Internet of Things for Smart Healthcare: Technologies, Challenges, and Opportunities

This research paper discusses the importance of IoT in the healthcare sector and the challenges related to data security and resource constraints. It proposes a novel authentication algorithm for IoT devices in healthcare that is light on resources and provides high security. The paper also reviews previous solutions and highlights the gap in research related to resource constraints in IoT.

Internet of Things for Smart Healthcare:
Technologies, Challenges, and Opportunities
Abstract
Background and Aim:
In the current context the Internet of Things has become a very important domain where
the sensors and the embedded systems are capable of connect to each other and are also
capable of exchanging data among them. The IoT devices has gained so much importance
in the last few decades as this has provided many advantages to most of the industries and
sectors which includes the healthcare sector also. The data of the IoT is very much critical
so it must be ensured that the data are always secured from external threats and hackers.
Thus in this aspects the security constrains are very much important to keep the data of IoT
safe from the hackers and the intruders. The nature of the IoT devices as a resource
requires authentication process for the data retrieval and this process of authentication does
not requires a high computing power. Thus getting brief aspects of the IoT devices in the
paper a brief discussion has been done on the usage of IoT in the healthcare sector. Here a
brief discussion has been done on the IoT and its importance regarding the development of
the wearable devices that can track the health regarding aspects of the human body.
Methodology:
Also, in the aspects of IoT in the healthcare industry a novel authentication process has
been proposed for the IoT devices. It has been assessed that the proposed architecture is
capable of providing a secure and a structure which is very much important for the
healthcare sectors. In this aspects the CoAP protocol has been dominated by the ECC
algorithm, thus CoAP has been used in this case.
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Results:
The proposed algorithm has integrated 256 bit encryption which ensures higher security
than previous models. Systems that provided 256 bit encryption has one problem and that
is slow authentication speed. This proposed algorithm is light on resource and hence
requires less time for authentication which is significant improvement than previous
models.
Conclusion:
The proposed mechanism of authentication is capable of providing an authentication
procedure with some high security. In previous proposed mechanisms, either designs were
not so accurate or it was so complex that it is not suitable for IOT environment.
Consideration of resource constraint in designing algorithm makes this proposed algorithm
different from another authentication algorithm as propped by other authors in their
previous research.
Keywords:
IOT, technology in healthcare, encryption, data security, resource constraint
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Introduction
1. Describe the uses of the technology (e.g. Mixed Reality), with the techniques (e.g. visualisation),
in your project domain (e.g. Medical domain). What is their purpose in that system (e.g. Image
Guided Surgery). How they achieved their purpose (Describe the generic process steps of the
system that uses this technology, linking with the components of your system, to show the
importance of these components in your project). What are the important of these components
into that technology.
Please notice that you need to add the reference for anything you write. (PS: Use red color to
address the underlined and bold requirements in this guidelines)
In this paper, the usage of the IoT for application in the healthcare sector and importance of security along
with resource constraint in IOT has been considered. Application and security aspect of IOT has been
reviewed and has been presented. From the discussion, it has been assessed that EEC keys are capable of
reducing the calculation requirement while it provides some powerful encryption process and it is better
compared with many types cryptography encryption procedures.
2. What is the technology that you are using in your project. How this technology has used in your
generic domain, and then how has used in your sub-domain. What are the limitations of this latest
technology in your sub-domain, and link the limitation with your goal and the improvement you
do.
Provide an introductory of the technology and the techniques that are used in your project, and
what are the different domains they used, and also what are their use related to your specific
domain.
Give the reasons that make these type of systems (The systems that include these technology with
the techniques) related to your projects haven't widely used. In this case, you are going to show
the motivation of working you on the components of your system (JUSTIFICATION).
Please notice that you need to add the reference for anything you write. (PS: Use red color to
address the underlined and bold requirements in this guidelines)
The wearable sensors are one of the most important and efficient devices in the aspect of internet of things in
health care devices (Azzawi, Hassan & Bakar, 2016). The wearable sensors has become very much important
in the current technological aspects as it provides accurate information about a health of a patient (Javdani &
Kashanian, 2017). The main purpose of this system is effectively monitoring various of aspects of human
body in real time which includes blood pressure, heart rate, flow of oxygen, etc. This system achieves its
purpose of gathering the data regarding human body through its integrated sensors which is directly
connected with the human body.
The main technology that has been used in this case is the wearable device technology which
effectively monitors biological aspects of the human body in the healthcare sector and for that IoT has been
leveraged in this case (Sankar, & Srinivasan, 2018). In the generic domain of healthcare system this
technology is used for measuring the blood pressures, heart rate, body temperature and many more things
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(Govinda & Saravanaguru, 2016). This technology is also very much useful for in the sub domain of
surgeries as this can provide information of the human body on a real time basis which is very much
important to monitor during the operating hours on a patient (Cook et al., 2018). The main limitation in this
case using a wearable gadget during the operation is not suitable.
3. What is the objective of your project, what are the important of classifying you the components in
your project, what is the gap that you found in other previous solution and you are going to solve,
and the important of your system output in your domain that you set.
What is the Objective/Goal of your work compared with current studies. Show the use of the
technology with Techniques in your specific domain. You need to show the link of this objective
with your system components (what do you propose, How your proposed system is going to
solve them). What is the purpose of this goal (The purpose of your system components).
(PS: Use red color to address the underlined and bold requirements in this guidelines)
The main objective of this project is making the healthcare sector more advance so that that various risks in
this sector can be minimised and more better health can be provided to the patients (Azzawi et al., 2016).
Classification of the used components is very much important so that they so that the users can effectively
understand how this system works actually. The main gap in this case is that previous wearable devices were
capable of measuring some basic properties of human bodies but in this case the proposed device is more
advanced and it is capable of measuring the blood pressure also of the human bodies which is actually a hard
task (Gubbi et al., 2015).
4. How you have chosen your previous solutions to work on them. JUSTIFY why you chosen some
papers out of all your collections to classify. What are the criteria that you used to verify your
system components (The criteria you used in your comparision).
(PS: Use red color to address the underlined and bold requirements in this guidelines)
In this case the previous solutions has been chosen regarding development of the wearable devices for
gaining an idea about the wearable devices in the context of healthcare devices and what type of innovation
has been done so far in this sector (Mishra et al., 2016). Some of the papers has been chosen out of a vast
number of papers for the proceeding with the further research as the selected paper was having more
relevancy with domain of the research while the other papers were only having some basic information about
the wearable device (Zhang et al., 2014).
5. What are the steps that you are going to consider in organising your paper?
For organizing the paper perfectly first the existing technologies on the wearable technologies must be
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evaluated properly. Then a survey has been taken of a hospital which uses this technology and it is asked to
them that how this technology has affected them and their responses has been recorded (Khoo, 2015). In the
further cases a brief analysis has been done on the responses and from there further discussion has been
started.
6. Give a definition to the technology that you are use in your specific domain, and show how the
technique is work with it.
The wearable technology in the healthcare sector is sort of some advanced devices which can effectively
track the healthcare record of the humans on a real time basis (Jing et al., 2014). This technology helps to
monitor various of aspects of a human body which includes body temperature, heart rate monitoring and
many more other aspects (Kim, 2017). In the domain of healthcare industry this is having a huge importance
as this helps the doctors to determine the health conditions quickly without much effort (Tewari & Gupta,
2017). This can be very much helpful for the emergency cases.
Literature Review
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1. Give an introductory about the GAP in previous studies to show the difference between your
work and other state of art solutions.
According to u Farooq et al. (2015), Most of the previous researches that has focused
on integrating IOT for application in healthcare that has only directed the focus on
authentication technology. However, algorithm proposed in this context is not analysed
in terms of resource constraints, which is an important criteria to consider, as resource
constraint is an important issue in the IOT environment (Yaqoob et al., 2017). however
as identified in the analysis , it is seen that no dedicated effort has been provided by the
previous researchers and hence there is a requirement to conduct extensive research on
this aspect as without properly identifying solution for dealing with resource
constraints in the IOT environment, it is not possible to propose effective
authentication algorithm for IOT application (Hassanalieragh et al., 2015). Here in this
context, an authentication algorithm has been proposed that addresses authentication
issues in IOT environment and this proposed algorithm is also light on resource, as it
does not require extensive computing resources and computing power.
2. Show how the state of art solutions classified their work?. List all your collections of your journal
papers you analysed in organised way. Provide the details of each including input, output,
components, technique process step of each system. Please be aware, that you need to consider
the components (factors /classes) you identified in the beginning in your project.
YANG, Hao & ZHANG (2016) have proposed a mutual authentication model for
securing devices in IOT environment. It is a modification of existing authentication
protocol that is based on RFID technique, which is applicable for database
implemented in distributed environment. The modification has been made to match
with IOT environment and. It consists of three important components such as backup
for each terminal devices integrated for controlling, integration of devices that monitors
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this controlling application and integration of an alarm system to notify about any
issues in the authentication process.
In another research paper, the authors have provided two phase authentication
protocol. It is a certification based authentication protocol. This protocol allows in two
way authentication, which means with this technology, it is possible to authenticate
both the IOT devices and the controlling station as well and allow for mutual
communication, and authentication at the same time.
In this research paper, the authors have proposed for an authentication algorithm that is
based on Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC). According to the authors, this method is
more secured and efficient as well compared to public key cryptography, which is not
that secure. The authors also specify that when considering application on healthcare
sector security needs to be ensured properly. Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) as
mentioned by the authors has smaller key seize and hence appropriate for IOT based
application. This protocol has three main components that is Registration phase, Pre-
computed and login phase and authentication phase. In Pre-computed, login phase, and
authentication phase, the IOT devices need to send a login request for authenticating
with the server. Authentication of the IOT devices with the server is decided in the
authentication phase. Once authentication of the devices are established with the server,
the devices are then allowed to login to the system and access system data through
internet.
In their research, Mahalle, Prasad, & Prasad (2014) have provided "Threshold
Cryptography-based Group Authentication (TCGA) scheme for the Internet of Things
(IoT)," for securing IOT devices. Here authentication of the IOT devices are done on
group communication model. However, this model of authentication is only applicable
for Wi-Fi environment. Hence, this model is not possible to extend to environment
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where different communication technology is considered.it generates a secret key for
which is also known as session key. Different session key is generated for different
group communication so that it is possible to manage each group communication
independently.
S. R. Moosavi et al. (2015) have proposed for SEA, which is a “Secure, and Efficient
Authentication and Authorization Architecture” for IoT-Based Healthcare and this
mechanism is developed with Smart Gateways. This mechanism is based on
“certificate-based DTLS handshake protocol”.
3. After presenting all your collections of journal papers you analysed, Then chose the first best
solution, and explain it in details. The best solution should be selected based on your project
objective and your proposed components.
Simulate the selected solution as a diagram and refer to it in your content. Describe this model as
a text as well. Consider in your presentation the components of it, and also show the example of
each component, and also explain it.
Add caption for each figure under figure title to describe the figure.
Both CoAP and ECC protocol has some benefits as well as some drawback and hence
the proposed mechanism has combined both this protocol. An ECC authentication
mechanism over CoAP connection has been deployed here. Combination of both these
protocols has helped in optimizing overhead associated with IOT network. Due to this,
it is possible to reduce communication and processing power that is required for IOT
device authentication, which ensures enhanced security.
The proposed authentication method consist of four stages that is required for execution
of this algorithm.
Stage1: it is the initialization phase. Here Control system provides a private key along
with a public key that is required for communication using ECC.
Stage2: registration of the devices is done in this phase. This phase includes the pre
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authentication process where it is checked if the device in consideration is already
authenticated with the IOT network or not and this process is done over CoAP. Control
station, which is an important part of the network, checks the associated device ID to
identify if any corresponding entry has been considered for it. If this is not done, in
order to authenticate the devices, a strong password is generated with associated device
ID that is unique for a specific device. The private key generated in this process acts as
a password for encryption and this password is stored in the IOT devices.
Stage3: it is also known as Mutual authentication stage. IoT enabled device, needs
appropriate password for generation of authentication key. Once the process to generate
authentication key is completed, it is then sent to control system. This is executed when
the control system try to connect with the server. Control system generates this
authentication key and corresponding IOT entries is stored in the control system that is
associated with the IOT device.
Stage4: all traffic that pass between different IoT devices and control station is secured
with encryption. This encryption is done to provide protection to the IOT devices from
various cyber security crimes that are often targeted at IOT devices for easy
vulnerability and ease of execution due to lack of proper security measures.
4. What the previous state of art publications done, and what are their limitations (GAP), and what
you will do in your work, and why you design it in this way (JUSTIFY). (Show the differences
between the previous state of art publications and your proposed solution to show the motivation
of working you in these New components)
Consideration of resource constraint in designing algorithm makes this proposed
algorithm different from another authentication algorithm as proposed by other authors
in their previous research. Most of the research papers on this topic has described one
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factor for IOT environment and that is security of information.
Although security of IOT devices are important, it is important to note that only
increasing authentication bit is not enough, it is required to consider authentication
speed as well. In addition to that, consideration of resource constraint is also an
important design constraint. Hence, improvement is required in algorithm design,
which provide motivation for this research.
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