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G. Fersi
healthcare applications are compelled to deal with medical devices having different protocols, various capabilities and working with different standards. These
devices are also mobile and prone to failure. So it is important to conceive a
layer between the physical devices and the application layer that hides all these
diversities and deals with these challenges transparently to the end devices. This
layer is called middleware [15]. We study in this paper the various middleware
that have been proposed for IoHT and discuss them.
Our paper is organized as follows: We present in the second section a study of
the existing middleware for IoHT. In the third section, we discuss the proposed
solutions. And finally, section four concludes the paper.
2 Existing Middleware for IoHT and Their Corresponding
Applications
We present in this section the most important middleware that have been proposed during these last years for the IoHT. We propose to classify them according
to their main technical directives.
2.1 Fog-Based Middleware
Fog computing is considered by many researches as a middleware between the
IoT and the cloud computing. This intermediate layer [3] reduces drastically the
latency and affords the required processing and storage needs to the healthcare
IoT devices. Effectively, many healthcare situations require a timely reaction. A
IoT security middleware for use between IoT, fog and cloud computing, has been
proposed in [4]. The main aim of this middleware is to ensure security and better
network performance during churns. ‘Session resumption’ algorithm has been
used by the authors to help a recently disconnected node to regain its encrypted
session. This middleware can be applied in rural healthcare and public safety
applications. In [5], fog nodes that are placed near to the patient’s location will
host a privacy middleware that ensures the user’s privacy. In these nodes, data
are stocked in clear and are accessed rapidly. Authors in [6] argue that using fogbased middleware in healthcare ensures the agregation of data that are generated
from the patients with ensuring their privacy and confidentiality. Hence, this will
lighten the burden of security processing in IoT healthcare devices.
2.2 Publish/Subscribe-Based Middleware
The multiplicity of events in the healthcare domain favors the use of Publish/Subscribe middleware due to their ability to deliver asynchronously multiple
events from their sources to their subscribers. In [7], an IoT middleware has been
proposed to help people with special needs. In this middleware, there is only one
powerful component (NCeH) that will be deployed to every node that belongs to
the network, in order to have a uniform configuration. This component is made
up of various modules that ensure the communication between it and the other
G. Fersi
healthcare applications are compelled to deal with medical devices having different protocols, various capabilities and working with different standards. These
devices are also mobile and prone to failure. So it is important to conceive a
layer between the physical devices and the application layer that hides all these
diversities and deals with these challenges transparently to the end devices. This
layer is called middleware [15]. We study in this paper the various middleware
that have been proposed for IoHT and discuss them.
Our paper is organized as follows: We present in the second section a study of
the existing middleware for IoHT. In the third section, we discuss the proposed
solutions. And finally, section four concludes the paper.
2 Existing Middleware for IoHT and Their Corresponding
Applications
We present in this section the most important middleware that have been proposed during these last years for the IoHT. We propose to classify them according
to their main technical directives.
2.1 Fog-Based Middleware
Fog computing is considered by many researches as a middleware between the
IoT and the cloud computing. This intermediate layer [3] reduces drastically the
latency and affords the required processing and storage needs to the healthcare
IoT devices. Effectively, many healthcare situations require a timely reaction. A
IoT security middleware for use between IoT, fog and cloud computing, has been
proposed in [4]. The main aim of this middleware is to ensure security and better
network performance during churns. ‘Session resumption’ algorithm has been
used by the authors to help a recently disconnected node to regain its encrypted
session. This middleware can be applied in rural healthcare and public safety
applications. In [5], fog nodes that are placed near to the patient’s location will
host a privacy middleware that ensures the user’s privacy. In these nodes, data
are stocked in clear and are accessed rapidly. Authors in [6] argue that using fogbased middleware in healthcare ensures the agregation of data that are generated
from the patients with ensuring their privacy and confidentiality. Hence, this will
lighten the burden of security processing in IoT healthcare devices.
2.2 Publish/Subscribe-Based Middleware
The multiplicity of events in the healthcare domain favors the use of Publish/Subscribe middleware due to their ability to deliver asynchronously multiple
events from their sources to their subscribers. In [7], an IoT middleware has been
proposed to help people with special needs. In this middleware, there is only one
powerful component (NCeH) that will be deployed to every node that belongs to
the network, in order to have a uniform configuration. This component is made
up of various modules that ensure the communication between it and the other