Secure and Reliable Medical Data Offloading in Mobile Edge Computing Leveraging Software Defined Networking and Blockchain

Abstract

The volume of medical data is growing rapidly due to the increasing popularity of the Internet of Things and other sophisticated medical devices, making medical data processing more and more difficult. As healthcare systems become increasingly data- driven, the need for secure and real-time access to patient information has grown significantly particularly during emergencies and critical procedures. However, the limited processing capacity of traditional hospital infrastructure makes it challenging to manage and transmit the large volumes of data generated by IoT-based medical devices. In this work, we present a framework that securely and reliably offloads patient data using a combination of Software-Defined Networking (SDN), Blockchain, and Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) technologies. Using mobile edge computing, cloud computing processing capacity can be distributed and mapped closer to users at the network edge, allowing healthcare systems to offload data efficiently. The proposed system enables healthcare data to be offloaded to nearby edge nodes with minimal delay, while ensuring that only authorized individuals such as doctors with patient consent can access or modify the information. SDN intelligently selects the best network paths based on real-time bandwidth and latency, while smart contracts deployed on the Ethereum blockchain manage access control, consent verification, emergency overrides, and data logging. However, ensuring reliability of offloading is critical because failure to process medical data may have catastrophic effects. Similarly, ensuring privacy and security of medical data is another challenge that needs to be addressed. We developed a three-layer architecture involving IoT devices, edge nodes, and the blockchain, and implemented modular smart contracts for various healthcare tasks, including usage tracking and ML model validation. Performance was evaluated using NS-3 for SDN simulation and Remix IDE for smart contract testing. Results show that our approach improved reliability, achieving a 96.5% packet delivery ratio, a 99.8% data integrity (hash match) rate, and a 24% reduction in average latency compared to traditional models. This demonstrates the potential of SDN and blockchain in making healthcare data offloading both secure and efficient.