A Resilient Edge-Fog-Cloud IoT Architecture For Infant Health Monitoring In Resource-Constrained Community Settings: The IoT-CKS Model

Christophe KUNGUNIKO SOLA, José Emmanuel, MATA NTOMBO

Abstract


Background: Infant health monitoring in resource-constrained community settings is challenged by intermittent connectivity, unstable power supply, and limited technical resources. Architectures that depend predominantly on remote Cloud services may therefore lose important functions during communication disruptions. Methods: This study used a Design Science Research approach to develop IoT-CKS, a requirements-driven Edge-Fog-Cloud architecture for infant health monitoring, using Mbanza-Ngungu in the Democratic Republic of the Congo as the reference context. Contextual constraints were translated into system requirements, design principles, functional allocation, architectural models, and implementation-oriented technology choices. Results: The resulting architecture distributes physiological data acquisition, preprocessing, local evaluation of predefined abnormal measurement conditions, immediate local alerting, and temporary storage to the Edge layer; aggregation, messaging, communication management, and delayed synchronization to the Fog layer; and persistent storage, broader analysis, visualization, supervision, and administration to the Cloud layer. The design explicitly supports degraded local operation during temporary connectivity loss and recovery through delayed synchronization after reconnection. Conclusion: The contribution of IoT-CKS lies not in the individual Edge, Fog, Cloud, MQTT, or sensing technologies, but in their traceable, context-aware integration into a resilience-oriented architecture. The model provides a structured foundation for subsequent prototype implementation, technical evaluation, field assessment, and eventual clinical validation.

Keywords


Design Science Research; distributed computing; service continuity; local autonomy; delayed synchronization; biomedical sensing; offline operation; community healthcare.

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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.52155/ijpsat.v59.1.8678

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