TY - GEN

T1 - Measurements based performance evaluation of 3G wireless networks supporting m-health services

AU - Wac, Katarzyna

AU - Bults, Richard

AU - Van Halteren, Aart

AU - Konstantas, Dimitri

AU - Nicola, Victor

PY - 2005/7/21

Y1 - 2005/7/21

N2 - The emergence of 3G networks gives rise to new mobile services in many different areas of our daily life. Examples of demanding mobile services are mobile-healthcare (i.e. m-health) services allowing the continuous monitoring of a patient's vital signs. However, a prerequisite for the successful deployment of m-health services are appropriate performance characteristics of transport services offered by an underlying wireless network (e.g. 3G). In this direction, the EU MobiHealth1 project targeted the evaluation of 3G networks and their ability to support demanding m-health services. The project developed and trialled a patient monitoring system, evaluating at the same time the network's performance. This paper presents measurements based performance evaluation methodology developed and applied to assess network performance from an end-user perspective. In addition, it presents the (selected) speed-related evaluation (best-case scenario) results collected during the project. Our measurements show the dynamicity in the performance of 3G networks and phenomena negatively influencing this performance. Based on the evaluation results, we conclude that in-spite of certain shortcomings of existing 3G networks, they are suitable to support a significant set of m-health services. A set of recommendations provide a road map for both operators and service developers for design and deployment of m-health services.

AB - The emergence of 3G networks gives rise to new mobile services in many different areas of our daily life. Examples of demanding mobile services are mobile-healthcare (i.e. m-health) services allowing the continuous monitoring of a patient's vital signs. However, a prerequisite for the successful deployment of m-health services are appropriate performance characteristics of transport services offered by an underlying wireless network (e.g. 3G). In this direction, the EU MobiHealth1 project targeted the evaluation of 3G networks and their ability to support demanding m-health services. The project developed and trialled a patient monitoring system, evaluating at the same time the network's performance. This paper presents measurements based performance evaluation methodology developed and applied to assess network performance from an end-user perspective. In addition, it presents the (selected) speed-related evaluation (best-case scenario) results collected during the project. Our measurements show the dynamicity in the performance of 3G networks and phenomena negatively influencing this performance. Based on the evaluation results, we conclude that in-spite of certain shortcomings of existing 3G networks, they are suitable to support a significant set of m-health services. A set of recommendations provide a road map for both operators and service developers for design and deployment of m-health services.

KW - 3G

KW - m-health service

KW - Measurements

KW - Performance evaluation methodology

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=21844466763&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1117/12.592229

DO - 10.1117/12.592229

M3 - Conference article

AN - SCOPUS:21844466763

VL - 5680

SP - 176

EP - 187

JO - Progress in Biomedical Optics and Imaging

JF - Progress in Biomedical Optics and Imaging

SN - 1605-7422

M1 - 19

T2 - Proceedings of SPIE-IS and T Electronic Imaging - Multimedia Computing and Networking 2005

Y2 - 19 January 2005 through 20 January 2005

ER -