Development of an IoT-Enabled Smart Healthcare Monitoring System Using Wireless Sensor Networks

Abstract

Continuous monitoring of physiological parameters can support early detection of abnormal conditions, reduce unnecessary hospital visits, and extend healthcare services to homes and remote locations. This methodology paper develops an Internet of Things (IoT)-enabled smart healthcare monitoring architecture based on a low-power wireless sensor network (WSN). The proposed system acquires heart rate, blood oxygen saturation (SpO2), body temperature, and optional electrocardiogram signals through wearable or bedside sensors. Sensor nodes perform basic validation and threshold screening before forwarding encrypted measurements over IEEE 802.15.4/ZigBee to an edge gateway. The gateway aggregates packets, timestamps records, performs rule-based alert generation, and publishes data through MQTT over a secure Internet connection to a cloud database and clinician dashboard. A reproducible simulation-based evaluation is defined using synthetic vital-sign streams, avoiding the use of identifiable patient data. Performance is assessed through packet-delivery ratio, end-to-end latency, alert-delivery success, scalability, and node energy consumption under 5-, 10-, and 15-node loads. The simulated results indicate packet-delivery ratios above 98% across all tested loads, while mean latency remains below 150 ms at the highest load. The methodology therefore demonstrates how WSN communication, edge processing, and IoT services can be integrated into a practical healthcare-monitoring workflow while emphasizing energy efficiency, reliability, privacy, and clinical usability. The architecture is intended as a research prototype rather than a substitute for certified medical-device validation.