Channel Assessment And Selection For Wireless Communication Between Medical Devices

• US 20100249881A1
• Filed: 03/31/2009
• Published: 09/30/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 03/31/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Medtronic Incorporated (Medtronic Plc)
• Original Assignee: Medtronic Incorporated (Medtronic Plc)
• Inventors: Corndorf, Eric D.
• Granted Patent: US 8,805,528 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 607/60
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/00 Measuring for diagnostic purposes radiation diagnosis A61B6/00; diagnosis by ultrasonic, sonic or infrasonic waves A61B8/00; Identification of persons
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 1/37223 Circuits for electromagnetic coupling
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 1/37276 characterised by means for reducing power consumption during telemetry
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 1/37288 Communication to several implantable medical devices within one patient

Abstract

This disclosure relates to channel assessment and selection for wireless communication between two or more medical devices, such as between an implantable medical device (IMD) and a non-implanted medical device, between two IMDs, or between two non-implanted medical devices. A telemetry module of a medical device operating in accordance with the techniques of this disclosure obtains measured ambient power levels on a plurality of channels of a frequency band regulation, such as the ten channels of the MICS band regulation. The telemetry module computes channel assessment values for at least a portion of the plurality of channels based on the measured ambient power levels on at least one other channel of the plurality of channels and selects a channel to transmit on based on the channel assessment values.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

obtaining measured ambient power levels on a plurality of channels of a frequency band regulation;

computing channel assessment values for at least a portion of the plurality of channels based on the measured ambient power levels on at least one other channel of the plurality of channels; and

selecting a channel to transmit on based on the channel assessment values.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising selecting a subset of the channels of the frequency band regulation that have lowest measured ambient power levels, wherein computing the channel assessment values comprises computing the channel assessment values for the subset of the channels.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein computing the channel assessment values for the subset of the channels comprises one of computing a sum of the measured ambient power levels of the at least one other channel and computing an average measured ambient power level on the at least one other channel.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein selecting a channel to transmit on based on the channel assessment values comprises selecting the one of the subset of channels that has a lowest one of the sum of the measured ambient power levels and the average of the measured ambient power levels.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein computing the sum of the measured ambient power levels comprises:

associating weights with each of the at least one other channel, wherein the weights associated with each of the channels decreases as a function of distance, in frequency, from the respective channels;

multiplying the measured ambient power levels of the at least one other channel by the associated weights; and

summing the weighted ambient power levels of the at least one other channel.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein computing channel assessment values for at least the portion of the plurality of channels comprises computing ratios between the measured ambient power levels on the respective channels and an average measured ambient power level on the at least one other channel.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein selecting the channel to transmit on based on the channel assessment values comprises selecting the channel having a largest ratio, the method further comprising transmitting at least one communication on the selected channel.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein computing channel assessment values for at least a portion of the plurality of channels based on the measured ambient power levels on at least one other channel of the plurality of channels comprises computing the channel assessment values based on measured ambient power levels of a first other channel immediately adjacent to the respective channels and a second other channel immediately adjacent to the respective channels.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein one of the first other channel and the second other channel comprises at least one channel belonging to a different frequency band regulation than the frequency band regulation to which the respective channels belong.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein computing the channel assessment values comprises computing the channel assessment values for each of the channels of the frequency band regulation.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the frequency band regulation comprises one of the Medical Implant Communications Service (MICS) band regulation and the Medical External Data Service (MEDS) band regulations.

27. The device of claim 1, wherein

the means for computing channel assessment values computes ratios between the measured ambient power levels on the respective channels and an average measured ambient power level on the at least one other channel;

the means for selecting the channel to transmit on selects the channel having a largest ratio,

the method further comprising transmitting at least one communication on the selected channel.

12. A medical device comprising:

an antenna; and

a channel selection module that selects a channel on which to transmit communications via the antenna, wherein the channel selection module obtains measured ambient power levels on a plurality of channels of a frequency band regulation, computes channel assessment values for at least a portion of the plurality of channels based on the measured ambient power levels on at least one other channel of the plurality of channels, and selects a channel to transmit on based on the channel assessment values.

13. The device of claim 12, wherein the channel selection module selects a subset of the channels of the frequency band regulation that have lowest measured ambient power levels and computes the channel assessment values for the subset of the channels.

14. The device of claim 13, wherein the channel selection module computes the channel assessment values for the subset of the channels by one of computing a sum of the measured ambient power levels of the at least one other channel and computing an average measured ambient power level on the at least one other channel.

15. The device of claim 14, wherein the channel selection module selects the one of the subset of channels that has a lowest one of the sum of the measured ambient power levels and the average of the measured ambient power levels.

16. The device of claim 14, wherein the channel selection module associates weights with each of the at least one other channel, multiplies the measured ambient power levels of the at least one other channel by the associated weights, and sums the weighted ambient power levels of the at least one other channel, wherein the weights associated with each of the channels decreases as a function of distance, in frequency, from the respective channels.

17. The device of claim 12, wherein the channel selection module computes the channel assessment values by computing ratios between the measured ambient power levels on the respective channels and an average measured ambient power level on the at least one other channel.

18. The device of claim 17, wherein the channel selection module selects the channel to transmit on as the channel having a largest ratio and transmits at least one communication on the selected channel.

19. The device of claim 17, wherein the channel selection module computes the channel assessment values based on measured ambient power levels of a first other channel immediately adjacent, in frequency, to the respective channels and a second other channel immediately adjacent, in frequency, to the respective channels.

20. The device of claim 19, wherein one of the first other channel and the second other channel comprises at least one channel belonging to a different frequency band regulation than the frequency band regulation to which the respective channels belong.

21. The device of claim 12, wherein the channel selection module computes the channel assessment values for each of the channels of the frequency band regulation.

22. The device of claim 12, wherein the frequency band regulation comprises one of the Medical Implant Communications Service (MICS) band regulation and the Medical External Data Service (MEDS) band regulations.

23. The device of claim 12, wherein the medical device includes one of an implantable medical device, an external programming device and an external monitoring device.

24. A medical device comprising:

means for obtaining measured ambient power levels on a plurality of channels of a frequency band regulation;

means for computing channel assessment values for at least a portion of the plurality of channels based on the measured ambient power levels on at least one other channel of the plurality of channels; and

means for selecting a channel to transmit on based on the channel assessment values.

25. The device of claim 24, further comprising means for selecting a subset of the channels of the frequency band regulation that have lowest measured ambient power levels, wherein the means for computing computes the channel assessment values for the subset of the channels.

26. The device of claim 25, wherein

the means for computing channel assessment values computes one of a sum of the measured ambient power levels of the at least one other channel and an average measured ambient power level on the at least one other channel and

the means for selecting the channel to transmit on selects the one of the subset of channels that has a lowest one of the sum of the measured ambient power levels and the average of the measured ambient power levels.