wilamowski-b-m-irwin-j-d-industrial-communication-systems-2011

Communications in Medical Applications 30-3
TABLE 30.1
Communication Requirements of Medical Applications
Monitoring
Automation
Parameters
Localization
Healthcare
Institutions Home Smart Homes
Range LAN LAN LAN LAN LAN
Healthcare
Robotics
PAN
PAN
BAN
BAN
Topology Star Star Star Bus Star
Tree Tree Tree Tree Tree
Mesh Mesh Mesh Mesh Mesh
Number of nodes 1–2000 1–2000 1–10 10–100 1–10
Autonomy Days Days/weeks Days/weeks Years Days/weeks
Maximum latency (ms) 10 10 200 500 5
Maximum jitter 100.μs 100.μs 1.ms 100.ms 100.μs
TABLE 30.2
Information Rate of Physiological Signals
Biomedical Measurement
Number
of Sensors Sample Rate (Hz) Resolution (B/Sample) Information Rate (B/S)
Arterial pressure 1 300 12 3,600
Body temperature 1+ 5 16 80
Electrocardiogram (ECG) 5–9 1,250 12 15,000
Electroencephalogram (EEG) 20 350 12 4,200
Electromyogram (EMG) 2+ 50,000 12 600,000
Electrooculogram (EOG) 4 100 12 1,200
Heart rate 2 25 24 600
Heart sound 2–4 10,000 12 120,000
Oximetry 1 150 12 1,800
Respiratory rate 1 50 16 800
Sources:. Arnon, S. et al., IEEE Wirel. Commun., 10(1), 56, 2003; Monton, E. et al., IET Commun., 2(2), 215, 2008;
Gama, O. et al., Quality of service support in wireless sensor networks for emergency healthcare services, in 30th Annual
International Conference of the IEEE (EMBS2008), Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, August 20–25, 2008,
pp. 1296–1299.
Regarding throughput, Table 30.2 [3–5] provides information on the typical amount of data produced
by physiological signals in monitoring applications. The throughput associated with either localization
or automation applications is highly dependent on the particular scenario addressed. For example,
in receiver signal strength (RSS)-based localization systems, each device being periodically localized
transmits a packet with a small payload. However, the transmission rate is dependent on the update rate
required by the localization system. Appliance networking in smart homes is another example of varied
throughput requirements given its high dependence on human activity. Nevertheless, these throughput
requirements are generally low, as events like the opening of a motorized window blind or the turning
on of the TV are usually sparse and produce data packets with small payloads.
Regarding privacy and security, healthcare communications have stringent requirements motivated
by the prerequisites of maintaining patient information only available to authorized personnel and
guaranteeing data integrity. Furthermore, fault tolerance and reliability are also of critical importance
as human lives may be at risk. As such, mechanisms avoiding system failures and providing graceful
degradation when unavoidable conditions occur must be validated and implemented. The following sections
provide an overview of communication protocols and implementations addressing localization,
monitoring, and automation applications in healthcare environments.
© 2011 by Taylor and Francis Group, LLC