A conceptual framework of WMN enabled WBAN system for pilgrims' health monitoring during Hajj in the Kingdom Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Due to the hardship of expedition, instability, and fluctuation of rough weather, continuous walking, hassle and mental stress during the Hajj at Makkah in Saudi Arabia, many pilgrims get injured, sick and tired. Besides, those who are suffering from various chronic diseases may also contract severe heart, chest, abdominal, and kidney diseases along with some infectious diseases like influenza and thus complicate the overall physiological functions of the patients. Other than the problems of diseases, overcrowd at religious sites also cause other noteworthy problems including trauma, missing and lost pilgrims, and even death. And so, it is a vital issue and a big challenge to provide the best healthcare facilities and services for pilgrims and their real-time monitoring during Hajj. Wireless body area network (WBAN) is a promising technology for healthcare. But, providing suitable communication network between WBAN and healthcare providers is another challenging issue. Modern information and communication technology (ICT) systems can make it feasible that WBANs will connect itself to the Internet to transmit data and efficiently administer the proper delivery of healthcare services among the pilgrims during Hajj. Therefore, integration of the medical technology and ICT in the healthcare sector is a prominent research issue especially for WBAN. However, the coverage of a WBAN is limited to only about 1-2 meter. Therefore, to largely extend its coverage area it should interwork with other wireless networks which will facilitate connectivity between those sensor devices of WBAN and the outside world. Due to the limitations of self-expandable, selfconfiguring and self-healing nature of other existing conventional wireless communication technologies, wireless mesh network (WMN) is the suitable and potential communication technology for transferring pilgrims' health information to the healthcare stations crowd environment at Hajj ritual sites. WMN, due to its self-expandable nature can be deployed with WBAN during Hajj for pilgrims' health monitoring which requires extending the coverage of the environment. Therefore, the main objective of this research is to design a conceptual healthcare framework for pilgrims' health monitoring during Hajj by integrating WBAN and WMN technologies.