Improvements to body area networks

Abstract

A method of declaring an emergency condition in a wireless sensor network, the wireless sensor network comprising a plurality of devices (10, 11, 12) including sensors (11) arranged for monitoring at least one living body or other entity, the method comprising steps of: sensing a value of parameter related to the living body by one of the sensors (11); wirelessly transmitting information by said sensor to another device (10) in the network; determining existence or non-existence of an emergency condition affecting said living body by using said sensed value or said transmitted information; and declaring existence or non-existence of the emergency condition to at least one other device (e.g. 10) in the network. The determining step may be carried out in any of the sensor (11), a coordinator (10) of the wireless sensor network, or a central monitor (12) in communication with the coordinator. The declaring step may be performed by setting a frame control field of a frame-based wireless sensor network to a value predefined as denoting an emergency frame. An acknowledgement frame may be used by the recipient to acknowledge receipt of the emergency declaration, after which an emergency procedure is followed. The emergency procedure can involve, for example, increasing the bandwidth allocated to the sensor so as to ensure reliability of subsequent information from the sensor. The method may be applied, for example, to monitoring of patients in a hospital using MBANs operating in accordance with IEEE 802.15.6.

Description

technical field [0001] The present invention relates to wireless sensor networks including personal area networks and in particular, but not exclusively, to body area networks including wireless communicating sensors disposed on or around or implanted in a human or animal body. Background technique [0002] Various types of wireless sensor networks have been proposed. Among these wireless sensor networks, the so-called Body Area Network or BAN is an example of a Wireless Personal Area Network (WPAN) for transmitting information over a relatively short distance. [0003] Unlike wireless local area networks (WLANs), connections via WPANs involve little infrastructure. This feature allows for a small, power efficient, inexpensive solution to a wide range of devices. Of particular interest is the possibility of a medical BAN (MBAN) in which sensors are used to monitor the patient's condition. A BAN that primarily employs sensors for feeding sensing data to data receivers is a...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

Existing standards such as IEEE 802.15.4 have been designed for commercial applications without considering such emergency life-saving situations

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