Relay sensor networks are often employed in end-to-end healthcare applications
to facilitate the information flow between patient worn sensors and the medical data center.
Medium access control (MAC) protocols, based on random linear network coding (RLNC),
are a novel and suitable approach to efficiently handle data dissemination. However, several
challenges arise, such as additional delays introduced by the intermediate relay nodes and
decoding failures, due to channel errors. In this paper, we tackle these issues by adopting
a cloud architecture where the set of relays is connected to a coordinating entity, called
cloud manager. We propose a cloud-assisted RLNC-based MAC protocol (CLNC-MAC) and
develop a mathematical model for the calculation of the key performance metrics, namely
the system throughput, the mean completion time for data delivery and the energy efficiency.
We show the importance of central coordination in fully exploiting the gain of RLNC under
error-prone channels.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author’s final draft
