A Distributed and Adaptive Routing Protocol Designed for Wireless Sensor Networks Deployed in Clinical Environments

The effects of Electro-Magnetic Interference (EMI) on operations of sensitive medical devices have been recognized as a critical concern related to safety in hospitals and healthcare institutions. This paper proposes an adaptive and distributed routing protocol that attempts to reduce the EMI introduced by a Medical Wireless Sensor Network (MWSN). The proposed algorithm, namely EMI-aware Routing protocol (EMIR), assigns to each node a potential value which is dynamically calculated in such a way that network traffic tends to be deflected from nodes that are radiating high EMI and/or locating far away from gateways.