A Comprehensive Review of Graceful Degradation in Remote Healthcare Adhoc Wireless Sensor Networks
Keywords:
Adhoc wireless sensor networks, Error detection, Medical sensor, Multi-modal sensing, Remote healthcareAbstract
Remote healthcare monitoring systems rely heavily on Adhoc Wireless Sensor Networks to provide continuous, real-time data on patient health, enabling proactive medical interventions and chronic disease management. However, these networks are often deployed in unpredictable, dynamic environments and are subject to a wide range of failures, including sensor malfunctions, battery depletion, and network congestion. Graceful degradation the ability of a system to maintain its most essential functions even when some components fail is critical for ensuring patient safety and data integrity in these high-stakes medical applications. This review article provides a comprehensive and investigative analysis of graceful degradation strategies in remote healthcare WSNs, focusing on recent advancements and technological innovations from 2021 to 2026. The authors examine the fundamental architectural requirements for resilience, the multi-stage fault tolerance mechanisms for medical sensors, and the integration of emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), edge computing, and the Internet of Things (IoT) to enhance system robustness. By synthesizing findings from popular recent studies, this article identifies key challenges, such as the energy-reliability trade-off and security vulnerabilities, and outlines future directions for developing more dependable, adaptive, and human-centric remote monitoring systems. The findings underscore the critical importance of multi-modal sensing, decentralized management, and explainable degradation in achieving high reliability and seamless performance under adverse conditions, ultimately ensuring that the care for the patient remains uninterrupted regardless of technical challenges.
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