Load Balancing Algorithm for Efficient and Reliable IoT Communications within E-Health Environment

The objective of the work carried out in this paper is to propose a novel load balancing algorithm that adapts the functioning of transport layer to the characteristics of the IoT (Internet of Things) communications when applied to e-health applications. The proposed algorithm is called LBA-Ie (Load Balancing Algorithm for IoT communications within e-health environment) and it is based on the integration of IoT communication parameters in the flow control process supported by TCP (Transmission Control Protocol). LBA-Ie is self-organized and adaptive algorithm by taking into account the changes occurred within the network, the links situations and the objects parameters. LBA-Ie is evaluated in terms of QoS (Quality of Service) and energy efficiency. The simulation results are compared to those obtained by three other solutions. LBA-Ie improves the QoS of IoT communications by increasing the data reliability which improves then the e-health applications. LBA-Ie allows also economizing the consumed energy by the objects and increase then their average lifetime.