UWB and mmWave Communication Techniques and Systems for Healthcare - Ultra-Wideband and 60 GHz Communications for Biomedical Applications - page 3

Both categories strongly benefit by the use of wireless interfaces that enable an
easier application and are more cost-efficient. Indeed, recent developments have led
to the fabrication of small and intelligent (bio) medical sensors which can be worn
on or implanted in the human body, but need to send data to a medical server for
further analysis. Wired connections turn out to be too cumbersome, involve high cost
for deployment and maintenance and will strongly impact the everyday life of the
patient. By the use of wireless, the patient experiences a greater physical mobility
and is no longer compelled to stay in a hospital.
While eHealth is defined as the healthcare practice supported by electronic pro-
cesses and communication, the healthcare is now going a step further by becoming
mobile. This is referred to as mHealth. In order to fully exploit the benefits of wire-
less technologies in telemedicine and mHealth, a new type of wireless network has
emerged: a wireless on-body network or a wireless body area network (WBAN). A
WBAN consists of small, intelligent devices attached on or implanted in the body,
which are capable of establishing a wireless communication link. These devices
provide continuous health monitoring and real-time feedback to the user or medical
personnel. For instance, small battery-powered biosensors such as an insulin pump
with glucometer, wearable fall detector, electrocardiogram monitor and an oximeter
can be wirelessly connected through a WBAN to allow an elderly patient to be re-
motely monitored by a healthcare provider while in his/her home. Furthermore, the
measurements can be recorded over a longer period of time, improving the quality
of the measured data [ 1 ].
In principle, any wireless technology can be used in eHealth and mHealth contexts
depending on the specific application, its related data rate and quality of service (QoS)
requirements. However in the last few years, high data rate wireless technologies,
especially ultra-wideband (UWB) and millimetre-waves (mmWaves), have emerged
as the new paradigm for wireless personal area networks (PANs) [ 2 ]. Both of them
are short-range high-throughput wireless technologies able to provide data rates of
several hundred Mbps (and also Gbps in case of 60-GHz mmWaves).
So far, the best candidate technology for WBAN has been the UWB, leading to
standardization within, e.g., the IEEE 802.15.6 or 802.15.4a, thanks to its intrinsic
characteristics, namely, the good material penetration properties, low power emis-
sions, low-interference operation, robustness against multi-path, radar-like operation
and high temporal resolution, enabling accurate sub-centimetres localizations [ 3 , 4 ].
The new emerging mmWave technology offers very large unlicensed bands
available almost worldwide and is nowadays envisaged for very high data rate trans-
missions, including bulk data transfer and (uncompressed) video streaming over short
ranges. Whereas UWB has represented the basis for WBAN standards and imaging
sensors, mmWave radios are suitable candidates for hospital-centric systems wher-
ever high data rate diagnostic systems need to be connected to a central server in
a cost-effective way that is non-invasive for the patient. Indeed, mmWave signals
are mostly reflected by the human body and can be used only to connect wearable
devices, not for implantable or endoscopic devices [ 5 , 6 ].
In this chapter, we propose a survey of UWB and mmWave communication
systems and standards for the provision of healthcare services. To the best of our
knowledge, currently available solutions for pervasive healthcare are based on UWB,
while there is no example of 60-GHz mmWave in this field. Hence, we discuss the