| Unit name | Wireless Networking and Sensing in e-Healthcare |
|---|---|
| Unit code | EENGM0013 |
| Credit points | 10 |
| Level of study | M/7 |
| Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12) |
| Unit director | Dr. Mellios |
| Open unit status | Not open |
| Pre-requisites |
Undergraduate degree in Engineering |
| Co-requisites |
None |
| School/department | Department of Electrical & Electronic Engineering |
| Faculty | Faculty of Engineering |
Ageing of the global population is unprecedented and the number of older people is expected to exceed the number of younger people for the first time by 2050. The existing medical system will not be able to meet this continuously increasing demand, and therefore the use of digital technologies for healthcare monitoring is essential. This unit focuses on Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) for e-healthcare applications and is divided in three parts:
The first part of this unit covers the following topics:
- Wireless Networking and Sensing: Requirements and Challenges - Introduction to TCP/IP networking. - TCP/IP networking for constrained environments. - Common standards and technologies used for e-healthcare applications (IEEE 802.15.4, BLE, 6LoWPAN).The second part focuses on antennas and radiowave propagation, which essentially constitute the basic elements of the wireless channel. The wireless channel plays a key role in any wireless communication system as it determines the quality and the reliability of the link and hence has a great impact on the Quality-of-Service (QoS) offered by the system as a whole. In body-centric WSNs, in particular, the human body imposes a number of extra challenges such as energy absorption, antenna detuning, polarisation misalignment and propagation shadowing. The aim of this part of the unit is to describe the basic characteristics of antennas and radio propagation, and to provide a thorough understanding of the aforementioned challenges. Solutions that improve the wireless performance of a body-centric WSN are also investigated using a real-world e-healthcare monitoring system as a case-study.
The third part of the unit will introduce fundamental concepts allowing to achieve reliable communications in the presence of noise and interference. Low power sensing systems typically employ error detection mechanisms such as Cyclic Redundancy Check. Diversity is another method of introducing additional resilience in the sensing system. This part will also introduce basic concepts from information theory which will be used to define efficient signal representation and compression.
Describe mechanisms used to obtain wireless link signal reliability in low power sensor networks
A combination of lectures and seminars
Exam 80%; two pieces of coursework 10% each
G.Z. Yang, Body Sensor Networks, 2nd edition, Springer, 2014.
J.P. Vasseur and A. Dunkels, Interconnecting Smart Objects with IP: The Next Internet, Morgan Kaufmann, 2010.
P.S. Hall and Y. Hao, Antennas and Propagation for Body-centric Wireless Communications, 2nd edition, Artech House Publishers, 2012.
J. Proakis, Digital Communications, 4th edition, McGraw Hill, 2000.
