System and Method of Enhanced Quality of Service of Wireless Communication Based on Redundant Signal Reception on Two or More Antenna Diversity Inputs

• US 20120170494A1
• Filed: 01/04/2011
• Published: 07/05/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 01/04/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: General Electric Company
• Original Assignee: General Electric Company
• Inventors: Frigo, Louis M., Grubis, Matthew, Seidl, Neal, Zielinski, Lee, Owan, Alan, Arndt, Peter, Jager, Peter, Ali, Syedsaad, Carvalho-Bond, Karina
• Granted Patent: US 8,488,499 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/310
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0805 with single receiver and antenna switching H04B7/0822 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0874 using subgroups of receive antennas
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0888 with selection

Abstract

The present application includes a system and method that provisions at least two (2) receivers in a topology that allows each receiver to acquire wireless communication signals through different diverse antenna fields. Each receiver acquires the signal, and demodulates, decodes and sends data to the data terminal component. The data terminal component resolves packet alignment issues and selects the best data. This improves system reliability and reduces the system susceptibility to data corruption or loss of data due to signal fading that might occur on a single antenna field. Provisioning a wireless system in this manner reduces the likelihood that the same fading phenomena, resulting from either multipath and/or shadowing affects, impair signal reception causing data dropout or loss of data.

Claims

1. An enhanced quality of service wireless communication system, the system comprising:

a primary receiver configured to receive a wireless signal including medical data transmitted from a wireless medical device;

a redundant receiver configured to receive the wireless signal from the wireless medical device wherein each of the primary and redundant receivers include a decoder and a transfer media component, wherein the decoder evaluates the quality of the wireless signal and extracts the medical data, and the transfer media component processes the wireless signal into a plurality of transfer data packets; and

a data terminal component, wherein the data terminal component receives the plurality of data transfer packets from each of the primary and redundant receivers, and merges the plurality of transfer data packets into a composite data stream.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the primary and redundant receivers each include an antenna, and an SDC component, wherein the antenna and SDC component receive and acquire the wireless signal from the patient monitoring device.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the primary and redundant receivers include a demodulator, wherein the demodulator receives the acquired wireless signal from the SDC component, and demodulates the signal for the decoder.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the primary and redundant receivers are configured in the wireless medical monitoring system according to a site survey.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of transfer data packets includes a piece of data from the medical device having a frame ID, wherein the frame ID identifies data from a portion of the medical data.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein each of the transfer data packets includes an Error Correction Code (ECC), wherein the decoder uses the ECC to determine whether the data is correct.

7. The system of claim 5, wherein each of the transfer data packets includes a source, wherein the source indicates which receiver the transfer data packet comes from.

8. The system of claim 5, wherein each of the transfer data packets includes a tag, wherein the tag indicates whether the transfer data packet contains correctly received medical data.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the data terminal component merges the plurality of data transfer packets from the primary and redundant receivers into a composite data stream, including a correct data frame corresponding to each frame ID.

10. A method of enhanced quality of service in a wireless communication system, the method comprising:

receiving a wireless signal transmitted from a medical device in a primary receiver;

receiving the wireless signal from the medical device in a redundant receiver wherein each of the primary and redundant receivers include a decoder and a transfer media component, wherein the method further comprises the decoder evaluating the quality of the received wireless signal, and extracts the medical data, and the transfer media component processing the received medical data into a plurality of transfer data packets; and

receiving the plurality of data transfer packets from each of the primary and redundant receivers in a data terminal component, and further comprising merging the plurality of transfer data packets into a composite data stream.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the primary and redundant receivers each include an antenna, and an SDC component, wherein the method further comprises the antenna and SDC component receiving and acquiring the received wireless signal from the medical device.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the primary and redundant receivers each include a demodulator, wherein the method further comprises the demodulator receiving the acquired received wireless signal from the SDC component, and demodulating the signal for the decoder.

13. The method of claim 10, further comprising conducting a site survey and configuring an antenna infrastructure with primary and redundant receivers in the wireless medical system according to results from the site survey.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein each of the plurality of transfer data packets includes a piece of data from the medical data having a frame ID, wherein the method further comprises the frame ID identifying a portion of the medical data.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the each of the transfer data packets includes an ECC, wherein the decoder uses the ECC determining whether the data is correct.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein each of the transfer data packets includes a source, wherein the method further comprises the source indicating which receiver the transfer data packet comes from.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein each of the transfer data packets includes a tag, wherein the method further comprises the tag indicating whether the transfer data packet correctly received medical data.

18. The method of claim 14, further comprising merging the plurality of data transfer packets from the primary and redundant receivers into a composite data stream with the data terminal component, wherein the composite data stream includes, if possible, a good transfer data packet for each frame ID.

19. An enhanced quality of service wireless communication system, the system comprising:

a primary receiver configured to receive a physiological signal transmitted from a patient monitoring device;

a redundant receiver configured to receive the physiological signal from the patient monitoring device wherein each of the primary and redundant receivers include a decoder and a transfer media component, wherein the decoder evaluates the quality of the physiological signal, and the transfer media component processes the physiological signal into a plurality of transfer data packet; and

a data terminal component, wherein the data terminal component receives the plurality of data transfer packets from each of the primary and redundant receivers, and merges the plurality of transfer data packets into a composite data stream, wherein the composite data stream includes, if possible, a good transfer data packet for each frame ID, and further wherein the data terminal component uses a set of predetermined rules for selecting a good transfer data packet for each frame ID that includes more than one good transfer data packet.