Heterogeneous Multi-Hop Transmission of Compressed ECG Data from Wireless Body Area Network

Nowadays, the healthcare market keeps growing with an increasing aging population. As a promising technology, a body area network (BAN) consisting of biomedical sensors across a human body can gather vital life signals such as electrocardiogram (ECG), pulse, and blood pressure to facilitate effective diagnosis. The BAN can be further integrated with existing wireless infrastructure to offer mHealth services. In this paper, we analyze the transmission performance of compressed ECG data over a heterogeneous multi-hop wireless channel. The ECG data from a BAN are compressed and sent through a Bluetooth-enabled ECG monitor to a smart phone and thereafter to a cellular base station. Due to potentially life-threatening situations, timely delivery of ECG data is an essential requirement. Exploiting the inherent heartbeat pattern in ECG traffic, we introduce a context-aware packetization for ECG transmission. Further, a non-preemptive priority rule is applied to mitigate the impact of background traffic and prioritize the transmission of critical ECG data. Then, we analytically evaluate the overall transmission delay of ECG packets.