Description
Cognitive Radio (CR) defines smart wireless communication systems that can be aware of the environment in which they operate. In a hospital environment, the use of CR is ideal for improving the reliability of the different medical equipment, in the deployment of telemedicine, and for wireless medical control. This project aims to link together Cognitive Radio (an emerging communication mechanism) with Prioritized Resource Reservation (which is a well-established Real-Time and Distributed technique). The partnership proposes the development of a distributed system that allows the effective temporal management of the communication channel supported by Cognitive Radio. The donor partner, Oslo University Hospital, has a broad experience in the field of Cognitive Radio in hospital environments. They have developed a large number of medical monitoring systems with different wireless communication technologies. Results will allow the development of more efficient medical communication devices with higher sensing rates and lower EMI.
Summary of project results
The Cognitive Radio (CR) concept defines smart wireless communication systems that can be aware of the environment in which they operate. Their internal operational parameters can be adapted so as to use the radio-electromagnetic spectrum in a more effective way. The concept has been developed in different wireless communication environments, especially for Personal area Wireless Sensor Networks. By using the CR paradigm, wireless networks with more intense use of the radio-electromagnetic space with less interference between stations can be achieved. In these networks, the communication elements carry out constant estimations on the status of the different communication channels. These measures allow the receivers and transmitters to establish communication in different channels according to their respective occupancy. Thereby, outstanding characteristics can be obtained, such as fine control of the transmission power, higher reliability rates, fewer network collisions, etc. Wiring all the equipment in an operating room is a critical problem. On the one hand, its results in loss of ergonomics and more complexity of the tasks carried out by the healthcare staff and on the other hand, it may represent a source of infection, As a result, wiring in these environments is reduced to the lowest possible extent or even fully avoided if possible. The use of CR is ideal for improving the reliability of the different media equipment, in the deployment of telemedicine, and for wireless medical control. Through the use of CR, the transmission power can be reduced. As a result, the electromagnetic interference can be also very low, which is particularly important to protect medical equipment. During the project, a study was fulfilled of the state of the art about data collection networks with priority constraints, covering a wide range of challenges such as network policies under saturation conditions, medium access policies taking into acc8unt the priority of the information, clustering formation; data merge mechanisms; among others. As result of this study, different proposals were developed to achieve the project goal. After the NILS funding, partners are developing the network infrastructure, and the testing and publishing of the proposals is being designed. Several scientific papers have been prepared and a Seminar about wireless network challenges was organized, specifically about high performance programming in surgical activities.
Summary of bilateral results
The project was implemented as a joint activity and shared results have been obtained, among others in the form of several joint scientific papers. Collaboration among University of Cordoba and Oslo University Hospital in future European projects could be started, related to networks and sensors in hospital environments. Complementary collaborations in Medical Image Processing have been started, through a bilateral relations activity funding within the NILS programme, entitled GPU Processing for planning of liver resection surgery. Main beneficiaries of the project shall be hospital patients by further data monitoring of vital signals. Results will be deployed first at Reina Sofía (Spain) and Oslo (Norway) Hospitals, and in the future shall be extended to anyone, as results will be presented to the scientific community.