WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS FOR MEDICAL DATA

• US 20110032822A1
• Filed: 05/04/2009
• Published: 02/10/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 05/08/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Original Assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Inventors: Soomro, Amjad A.
• Granted Patent: US 8,456,997 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/230
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/56 based on priority criteria
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/12 WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks]

Abstract

A communication method is disclosed, comprising: (i) wirelessly communicating in compliance with an IEEE 802.11 protocol (802.11 QoS) including quality of service extensions between a wireless access point (30) and a station (20) communicating patient data; and (ii) wirelessly communicating in compliance with the 802.11 QoS protocol between a wireless access point (20) and a station (34, 38) communicating content other than patient data. The 802.11 QoS protocol is configured to perform the wireless communicating (i) at a higher priority than the wireless communicating (ii) responsive to an indication (42, 52) that the wireless communicating (i) is communicating patient data, the higher priority providing at least one of faster communication and communication at a lower error rate as compared with the wireless communicating (ii).

Claims

1. A communication system comprising:

a communication network configured to employ an IEEE 802.11 protocol (802.11 QoS) including quality of service extensions, the communication network including;

at least one wireless access point, and

a plurality of stations configured to wirelessly communicate with the at least one wireless access point via the 802.11-QoS protocol, the stations including at least one station communicating patient data and at least one station communicating content other than patient data,

the 802.11-QoS protocol configured to communicate a traffic specification parameter that provides at least one of (i) faster communication and (ii) communication at a lower error rate for the at least one station communicating patient data relative to the at least one station communicating content other than patient data.

2. The communication system as set forth in claim 1, wherein the 802.11-QoS protocol is configured to communicate a traffic specification parameter that reduces a communication link initialization time for the at least one station communicating patient data relative to a communication link initialization time for the at least one station communicating content other than patient data.

3. The communication system as set forth in claim 1, wherein the traffic specification parameter is a medical data parameter and the 802.11-QoS protocol defines a plurality of allowable values for the medical data parameter that are indicative of whether the communication link is for communicating patient data.

4. The communication system as set forth in claim 3, wherein the 802.11-QoS protocol defines:

at least one allowable value for the medical data parameter that indicates the communication link is not for communicating patient data, and

one or more additional allowable values for the medical data parameter each of which indicates the communication link is for communicating patient data.

5. The communication system as set forth in claim 4, wherein the 802.11-QoS protocol defines the one or more additional allowable values to include:

a second allowable value for the medical data parameter that indicates the communication link is for communicating routine patient data, and

a third allowable value for the medical data parameter that indicates the communication link is for communicating non-routine patient data having a higher priority than routine patient data.

6. The communication system as set forth in claim 4, wherein the 802.11-QoS protocol is configured to reduce communication link initialization time for the at least one station communicating patient data relative to communication link initialization time for the at least one station communicating content other than patient data by assigning a relatively shorter random backoff time for the at least one station communicating patient data and a relatively longer random backoff time for the at least one station communicating content other than patient data.

7. The communication system as set forth in claim 2, wherein the traffic specification parameter is an access categorization parameter having a value corresponding to one of (i) a voice mode (AC_VO), (ii) a video mode (AC_VI), (iii) a best effort mode (AC_BE), and (iv) a background mode (AC_BK), the 802.11-QoS protocol is configured to exclusively assign the video mode value (AC_VI) to the at least one station communicating patient data, and the 802.11-QoS protocol is further configured to reduce channel access delay time for the video mode (AC_VI) as compared with each of the voice, best effort, and background modes (AC_VO, AC_BE, AC_BK).

8. The communication system as set forth in claim 1, wherein the traffic specification parameter is an access categorization parameter having a value corresponding to one of (i) a voice mode (AC_VO), (ii) a video mode (AC_VI), (iii) a best effort mode (AC_BE), and (iv) a background mode (AC_BK), the 802.11-QoS protocol is configured to assign the video mode value (AC_VI) to the at least one station communicating patient data, and the 802.11-QoS protocol is further configured to provide at least one of (i) faster communication and (ii) communication at a lower error rate for the video mode (AC_VI) as compared with each of the voice, best effort, and background modes (AC_VO, AC_BE, AC_BK).

9. The communication system as set forth in claim 1, wherein the 802.11-QoS protocol is configured to communicate a traffic specification parameter that defines an error rate class, a first error rate class value assigned for the at least one station communicating patient data corresponding to a lower error rate than a second error rate class value assigned for the at least one station communicating content other than patient data.

10. The communication system as set forth in claim 9, wherein the 802.11-QoS protocol is configured to assign a relatively higher medium time for those communication links assigned the first error rate class value as compared with those communication links assigned the second error rate class value.

11. The communication system as set forth in claim 9, wherein the 802.11-QoS protocol is configured to assign a relatively higher surplus bandwidth allowance for those communication links assigned the first error rate class value as compared with those communication links assigned the second error rate class value.

12. The communication system as set forth in claim 9, wherein the 802.11-QoS protocol is configured to assign a relatively lower PHY data rate for those communication links assigned the first error rate class value as compared with those communication links assigned the second error rate class value.

13. A communication method comprising:

(i) wirelessly communicating in compliance with an IEEE 802.11 protocol (802.11 QoS) including quality of service extensions between a wireless access point and a station communicating patient data;

(ii) wirelessly communicating in compliance with the 802.11-QoS protocol between a wireless access point and a station communicating content other than patient data; and

the 802.11-QoS protocol being configured to perform the wireless communicating (i) at a higher priority than the wireless communicating (ii) responsive to an indication that the wireless communicating (i) is communicating patient data, the higher priority providing at least one of faster communication and communication at a lower error rate as compared with the wireless communicating (ii).

14. The communication method as set forth in claim 13, wherein the 802.11-QoS protocol is configured to:

initiate the wireless communicating (i) using a first random backoff time; and

initiate the wireless communicating (ii) using a second random backoff time that is stochastically longer than the first random backoff time.

15. The communication method as set forth in claim 13, wherein the indication that the wireless communicating (i) is communicating patient data comprises:

a traffic specification parameter comprising a medical data parameter (42) having a first value, a random backoff time being selected based on the first value.

16. The communication method as set forth in claim 13, wherein the indication that the wireless communicating (i) is communicating patient data comprises:

an access category traffic specification parameter for the wireless communicating (i) having a value (AC_VI) corresponding to video.

17. The communication method as set forth in claim 13, wherein the 802.11-QoS protocol is configured to:

perform the wireless communications (i) in conformance with a relatively lower error rate class as compared with the wireless communicating (ii) responsive to the indication that the wireless communicating (i) is communicating patient data.

18. The communication method as set forth in claim 17, wherein the 802.11-QoS protocol is configured to perform the wireless communicating (i) using a relatively higher medium time as compared with the wireless communicating (ii) responsive to the indication that the wireless communicating (i) is communicating patient data.

19. The communication method as set forth in claim 17, wherein the 802.11-QoS protocol is configured to perform the wireless communicating (i) using a relatively higher surplus bandwidth as compared with the wireless communicating (ii) responsive to the indication that the wireless communicating (i) is communicating patient data.

20. The communication method as set forth in claim 17, wherein the 802.11-QoS protocol is configured to perform the wireless communicating (i) using a relatively lower PHY data rate as compared with the wireless communicating (ii) responsive to the indication that the wireless communicating (i) is communicating patient data.