Methods for Interference Management in Medical Wireless Sensor Networks

Abstract

Emerging Medical Body Area Networks (MBANs) require new, protected spectrum for clinical applications. This may mean uncoordinated and autonomous operation of multiple MBANs, within the new candidate bands. The question is that how will MBANs coexist as a secondary service with other radio systems? Clinical environment requires balance of robust and efficient wireless techniques to enable coexistence of MBANs and other radio devices where low transmission power MBANs as secondary systems may be vulnerable to interference from incumbent devices transceivers. Physical separation between the MBANs and incumbent radio devices and avoiding the transmission in the same frequency bands among the wireless techniques may be considered. In this paper, we propose interference management techniques considering such coexistence between the MBANs and other radio systems and deal with the issue of co-existence with primary systems by proposing novel methods for a gateway-to-gateway coordination, to assist the methods described in the first and second part of this paper. Result is improved reliability and Quality of Service for MBANs. These would lead to multiple clinical benefits, including better patient mobility, more monitoring flexibility and extension of monitoring into care areas that are currently unmonitored. Reduced clinical errors and reduced overall monitoring costs are other results.