A next-generation mobile telemedicine testbed based on 3G cellular standard

The digital cellular network can play an important role in mobile telemedicine applications. Since the network is gradually evolving from the second generation (2G), such as GSM, to the third generation (3G), a testbed based on the 3G cellular standard is proposed for next-generation mobile telemedicine. The 3G-based testbed (12.2 kbps~2 Mbps) has higher and wider data transmission rates than its 2G version (up to 9.6 kbps). Thus, more medical services can be designed and tested using this new testbed. To demonstrate the usefulness of the testbed, we deign a simple telecardiology system as an example. Experimental results show that the proposed testbed has the potential to evaluate and improve the quality of service (QoS) for mobile medical applications using the 3G cellular standard