Real-time transmission of 2D echocardiograms over WiMax networks

This study presents a methodology to transmit 2D echocardiogram video over WiMAX networks in real-time. Before transmission the echocardiogram has to be compressed. In order to compress the echocardiogram the 3D SPIHT algorithm was used. To guarantee the clinical quality of the compressed echocardiogram a clinical evaluation of the compressed echocardiogram was carried out. The evaluation yielded the minimum transmission rate necessary for an accurate diagnosis, 200 kbps. However, the channel produces errors and distorts the video, so in order to reduce these errors a reliable application protocol was proposed using a hybrid solution in which retransmission was combined with Forward Error Correction (FEC) techniques. The transmission was simulated in WiMAX networks. The proposed protocol achieved 100 % of time with guaranteed clinical quality (200 kbps) for bit error rate up to 0.254, being this value lower than for the retransmissions and FEC working separately.