DAPHNE: A disruption-tolerant application proxy for e-health network environments

Abstract

Future health informatics for personalized e-Health services rely on innovative technologies and systems for transparent and continuous collection of evidence-based medical information at any time, from anywhere, and despite the coverage and availability of communication means. We explore Disruption and Delay Tolerant Networking (DTN) as a novel approach for next-generation e-Health information exchange where end-to-end homogeneous networking connectivity is not available. This setting can occur in both rural and urban environments and in both disaster events and normal day-to-day life. The ability of DTN to provide in-transit persistent information storage allows the uninterruptible provision of crucial e-Health services overcoming network instabilities, incompatibilities, or even absence for a long duration. We further describe the integration efforts for a DTN proxy on an e-Health application and discuss experiences and lessons learned. © Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering 2013.