UWB and mmWave Communication Techniques and Systems for Healthcare - Ultra-Wideband and 60 GHz Communications for Biomedical Applications - page 6

Table 1 Examples of medical WBAN applications. [ 11 ]
Application Data rate Bandwidth (Hz) Accuracy (bits)

ECG (12 leads) 288 kbps 100-1,000 12

ECG (6 leads) 71 kbps 100-500 12

EMG 320 kbps 0-10,000 16

EEG (12 leads) 43.2 kbps 0-150 12

Blood saturation 16 bps 0-1 8

Glucose monitoring 1,600 bps 0-50 16

Temperature 120 bps 0-1 8

Motion sensor 35 kbps 0-500 12

Cochlear implant 100 kbps - -

Artificial retina 50-700 kbps - -

Audio 1 Mbps - -

Voice 50-100 kbps - -

On-Body UWB Communication Systems

WBAN forms a special network structure to implement a small-scale operational
environment for medical purposes. Several vital parameters from a human body
could be monitored using small on-body sensors, preferably in a non-invasive man-
ner. Moreover, implanted in-body sensors could provide important information on
internal changes of organs or implanted devices. A communication from in-body to
on-body terminals, and then to a backbone infrastructure, requires effective wireless
solutions for WBAN implementation. From a radio link point of view, UWB could
be such a solution.
UWB also provides tools to measure the spatial movement or trajectory of an
implant after installation. This has a great impact on human healing process because
the implant can non-invasively report its conditions and, thus, additional surgical
operations are avoided [ 10 ].
Finally, UWB is also known in the field of radar techniques that have already been
investigated for monitoring vital parameters of a patient (i.e. heart rate, respiration
rate, lungs, etc.) in a non-invasive way. In a body area network (BAN), these data are
collected by sensors that are communicating wirelessly with an access point placed
on the body. Such sensors require two separated units: one unit for sensing and the
other for communications purposes. A drastic simplification of this type of sensors
could be achieved by signal processing if the signal that propagates through the body
(the channel) can provide also such a vital data of interest. UWB can also be exploited
for in-body communications, e.g. from an implanted sensor to the access point on a
body.
Due to the strong heterogeneity of the applications, data rates will vary strongly,
ranging from simple data at a few kilobits per second to video streams of several
megabits per second. Data can also be sent in bursts, which means that it is sent at a
higher rate during the bursts. The data rates for the different applications are given in
and are calculated by means of the sampling rate, the range and the desired accuracy
of the measurements [ 11 ] (Table 1 ).
Overall, it can be seen that the application data rates are not high. However, if
one has a WBAN with several of these devices (i.e. a dozen motion sensors, ECG,