Medical Applications of Wireless Sensor Networks: Who-Did-What - Application and Multidisciplinary Aspects of Wireless Sensor Networks - page 166

Fig. 8.2 Possible issues of EXMAs
Power management is the most important part of any WSNs' infrastructure,
because of the fact that energy is limited. Data sampling and data processing are
energy consuming, but the biggest energy part is consumed by data transfer.
Designers of sensor nets must accurately define how the data will be transferred
through the network, in order to conserve energy as much as possible.
Communication protocols are another type of technical issue. Well-structured
protocols aim to resolve all the problems engineers are faced with. This includes
power management, but also reliability and security, and other problems like
congestion avoidance, load balancing, real-time services, etc. The stated concepts
are real problems in the world of sensor nets, and improvement in this area is a
crucial part of research.
Security could be referred as a technical, but also as a social issue. Data security
and privacy must be provided in order to achieve acceptance of WSNs' technology.
People are not willing to share their privacy, so different encryption techniques are
used to secure data transfer through sensor networks. In case of medical applica-
tions, security of transferred data can be compared to doctors' ethic.
Besides security, social issues refer to general sensor nets' impact on social life.
This technology must be well fitted into existing infrastructures. Earlier, we have
mentioned that first designs of sensor nodes were quite large and that it was not
satisfactory. New devices are small, but miniaturization process aims to produce
even smaller and well-designed nodes. Nowadays, people carry a number of
devices, mobile phones, i-pods, GPS devices, so the list expansion should not be a
problem, as long as new devices fit the profile.
Personal issues have a physical and a psychic face. Sensor nets, in any way,
may not harm patients' health. At this point, it is important to have in mind that
WSNs aim to improve patients' lives and not to compromise them.