Wireless Medical Sensor Networks: Design Requirements and Enabling Technologies
- 1 June 2012
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Mary Ann Liebert Inc in Telemedicine and e-Health
- Vol. 18 (5), 394-399
- https://doi.org/10.1089/tmj.2011.0169
Abstract
This article analyzes wireless communication protocols that could be used in healthcare environments (e.g., hospitals and small clinics) to transfer real-time medical information obtained from noninvasive sensors. For this purpose the features of the three currently most widely used protocols—namely, Bluetooth® (IEEE 802.15.1), ZigBee (IEEE 802.15.4), and Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11)—are evaluated and compared. The important features under consideration include data bandwidth, frequency band, maximum transmission distance, encryption and authentication methods, power consumption, and current applications. In addition, an overview of network requirements with respect to medical sensor features, patient safety and patient data privacy, quality of service, and interoperability between other sensors is briefly presented. Sensor power consumption is also discussed because it is considered one of the main obstacles for wider adoption of wireless networks in medical applications. The outcome of this assessment will be a useful tool in the hands of biomedical engineering researchers. It will provide parameters to select the most effective combination of protocols to implement a specific wireless network of noninvasive medical sensors to monitor patients remotely in the hospital or at home.Keywords
This publication has 9 references indexed in Scilit:
- Body Area Networks for Ubiquitous Healthcare Applications: Opportunities and ChallengesJournal of Medical Systems, 2011
- Wireless Body Area Network for Medical HealthcareIETE Technical Review, 2011
- Clock Synchronization of Wireless Sensor NetworksIEEE Signal Processing Magazine, 2010
- Energy Harvesting for Autonomous Wireless Sensor NetworksIEEE Solid-State Circuits Magazine, 2010
- Enabling technologies for wireless body area networks: A survey and outlookIEEE Communications Magazine, 2009
- The Diagnosis of Cardiac Arrhythmias: A Prospective Multi‐Center Randomized Study Comparing Mobile Cardiac Outpatient Telemetry Versus Standard Loop Event MonitoringJournal of Cardiovascular Electrophysiology, 2007
- The need for rules of engagement applied to wireless body area networksPublished by Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) ,2006
- A wireless body area network of intelligent motion sensors for computer assisted physical rehabilitationJournal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation, 2005
- Sensors and wireless communication for medical carePublished by Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) ,2004