Architecture and communication protocols for cognitive radio network enabled hospital

Abstract

This Wireless communication is a key technology to improve mobility and service flexibility for different e-health applications such as remote patient monitoring, telemedicine, mobile hospital information system, etc. However, due to the increasing number of wireless devices, in near future wireless healthcare services may face challenges on medical band and electromagnetic interferences (EMI) to biomedical devices. To mitigate these issues cognitive radio network supported healthcare service system for proper utilization of medical band and EMI-aware prioritized wireless access scheme to avoid malfunction of biomedical devices may be essential. Therefore, to support an efficient wireless healthcare services system in this paper we introduce a priority scheme for medical and non-medical devices. Based on this scheme, we then propose spectrum aware cluster-based network architecture and EMI-aware communication protocols for healthcare services. The proposed architecture enhances communication facilities in a heterogeneous healthcare system where the clustering scheme is divided into three subgroups: partial mesh topology for Cognitive Base Station (CBSs) to avoid single point failure, star topology for medical devices that are connected to cognitive base stations to enable medical devices to communicate via CBSs, and tree topology for non-medical devices that may be connected to CBSs via some other devices in an ad-hoc mode. The connected subgroups then form a communication highway to support efficient communication. Proposed EMI-aware communication protocols are: communication between Medical devices, non-medical devices, and admin center.