Trustworthiness Management Through Social Relationships in Internet of Medical Things

Abstract

In recent years, the Internet of Things (IoT) paradigm has been introduced, getting attention as an emerging technology, built upon pervasive connectivity of objects in heterogeneous networks. In this context, biomedical networks are supporting biomedical environments, with many biomedical devices named objects, that are able to interact with each other and collaborate in order to achieve a common objective (diagnosis, treatment, and monitoring, patient rehabilitation). For this scenario, we use the concept of Internet of Medical Things (IoMT), as well the challenges to develop trustworthiness networks to exchange data in a biomedical environment. We propose a model to manage trustworthiness for IoMT networks based on social network concepts and priority criteria. Our model is based on a trust recommendation index, computed using the proposed trustworthiness management protocol. We analyze the effect of our protocol and demonstrate its effectiveness simulating an IoMT scenario, with improvements when analyzing the relationships establishment and network performance, also considering data and services exchanges.