Keynote Speech III

Recent advances in very-low-power wireless communications have stimulated great interest in the development and application of wireless technology in biomedical applications, including wireless body area sensor networks (WBASNs). A WBASN consists of multiple sensor nodes capable of sampling, processing, and communicating one or more vital signs (e.g., heart rate, brain activity, blood pressure, oxygen saturation) and/or environmental parameters (location, temperature, humidity, light) over extended periods via wireless transmissions over short distances. Low cost implementation and ubiquitous deployment calls for the use of license-exempt ISM bands, in which co-existence of other license-exempt devices, particular WiFi radios, negatively impacts on the robustness of WBASNs. We shall present some proposals to increase the robustness of wireless access in WBASNs by identifying and taking advantages of spectrum holes that are unused by coexisting devices. Simulation and experimental results are presented to show the effective of our proposals in increasing the robustness of channel access in WBASNs. We shall also introduce the Laboratory for Wireless Networks and Mobile Systems, the Communications Group, the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the University of British Columbia.