Method, apparatus, system, and computer readable medium for determining preferable conditions for MAC communication within a WBAN

• US 9,924,868 B2
• Filed: 12/09/2014
• Issued: 03/27/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 12/09/2014
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Inventors: Jin, Yichao, Wang, Stephen
• Primary Examiner(s): Rachedine, Mohammed
• Application Number:
  US15/510,144
• Publication Number:
  US 20170347887A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,204 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2560/0209 adapted for power saving
• 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 5/1123 Discriminating type of movement, e.g. walking or running A61B5/1116, A61B5/112 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 13/005 Transmission systems in which the medium consists of the human body
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/70 Services for machine-to-machine communication [M2M] or machine type communication [MTC]
• 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 88/08 Access point devices

Abstract

A method for use within a WBAN, the method comprising creating a motion profile and a corresponding channel quality profile and using the motion profile to determining preferable conditions for MAC communication within the WBAN.

Claims

1. A method of determining preferable conditions for Medium Access Control, MAC, communication within a Wireless Body Area Network, WBAN, having a hub node and a peripheral node, the method comprising:

determining that a motion sensor is moving periodically;

creating a motion profile by recording a signal produced by the motion sensor as it moves periodically;

creating a channel quality profile based on an assessment of channel quality between the nodes of the WBAN as the motion sensor moves periodically; and

determining, based on the channel quality profile, a point in the motion profile for wirelessly communicating between the nodes.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the creating a channel quality profile comprises the hub node transmitting one or more beacon signals to the peripheral node and the peripheral node receiving and assessing the one or more beacon signals and optionally transmitting the results of that assessment to the hub node.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the assessing the one or more beacons comprises assessing one or more of the following metrics for the received one or more beacons:

Link Quality Indicator, LQI, Received Signal Strength Indicator, RSSI, and Signal to Noise Ratio, SNR.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the creating a motion profile comprises recording the signal produced by the motion sensor for a plurality of time points and the creating a channel quality profile comprises assessing the channel quality for a corresponding plurality of time points so as to enable the channel quality profile to be indexed to the motion profile.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the determining a point in the motion profile for wirelessly communicating between the nodes comprises creating, based on the channel quality profile, a Channel Access Likelihood Profile, CALP, indicative, for each of the plurality of time points, of the likelihood of successful communication between the hub node and the peripheral nodes, optionally wherein the CALP is created at the hub node and the method further comprises the hub node sending the CALP to the peripheral nodes.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising using the signal from the motion sensor to determine that the motion sensor is not at the determined point and consequently putting a radio component of the peripheral node into a sleep mode.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising using the signal from the motion sensor to determine that the motion sensor has moved to the determined point and consequently attempting to wirelessly communicate between the nodes, optionally further comprising waking up a radio component of the peripheral node so as to exit a sleep mode consequent to determining that the motion sensor has moved to the determined point and prior to the attempting to wirelessly communicate between the nodes.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the using the signal from the motion sensor to determine that the motion sensor has moved to the determined point comprises:

the hub node transmitting a beacon signal containing indexing information indicative of a point within the motion profile that corresponds to the signal currently produced by the motion sensor; and

the peripheral node;

receiving the beacon signal containing indexing information,

using the indexing information to identify a point within the channel quality profile or a profile derived therefrom, and

determining that the identified point corresponds to the determined point.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the motion sensor is at the hub node and so the motion profile is a hub node motion profile, the method further comprising creating a peripheral node motion profile by recording a signal produced by a motion sensor at the peripheral node as it moves periodically, wherein the using the signal from the motion sensor to determine that the motion sensor has moved to the determined point comprises:

the hub node transmitting a beacon signal containing indexing information indicative of a point within the hub node motion profile that corresponds to the signal currently produced by the hub node motion sensor;

indexing the peripheral node motion profile using the indexing information and determining that the indexed point within the peripheral node motion profile corresponds to the signal currently produced by the peripheral node motion sensor;

using the indexing information to identify a point within the channel quality profile or a profile derived therefrom, and

determining that the identified point corresponds to the determined point.

12. The method of claim 4, wherein the motion sensor is at the hub node and so the motion profile is a hub node motion profile, the method further comprising creating a peripheral node motion profile by recording, for a plurality of time points corresponding to the plurality of time points for which the channel quality profile was assessed, a signal produced by a motion sensor at the peripheral node as it moves periodically, the method further comprising using the signal from the peripheral node motion sensor to determine that that motion sensor has moved to the determined point and consequently attempting to wirelessly communicate between the nodes, optionally further comprising waking up a radio component of the peripheral node so as to exit a sleep mode consequent to determining that the peripheral node motion sensor has moved to the determined point and prior to the attempting to wirelessly communicate between the nodes.

6. A method of determining preferable conditions for Medium Access Control, MAC, communication within a Wireless Body Area Network, WBAN, having a hub node and a peripheral node, the method comprising:

determining that a motion sensor is moving periodically;

creating a motion profile by recording a signal produced by the motion sensor as it moves periodically;

determining that the created motion profile is similar to or the same as a previously recorded motion profile in which a point for wirelessly communicating between the nodes has previously been determined based on a channel quality profile.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein determining that the created motion profile is similar to or the same as a previously recorded motion profile comprises performing an evaluation of the similarity of the created motion profile and the previously recorded motion profile and comparing the evaluated similarity to a predetermined threshold.

13. An apparatus or system arranged to perform a method, the method comprising:

determining that a motion sensor is moving periodically;

creating a motion profile by recording a signal produced by the motion sensor as it moves periodically;

creating a channel quality profile based on an assessment of channel quality between the nodes of the WBAN as the motion sensor moves periodically; and

determining, based on the channel quality profile, a point in the motion profile for wirelessly communicating between the nodes.

14. A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising machine readable instructions arranged, when executed by one or more processors, to cause the one or more processors to carry out a method, the method comprising:

determining that a motion sensor is moving periodically;

creating a motion profile by recording a signal produced by the motion sensor as it moves periodically;

creating a channel quality profile based on an assessment of channel quality between the nodes of the WBAN as the motion sensor moves periodically; and

determining, based on the channel quality profile, a point in the motion profile for wirelessly communicating between the nodes.