Improvements to body area networks
US8704656B2 · kind B2 · utility
Assignee
Inventor
Key dates
| Filing date | Feb 1, 2010 |
| Grant date | Apr 22, 2014 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Jun 8, 2030 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
- CPC primaryH04W84/18
- WIPO fieldDigital communication
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
A method of operating a wireless sensor network having a plurality of network devices including sensors (11E, 13) for monitoring a plurality of parameters, and a coordinator (10) for communicating with the network devices either directly in a star protocol or indirectly in a peer-to-peer protocol, the method comprising: arranging the coordinator (10) for communication over a low-priority link with at least a subset of the network devices; gathering sensor data by sensors of the network devices and transferring the data to the coordinator; detecting existence of an emergency state with respect to at least one of the network devices (11E); and establishing a high-priority link with the devices (11E) in the emergency state, the high-priority link having higher priority for network resources than the low-priority link. The method may be applied, for example, to monitoring of patients in a hospital using MBANs operating in accordance with IEEE 802.15.6.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.