Evaluation and possible improvements of the ANT protocol for home heart monitoring applications

Abstract

This paper evaluates the use of the wireless ANT protocol as a possible technology to implement a heart monitoring solution for the remote management of patients at their home premises.With respect to common commercial solutions, in which the ANT transceiver transmits single heart rate values, this paper investigates the suitability of the protocol for the transmission of complete ECG traces, which could be a useful feature in the framework of a remote health monitoring solution. Further, a frequency agility capability is also implemented, in order to reduce the impact of RF interferers working in the ISM band, and to improve the ECG transmission performance of the ANT device.