Flexible quality of service model for wireless body area sensor networks

• Published in: Healthcare technology letters Vol. 3; no. 1; pp. 12 - 15
• Main Authors: Liao, Yangzhe, Leeson, Mark S, Higgins, Matthew D
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England The Institution of Engineering and Technology 01.03.2016
• Subjects: abnormal medical conditions; access protocols; adaptive schedule MAC control; biomedical communication; clinical decision‐making; daily medical care; data communication; energy efficient ubiquitous WBASN networks; healthcare system design; high transmission data rate; human vital signs; information packet collisions; low‐power consumption; medium access control; miniature antenna size; multihop communication ad hoc network model; multiuser interference; physiological signal monitoring; power consumption; radio frequency ultra‐wideband technology; real‐time healthcare data transmission; remote telemedicine support; sensor batteries; smart healthcare systems; Special Issue: Decision Support for Person-Centred Healthcare; technical constraints; ubiquitous computing; ubiquitous healthcare systems; wireless body area sensor networks; wireless communications; wireless sensor networks; wireless communications; wireless sensor networks; multihop communication ad hoc network model; adaptive schedule MAC control; daily medical care; abnormal medical conditions; access protocols; ubiquitous computing; human vital signs; power consumption; energy efficient ubiquitous WBASN networks; technical constraints; wireless body area sensor networks; smart healthcare systems; high transmission data rate; low-power consumption; sensor batteries; multiuser interference; miniature antenna size; radio frequency ultra-wideband technology; ubiquitous healthcare systems; medium access control; biomedical communication; physiological signal monitoring; remote telemedicine support; real-time healthcare data transmission; data communication; clinical decision-making; healthcare system design; information packet collisions
• ISSN: 2053-3713; 2053-3713
• DOI: 10.1049/htl.2015.0049

Wireless body area sensor networks (WBASNs) are becoming an increasingly significant breakthrough technology for smart healthcare systems, enabling improved clinical decision-making in daily medical care. Recently, radio frequency ultra-wideband technology has developed substantially for physiological signal monitoring due to its advantages such as low-power consumption, high transmission data rate, and miniature antenna size. Applications of future ubiquitous healthcare systems offer the prospect of collecting human vital signs, early detection of abnormal medical conditions, real-time healthcare data transmission and remote telemedicine support. However, due to the technical constraints of sensor batteries, the supply of power is a major bottleneck for healthcare system design. Moreover, medium access control (MAC) needs to support reliable transmission links that allow sensors to transmit data safely and stably. In this Letter, the authors provide a flexible quality of service model for ad hoc networks that can support fast data transmission, adaptive schedule MAC control, and energy efficient ubiquitous WBASN networks. Results show that the proposed multi-hop communication ad hoc network model can balance information packet collisions and power consumption. Additionally, wireless communications link in WBASNs can effectively overcome multi-user interference and offer high transmission data rates for healthcare systems.