Three-dimensional Markov Chain Model to Help Reduce the Spread of COVID-19 in IoT Environment

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has spread with alarming speed and resulted in substantial loss of lives. In the COVID-19 pandemic response, the Internet of Things (IoT) technology provides an extensive integrated network of IoT devices to prevent the spread of contagion. Rapid access of the data transmitted by COVID-19 IoT devices simply means better decision-making and better response plans. Unfortunately, packets collision further delays the arrival of that data and thus the large-wide spreading of the pandemic. In this paper, we propose an approach that ensures fast and successful transmission of the data transmitted by COVID-19 IoT devices in a scenario comprising other types of IoT devices. We have proposed a three-dimensional Markov chain for modeling the proposed IoT network. Detailed mathematical expressions of the average throughput of transmitted packets, the average delay of transmitted packets, the average throughput of the backlogged packets, and the average delay of backlogged packets are given in order to compare the performance of each type of IoT devices. Numerical results show that our approach achieves a significant throughput increase and a low average delay for COVID-19 IoT devices due to the priority channel access given to that type of devices. Thereby mitigating the spread of the pandemic.