MBAN channel use regulation scheme and adaptive channelization for IEEE 802.15.4J standardization

• US 9,380,586 B2
• Filed: 04/27/2012
• Issued: 06/28/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 05/02/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Original Assignee: Koninklijke Philips N.V.
• Inventors: Wang, Dong
• Primary Examiner(s): Trandai, Cindy
• Application Number:
  US14/114,543
• Publication Number:
  US 20140065972A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,523 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/002 Monitoring the patient using a local or closed circuit, e.g. in a room or building A61B5/0017 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0024 for multiple sensor units attached to the patient, e.g. using a body or personal area network
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/02055 Simultaneously evaluating both cardiovascular condition and temperature
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/024 Detecting, measuring or recording pulse rate or heart rate A61B5/0205, A61B5/021 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0816 Measuring devices for examining respiratory frequency measuring frequency of electric signals G01R23/00
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/14532 for measuring glucose, e.g. by tissue impedance measurement
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/318 Heart-related electrical modalities, e.g. electrocardiography [ECG]
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/4839 combined with drug delivery
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/67 for remote operation
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/14 Spectrum sharing arrangements between different networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/53 based on regulatory allocation policies
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/18 Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks

Abstract

A medical system includes one or more medical body area network (MBAN) systems. Each MBAN system includes one or more MBAN devices which acquire and communicate patient data with a hub device via short-range wireless communication. The communication of the patient data via the short-range wireless communication is within a predefined spectrum. The hub device receives patient data communicated from the one or more MBAN devices and communicates with a central monitoring station via a longer range communication. A MBAN channelization scheme defines one or more overlapping channels in the predefined spectrum and a MAC parameter dynamically enables or disables access to each defined channel. A channel regulator manages the MBAN utilization of the predefined spectrum by setting the MAC parameter to dynamically enable/disable the one or more predefined MBAN channels within the predefined spectrum.

Claims

1. A medical system comprising:

one or more medical body area network (MBAN) systems, each MBAN system including;

one or more MBAN devices configured to acquire and communicate patient data with a hub device via short-range wireless communication, the communication of the patient data via the short-range wireless communication being within a predefined spectrum, wherein part of the predefined spectrum is in use by a primary user and unavailable for use,

the hub device configured to receive patient data communicated from the one or more MBAN devices, communicates with a central monitoring station via a longer range communication;

a channel regulator configured to prohibit the one or more MBAN devices from utilizing the part of the predefined spectrum that is in use by the primary user and to define a channelization scheme with one or more channels of the predefined spectrum accessible to the one or more MBAN devices;

wherein the channelization scheme is configured to define one or more non-overlapping channels within the predefined spectrum which can only be accessed within a healthcare facility and one or more overlapping channels within the predefined spectrum which can be accessed anywhere.

2. The medical system according to claim 1, wherein the channel regulator is configured to generate channel use rules of the predefined spectrum for the one or more MBAN devices according to an authorization to use the part of the predefined spectrum received from a coordinator which provides authorizations to a plurality of healthcare facilities, monitor usage of the predefined spectrum, and report the monitored usage to the coordinator.

3. The medical system according to claim 2, wherein the channel regulator includes:

an interface configured to enable customization of the channel use rules.

4. The medical system according to claim 1, wherein the channel regulator uses a MAC parameter to dynamically enable and disable the one or more MBAN devices from transmitting on one or more of the channels within the predefined spectrum.

5. A medical system comprising:

at least one central monitoring station for monitoring a plurality of patients in each of a plurality of medical facilities;

a plurality of medical body area network (MBAN) systems each configured to be mounted to a corresponding patient and MBAN system including;

a plurality of MBAN devices configured to acquire and communicate patient data to a hub device via short-range wireless communication, wherein the MBAN devices are sufficiently low power that the short-range wireless communication is limited to within the medical facility and the communication of the patient data via the short-range wireless communication being within a predefined spectrum, wherein a part of the predefined spectrum is in use by a primary user and unavailable for use by the MBAN systems, and

the hub device configured to receive patient data communicated from the MBAN devices via the short-range wireless communication and communicate via a longer range communication to a hospital network and via the hospital network to the central monitoring station;

a channel regulator which prohibits the one or more MBAN devices from utilizing at least the part of the predefined spectrum that is unavailable for use wherein the channel regulator defines a custom channelization scheme for its medical facility for channels of the predefined spectrum available for use, by MBAN devices and communications custom channelization scheme via the hospital network;

wherein the custom channelization scheme defines overlapping channels for one portion of the parts of the predefined spectrum that is available for use by the MBAN systems and non-overlapping channels for a second portion of the predefined spectrum that is available for use by the MBAN systems.

6. The medical system according to claim 5, wherein the channelization scheme maximizes a number of channels in one or more portions of the spectrum not in use by the primary user.

7. The medical system according to claim 5, wherein the channel regulator defines a channelization scheme with one or more overlapping channels in the predefined spectrum to optimize usage of one or more available portions of the predefined spectrum by an MBAN system outside its medical facility.

8. The medical system according to claim 7, wherein a MAC parameter dynamically enables or disables access to each defined channel.

9. The medical system according to claim 5, further including:

an MBAN coordinator configured to generate keys to authorize the plurality of medical facilities to access a portion of the predefined spectrum which is available for use by the MBAN systems; and

wherein each medical facility includes one or more MBAN control points configured to receive the keys from the MBAN coordinator and convey the keys to the MBAN systems via the longer range communication.

10. A method comprising:

collecting patient data with medical body area network (MBAN) devices;

communicating the collected patient data from the MBAN devices to a hub device via short-range wireless communication, wherein the communication via short-range wireless communication is within one or more parts of a predefined spectrum that is not in use by a primary user and is available for use by the MBAN devices;

communicating the collected patient data from the hub device to a central monitoring station via longer range wireless communication;

receiving an indication of the one or more available parts and generating a channelization scheme dividing the one or more available parts into channels, wherein the channelization scheme defines one or more overlapping channels in the one or more available parts of the predefined spectrum and a MAC parameter dynamically enables or disables the MBAN devices to access to each defined overlapping channel.

11. The method according to claim 10, further including:

generating channel use rules of the predefined spectrum for the one or more MBAN devices according to monitored usage of the predefined spectrum and enabling and disabling the one or more MBAN devices from transmitting on one or more channels within the predefined spectrum according to the channel use rules.

12. The method according to claim 10, wherein the channelization scheme further defines one or more non-overlapping channels within the one or more available parts of the predefined spectrum which can only be accessed within a healthcare facility and wherein the one or more overlapping channels which can be accessed anywhere.

16. A medical system comprising:

one or more processor programmed to perform the method according to claim 10.

17. A computer readable medium containing software which when loaded into processor programs the processor to perform the method according to claim 10.

13. A method comprising:

collecting patient data by one or more medical body area network (MBAN) devices;

defining a channelization scheme with one or more channels of one or more parts of a predefined spectrum which are not in use by a primary user and are accessible to the one or more MBAN devices, in the channelization scheme at least a first portion of the accessible channels are overlapping and at least a second portion of the accessible channels are non-overlapping; and

prohibiting the one or more MBAN devices from utilizing the channels in one or more parts of the predefined spectrum that are in use by a primary user and unavailable for use;

communicating the collected patient data from the one or more MBAN devices through a MBAN system to a hub device via short-range wireless communication on one of the accessible channels.

14. The method according to claim 13, further including:

communicating the collected data on one of the non-overlapping channels when the patient is in a medical facility and over one of the overlapping channels when the patient is outside the medical facility.

15. The method according to claim 13, further including using a MAC parameter to disable communicating in the parts of the predefined spectrum in use by a primary user.

18. A medical system comprising:

one or more processor programmed to perform the method according to claim 13.

19. A computer readable medium containing software which when loaded into processor programs the processor to perform the method according to claim 13.