IMPLANTABLE MEDICAL DEVICE COMMUNICATION
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
An implantable medical device, IMD, tags data packets transmitted to a non-implantable communication unit with notifications indicating whether the IMD has additional data that needs to be transmitted to the communication unit. The notifications are used by the communication unit to achieve a conditional generation and transmission of power down requests that urges the IMD to power down its radio equipment. The total length of the communication session can thereby be reduced as power down requests are not transmitted when the IMD has additional data to transmit.
23 Citations
38 Claims
-
1-20. -20. (canceled)
-
21. An implantable medical device comprising:
-
a receiver coupled to a radio frequency antenna; a transmitter coupled to a radio frequency antenna and adapted to wirelessly transmit data packets; a controller coupled to at least one of the transmitter and the receiver and adapted to power down the at least one of the transmitter and the receiver based on a power down request received by the receiver; a transmit buffer connected to the transmitter and adapted to at least temporarily store data packets to be transmitted by the transmitter; and a tag processor connected to the transmit buffer and adapted to tag a data packet to be wirelessly transmitted by the transmitter with a notification indicating whether the transmit buffer comprises additional data to be wirelessly transmitted by the transmitter, the notification allowing a selective generation of the power down request by a non-implanted communication unit and a selective power down of the at least one of the transmitter and the receiver. - View Dependent Claims (22, 23, 24)
-
-
25. A communication unit for conducting wireless communication with an implantable medical device, the communication unit comprises:
-
a receiver connected to a radio frequency antenna and adapted to receive data packets transmitted by the implantable medical device; a request processor adapted to generate a power down request defining a power down of at least one of a transmitter and a receiver of the implantable medical device; a transmitter connected to a radio frequency antenna and adapted to wirelessly transmit the power down request to the implantable medical device; and a processor controller connected to the request processor and adapted to selectively control the request processor to generate or stop generating the power down request based on a notification indicating whether a transmit buffer of the implantable medical device comprises additional data packets to be wirelessly transmitted to the communication unit, the notification being present in a data packet received by the receiver from the implantable medical device. - View Dependent Claims (26, 27, 28, 29)
-
-
30. A data communication method comprising:
-
tagging a data packet to be wirelessly transmitted by a transmitter connected to a radio frequency antenna of an implantable medical device with a notification indicating whether a transmit buffer of the implantable medical device comprises additional data to be wirelessly transmitted by the transmitter; and wirelessly transmitting the data packet to a non-implanted communication unit, wherein the notification allowing a selective generation by the non-implanted communication unit of a power down request triggering a power down of at least one of the transmitter and a receiver of the implantable medical device. - View Dependent Claims (31, 32, 33)
-
-
34. A communication control method comprising:
-
generating power down requests defining a power down of at least one of a transmitter and a receiver of an implantable medical device; receiving, from the implantable medical device, a data packet tagged with a notification indicating whether the implantable medical device comprises additional data to be wirelessly transmitted by the transmitter; and stopping the generation of the power down request if the notification indicates that the implantable medical device comprises additional data to be wirelessly transmitted by the transmitter. - View Dependent Claims (35, 38, 37)
-
-
38-1. The method according to any of the claim 34, further comprising:
-
generating a keep-alive request; and periodically transmit the keep-alive request to the implantable medical device during an ongoing communication session, the keep-alive request urging the implantable medical device to respond with a keep-alive response comprising the notification.
-
Specification