Title: Random access parameter control for reliable u-healthcare services with highly loaded BAN traffic

Authors: Ki-Dong Lee; Sang G. Kim; Byung K. Yi

Addresses: Research and Standards Group, LG Electronics Mobile Research, San Diego, CA, USA ' Research and Standards Group, LG Electronics Mobile Research, San Diego, CA, USA ' Research and Standards Group, LG Electronics Mobile Research, San Diego, CA, USA

Abstract: Recent advance in sensor technology has introduced its useful applications to medical body area network (MBAN). MBAN is considered as a cost-effective way to provide ubiquitous healthcare (u-healthcare) delivery service for the elderly people. This new type of service is expected to greatly improve the quality of their living. However, it is necessary to design a reliable access method in order to provide so-called ubiquitous services. To provide u-healthcare services, the sensor traffic gathered at a body central unit should be reliably delivered to the 'cloud' (or the destination/service centre) in time. We consider a cellular network as a medium for the traffic to reach the cloud. The current specifications for cellular systems provide prioritised access privilege for emergency call initiation (ECI) requests. However, if the ECI requests are overloaded, they cannot be effectively handled by the current method because they are all in the highest priority. We propose a simple and efficient method to handle this problem. Performance is evaluated and compared with the method specified in 3rd generation partnership project release 8. The proposed method is very useful for accommodating a number of (BANs) in a cellular network, especially when the number of active individual BAN users is densely populated and thus BAN traffic is highly loaded.

Keywords: u-healthcare services; ubiquitous healthcare; MBANs; medical BANs; body area networks; scheduling; access control; access stratum; long term evolution; elderly; old people; ageing population; quality of life; reliable access; cellular networks; access priority; emergency calls; emergency call initiation; ECI requests; remote monitoring; patient monitoring; reliability.

DOI: 10.1504/IJAACS.2013.054827

International Journal of Autonomous and Adaptive Communications Systems, 2013 Vol.6 No.3, pp.240 - 252

Published online: 13 Sep 2014 *

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