures, changes in context e.g., user activity, or changes in the clinical condition of patients. Potential reconfiguration actions include changing the monitoring thresholds on sensors, the analysis algorithms or the configuration of the network itself. This paper presents a policy-based approach for autonomous management of body-sensor networks using the concept of a SelfManaged Cell (SMC). Ponder2 is an implementation of this approach that permits the specification and enforcement of policies that facilitate management and adaptation of the response to changing conditions. A Tiny Policy Interpreter has also been developed in order to provide programmable decision-making capability for BSN nodes. Keywords—Autonomic management, adaptive sensing, policy-based adaptation, reconfigurable networks.