Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Body Sensor Network'

The thesis deals with sensor networks and their localization. First section describes sensor networks in general and explains problems of localization and routing. The second part deals with localization using anchors. The principal of the Dv-hop and DV-Distance are there described in detail. These algorithms are used for simulations in Matlab in the main part of this thesis. According to the simulations the most sufficient number of sensors for good localization is estimated.

Emerging body-wearable sensor devices for continuous health monitoring are severely energy constrained and yet required to offer high communication reliability under fluctuating channel conditions. This thesis aims at investigating the opportunities and challenges in the use of dynamic radio transmit power control for prolonging the lifetime of such devices. We first present extensive empirical evidence that the wireless link quality can change rapidly in body area networks, and a fixed transmit power results in either wasted energy (when the link is good) or low reliability (when the link is bad). We then propose a class of schemes feasible for practical implementation that adapt transmit power in real-time based on feedback information from the receiver. We show conservative, balanced, and aggressive adaptations of our scheme that progressively achieve higher energy savings of 14%-30% in exchange for higher potential packet losses (up to 10%). We also provide guidelines on how the parameters can be tuned to achieve the desired trade-off between energy savings and reliability within the chosen operating environment. Finally, we implement and profile our scheme on a MicaZ mote based platform, demonstrating that energy savings are achievable even with imperfect feedback information, and report preliminary results on the ultra-low-power integrated healthcare monitoring platform from our collaborating partner Toumaz Technology. In conclusion, our work shows adaptive radio transmit power control as a low-cost way of extending the battery-life of severely energy constrained body wearable devices, and opens the door to further optimizations customized for specific deployment scenarios.

ITC/USA 2008 Conference Proceedings / The Forty-Fourth Annual International Telemetering Conference and Technical Exhibition / October 27-30, 2008 / Town and Country Resort & Convention Center, San Diego, California
This paper describes the design and construction of a low-cost wireless sensor network (WSN) intended to track a human body walking upright through its physical topology. The network consists of arrays of pyroelectric infrared (PIR) sensors that can detect a moving body up to five meters away within a semicircular field of view. Data is gathered from these arrays and transmitted to a central processor that triangulates the body's position. Important characteristics of both the PIR sensors and the network's asynchronous nature are elaborated upon to illustrate how they affect the interpretation of the data.

Short range wireless data communication networks that are used for sport and health care are sometimes called Wireless Body Area Networks (WBANs) and they are located more or less on a person. Sole Integrated Gait Sensor (SIGS) is a research project in WBAN, where wireless pressure sensors are placed like soles in the shoes of persons with different kinds of deceases. The sensors can measure the pressure of the foot relative to the shoe i.e. the load of the two legs is measured. This information can be useful e.g. to not over or under load a leg after joint replacement or as a bio feedback system to help e.g. post stroke patients to avoid falling. The SIGS uses the ANT Protocol and radio specification. ANT uses the 2.4 GHz ISM band and TDMA is used to share a single frequency. The scheduling of time slots is adaptive isochronous co-existence i.e. the scheduling is not static and each transmitter sends periodically but checks for interference with other traffic on the radio channel. In this unidirectional system sole sensors are masters (transmitters) and the WBAN server is the slave in ANT sense. The message rate is chosen as 8 Hz which is suitable for low power consumption. Hence in the SIGS system, it is necessary to synchronize the left and the right foot sensors because of low message rate. In our thesis, we found a method and developed a prototype to receive the time synchronized data in WBAN server from ANT wireless sensor nodes in SIGS system. For this thesis work, a hardware prototype design was developed. The USB and USART communication protocols were also implemented in the hardware prototype. The suitable method for time synchronization was implemented on the hardware prototype. The implemented method receives the sensor data, checks for the correct stream of data; add timestamp to the sensor data and transmit the data to the Linux WBAN server. The time slots allocation in the ANT protocol was found. Alternative solution for the time synchronization in ANT protocol was also provided. The whole SIGS system was tested for its full functionality. The experiments and analysis which we performed were successful and the results obtained provided good time synchronization protocol for ANT low power wireless sensor network and for Wireless Bio-feedback system.

Doctor of Philosophy
Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering
Steve Warren
The U.S. health care system is one of the most advanced and costly systems in the world. The health services supply/demand gap is being enlarged by the aging population coupled with shortages in the traditional health care workforce and new information technology workers. This will not change if the current medical system adheres to the traditional hospital-centered model. One promising solution is to incorporate patient-centered, point-of-care test systems that promote proactive and preventive care by utilizing technology advancements in sensors, devices, communication standards, engineering systems, and information infrastructures. Biomedical devices optimized for home and mobile health care environments will drive this transition. This dissertation documents research and development focused on biomedical device design for this purpose (including a wearable wireless pulse oximeter, motion sensor, and two-thumb electrocardiograph) and, more importantly, their interactions with other medical components, their supporting information infrastructures, and processing tools that illustrate the effectiveness of their data. The GumPack concept and prototype introduced in Chapter 2 addresses these aspects, as it is a sensor-laden device, a host for a local body area network (BAN), a portal to external integration frameworks, and a data processing platform. GumPack sensor-component design (Chapters 3 and 4) is oriented toward surface applications (e.g., touch and measure), an everyday-carry form factor, and reconfigurability. Onboard tagging technology (Chapters 5 and 6) enhances sensor functionality by providing, e.g., a signal quality index and confidence coefficient for itself and/or next-tier medical components (e.g., a hub). Sensor interaction and integration work includes applications based on the GumPack design (Chapters 7 through 9) and the Medical Device Coordination Framework (Chapters 10 through 12). A high-resolution, wireless BAN is presented in Chapter 8, followed by a new physiological use case for pulse wave velocity estimation in Chapter 9. The collaborative MDCF work is transitioned to a web-based Hospital Information Integration System (Chapter 11) by employing database, AJAX, and Java Servlet technology. Given the preceding sensor designs and the availability of information infrastructures like the MDCF, medical platform-oriented devices (Chapter 12) could be an innovative and efficient way to design medical devices for hospital and home health care applications.

The main focus of the work presented in this licentiate thesis concerns antenna design, adaptive antenna control and investigation on how the performance of small wireless nodes can be increased by inclusion of multiple antennas. In order to provide an end-user suitable solution for wireless nodes the devices require both small form factor and good performance in order to be competitive on the marked and thus the main part of this thesis focuses on techniques developed to achieve these goals. Two prototype systems have been developed where one has been used by National Defence Research Agency (FOI) to successfully monitor a test-subject moving in an outdoor terrain. The other prototype system shows the overall performance gain achievable in a wireless sensor node when multiple antennas and antenna beam steering is used. As an example of how to include multiple antennas in a wireless node the concept of using dual conformal patch antennas for wireless nodes is presented. The proposed antenna showed an excess of 10 dB gain when using a single driven antenna element as would be the case in a system utilizing antenna selection combining. When used as a 2-element phased array, up to 19 dB gain was obtained in a multiscattering environment. Using the second order resonance the proposed antenna structure achieves low mutual coupling and a reflection coefficient lower than -15 dB. The presented antenna design shows how a dual antenna wireless node can be designed using discrete phase control with passive matching which provides a good adaptive antenna solution usable for wireless sensor networks. The inclusion of discrete phase sweep diversity in a wireless node has been evaluated and shown to provide a significant diversity gain. The diversity gain of a discrete phase sweep diversity based system was measured in both a reverberation chamber and a real life office environment. The former environment showed between 5.5 to 10.3 dB diversity gain depending on the detector architecture and the latter showed a diversity gain ranging from 1 to 5.4 dB. Also the performance of nodes designed to be placed in a high temperature and multiscattering environment (the fan stage of a jet engine) has been evaluated. The work was carried out in order to verify that a wireless sensor network is able to operate in such a multiscattering environment. It was shown that the wireless nodes are able to operate in an emulated turbine environment based on real-life measured turbine fading data. The tested sensor network was able to transmit 32 byte packages using cyclic redundancy check at 2 Mbps at an engine speed of 13.000 rpm.
WISENET
WISEJET

Le réseau de capteurs porté est une technologie d’avenir prometteuse à multiple domaines d’application allant du médical à l’interface homme machine. Le projet BoWI a pour ambition d’évaluer la possibilité d’élaborer un réseau de capteurs utilisable au quotidien dans un large spectre d’applications et ergonomiquement acceptable pour le grand public. Cela induit la nécessité de concevoir un nœud de réseau ultra basse consommation pour à la fois convenir à une utilisation prolongée et sans encombrement pour le porteur. La solution retenue est de concevoir un nœud capable de travailler avec une énergie comparable à ce que l’état de l’art de la récolte d’énergie est capable de fournir. Une solution ASIC est privilégiée afin de tenir les contraintes d’intégration et de basse consommation. La conception de l’architecture dédiée a nécessité une étude préalable à plusieurs niveaux. Celle-ci comprend un état de l’art de la récolte d’énergie afin de fixer un objectif de budget énergie/puissance de notre système. Une étude des usages du système a été nécessaire notamment pour la reconnaissance postures afin de déterminer les cas d’applications types. Cette étude a conduit au développement d’algorithmes permettant de répondre aux applications choisies tout en s’assurant de la viabilité de leurs implantations. Le budget énergie fixé est un objectif de 100µW. Les applications choisies sont la reconnaissance de posture, la reconnaissance de geste et la capture de mouvement. Les solutions algorithmiques choisis sont une fusion de données de capteurs inertiels par Filtre de Kalman étendu (EKF) et l’ajout d’une classification par analyse en composante principale. La solution retenue pour obtenir des résultats d’implémentation est la synthèse de haut niveau qui permet un développement rapide. Les résultats de l’implantation matérielle sont dominés principalement par l’EKF. À la suite de l’étude, il apparait qu’il est possible avec une technologie 28nm d’atteindre les objectifs de budget énergie pour la partie algorithme. Une évaluation de la gestion haut niveau de tous les composants du nœud est également effectuée afin de donner une estimation plus précise des performances du système dans un cas d’application réel. Une contribution supplémentaire est obtenue avec l’ajout de la détection d’activité qui permet de prédire la charge de calcul nécessaire et d’adapter dynamiquement l’utilisation des ressources de traitement et des capteurs afin d’optimiser l’énergie en fonction de l’activité
Wireless Body Sensor Network (WBSN) is a promising technology that can be used in a lot of application domains from health care to Human Machine Interface (HMI). The BoWI project ambition is to evaluate and design a WBSN that can be used in various applications with daily usage and accessible to the public. This necessitates to design a ultra-low power node that reach a day of use without discomfort for the user. The elected solution is to design a node that operates with the power budget similar to what can be provided by the state of the art of the energy harvesting. An Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) solution is privileged in order to meet the integration and low power constraints. Designing the dedicated architecture required a preliminary study at several level which are: a state of the art of the energy harvesting in order to determine the objective of energy/power budget of our system, A study of the usage of the system to determine and select typical application cases. A study of the algorithms to address the selected applications while considering the implementation viability of the solutions. The power budget objective is set to 100µW. The application selected are the posture recognition, the gesture recognition and the motion capture. The algorithmic solution proposed are a data-fusion based on an Extended Kalman FIlter (EKF) with the addition of a classification using Principal Component Analysis (PCA). The implementation tool used to design the architecture is an High Level Synthesis (HLS) solution. Implementation results mainly focus on the EKF since this is by far the most power consuming digital part of the system. Using a 28nm technology the power budget objective can be reached for the algorithmic part. A study of the top level management of all components of the node is done in order to estimate performances of the system in real application case. This is possible using an activity detection which dynamically estimates the computing load required and then save a maximum of energy while the node is still

This dissertation will present several novel techniques that use cooperation and diversity to improve the performance of multihop Wireless Sensor Networks, as measured by throughput, delay, and reliability, beyond what is achievable with conventional error control technology. We will investigate the applicability of these new technologies to Wireless Body Area Networks (WBANs) an important emerging class of wireless sensor networks. WBANs, which promise significant improvement in the reliability of monitoring and treating people's health, comprise a number of sensors and actuators that may either be implanted in vivo or mounted on the surface of the human body, and which are capable of wireless communication to one or more external nodes that are in close proximity to the human body. Our focus in this research is on enhancing the performance of WBANs, especially for emerging real-time in vivo traffic such as streaming real-time video during surgery. Because of the nature of this time-sensitive application, retransmissions may not be possible. Furthermore, achieving minimal energy consumption, with the required level of reliability is critical for the proper functioning of many wireless sensor and body area networks. Additionally, regardless of the traffic characteristics, the techniques we introduce strive to realize reliable wireless sensor networks using (occasionally) unreliable components (wireless sensor nodes). To improve the performance of wireless sensor networks, we introduce a novel technology Cooperative Network Coding, a technology that synergistically integrates the prior art of Network Coding with Cooperative Communications. With the additional goal of further minimizing the energy consumed by the network, another novel technology Cooperative Diversity Coding was introduced and is used to create protection packets at the source node. For representative applications, optimized Cooperative Diversity Coding or Cooperative Network Coding achieves ≥ 25% energy savings compared to the baseline Cooperative Network Coding scheme. Cooperative Diversity Coding requires lees computational complexity at the source node compared to Cooperative Network Coding. To improve the performance and increase the robustness and reliability of WBANs, two efficient feedforward error-control technologies, Cooperative Network Coding (CDC) and Temporal Diversity Coding (TDC), are proposed. Temporal Diversity Coding applies Diversity Coding in time to improve the WBAN's performance. By implementing this novel technique, it is possible to achieve significant improvement (50%) in throughput compared to extant WBANs. An example of an implementation of in vivo real-time application, where TDC can improve the communications performance, is the MARVEL (Miniature Anchored Robotic Videoscope for Expedited Laparoscopy) research platform developed at USF. The MARVEL research platform requires high bit rates (100 Mbps) for high-definition transmission. Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM), a widely used technology in fourth generation wireless networks (4G) that achieves high transmission rates over dispersive channels by transmitting serial information through multiple parallel carriers. Combining Diversity Coding with OFDM (DC-OFDM) promises high reliability communications while preserving high transmission rates. Most of the carriers transport original information while the remaining (few) carriers transport diversity coded (protection) information. The impact of DC-OFDM can extend far beyond in vivo video medical devices and other special purpose wireless systems and may find significant application in a broad range of ex vivo wireless systems, such as LTE, 802.11, 802.16.

Taking into account modern trends, the analysis of the construction principles of telemadic systems, networks and complexes is presented in the work. The general structure of providing telemedicine services is developed. Structures of realization of portable and mobile telemedicine complexes are offered. Infocommunication systems and networks for implementation in mobile telemedicine complexes are analyzed. The advantages of using the sensor mobile body area network of the IEEE 802.15.6 WBAN standard in mobile telemedicine complexes are justified.

The emergence of the Internet of Things (IoT) brought about the widespread of Body Sensor Networks (BSN) that continuously monitor patients using a collection of tiny-powered and lightweight bio-sensors offering convenience to both physicians and patients in the modern health care environment. Unfortunately, the deployment of bio-sensors in public hacker-prone settings means that they are vulnerable to various security threats exposing the security and privacy of patient information. This thesis presents an authentication scheme for each of two applications of medical sensor networks. The first is an ECC based authentication scheme suitable for a hospital-like setting whereby the patient is hooked up to sensors connected to a medical device such as an ECG monitor while the doctor needs real-time access to continuous sensor readings. The second protocol is a Chebyshev chaotic map-based authentication scheme suitable for deployment on wearable sensors allowing readings from the lightweight sensors connected to patients to be sent and stored on a trusted server while the patient is on the move. We formally and informally proved the security of both schemes. We also simulated both of them on AVISPA to prove their resistance to active and passive attacks. Moreover, we analyzed their performance to show their competitiveness against similar schemes and their suitability for deployment in each of the intended scenarios.

This thesis starts with an investigation of the interactions in terms of data flow between parties involved in body area networks or BANs under healthcare scenarios targeting outdoor and indoor environments. Using these scenarios, data flow requirements are identified between BAN elements and parties involved in BANs such as patients and doctors. Identified requirements are used to generate BAN data flow models. Data flow models and key information security and the privacy requirements were used to design an access control policy model that would allow authorized parties to access medical resources and data securely.

Personal computing devices are becoming more and more popular. These devices are able to collaborate with each other using wireless communication technologies, and then support many applications. Some interesting examples of these are healthcare, context-aware computing, and sports training. In any such applications, security is of vital importance. Firstly, sensitive personal data is always collected in these applications, thus confidentiality is usually required. Secondly, authenticity and integrity of data or instructions are always critical; incorrect data or instructions are not only useless, but also harmful in some cases. This thesis analyses the security requirements of personal networks, and develops a number of multi-channel security protocols. With the help of out-of-band channels, especially no-spoofing and no-blocking out-of-band channels, these protocols can bootstrap security in personal networks. In particular, three kinds of security protocols have been studied: protocols that use human-controlled channels, protocols that use visible light communications, and protocols that use intra-body communications. Interesting trade-offs have been discovered among communication, computation and security, resulting from different channel implementations and protocols.

Actualment, els nodes de sensors sense fils que resideixen a la cambra reticle-ruminal dels animals remugants per recol·lectar i transmetre dades bioclimàtics vitals estan guanyant un reconeixement mundial en el maneig del bestiar. Els beneficis d'aquests dispositius, generalment coneguts com bols ruminals (de detecció), inclouen la supervisió en temps real de l'estabilitat del rumen, la prevenció de pèrdues i la millora del benestar animal. Europa, amb la major exportació de productes lactis del món, ha estat pionera en la investigació i el desenvolupament de bols ruminals, la majoria dels quals treballen a la banda de freqüència d'ús obert i sense llicència dins de les àrees científica i industrial de 433,05 MHz --- 434,79 MHz. D'altra banda, la creixent necessitat d'aplicar bols ruminals adequats al monitoratge de la salut dels petits remugants, com són les ovelles i les cabres, presenta nous reptes per als investigadors. Tenint en compte que la mida corporal d'aquests remugants és molt més petit en comparació amb les vaques, és indispensable reduir la mida del bol ruminal. Això afecta no només l'eficiència de la transmissió ràdio, sinó també a la vida útil del petit bol ruminal, com a resultat de les limitacions d'espai tant per al seu component de radiofreqüència com per a la unitat de potència. Així doncs, per als dispositius utilitzats en xarxes sense fil d'àrea corporal, el consum d'energia sol estar estretament relacionat amb que les configuracions del sistema donat que la transmissió sense fil, no només els elements de transmissió, sinó també influeixen les característiques de transmissió de radiofreqüència en el canal. Desafortunadament, s'han dedicat molt pocs esforços d'investigació al canal sense fil de bols ruminals per a petits remugants. Aquesta tesi doctoral s'ha centrat en la recerca d'una solució de radiofreqüència per bols ruminals destinats a petits remugants, que equilibrar les restriccions en la dimensió i el rendiment del dispositiu. Aquesta solució de radiofreqüència va consistir en la implementació d'una petita antena que pot ajustar-se a un petit bol ruminal que funciona a 433 MHz i la caracterització de la cadena de transmissió de radiofreqüència des de dins del cos amb un petit bol ruminal cap a fora del cos amb un receptor extern. El treball de recerca va començar amb el disseny d'una antena en espiral, amb una estructura geomètrica simple i personalitzada per a l'entorn de propagació de radiofreqüència desitjat. Per investigar l'enllaç de radiofreqüència entre l'antena espiral i un receptor de referència, es van desenvolupar models teòrics de pèrdua de trajectòria, mitjançant mesuraments de laboratori amb líquids de simulació de teixits i anàlisi numèrica amb eines electromagnètiques computacionals tridimensionals. La viabilitat de l'enllaç es va verificar a nivell de sistema mitjançant l'anàlisi de l'estimació de l'enllaç, utilitzant els models teòrics de pèrdua de trajectòria. Més enllà dels estudis de canals teòrics, el canal de transmissió de radiofreqüència real també presenta característiques que varien amb el temps, algunes de les quals estan alineades amb els comportaments biològics dels animals remugants. Per tant, els estudis in situ es van dur a terme amb un animal amb el rumen fisulat situat en un estable. Es van organitzar sèries de mesurament in vivo per investigar els comportaments de la cadena de radiofreqüència en els escenaris reals. Es va desenvolupar un patró de pèrdua de la trajectòria diürna a través d'observacions contínues basades en un prototip d'un petit bol ruminal i un receptor extern al cos. Es van demostrar les variacions en la pèrdua de la trajectòria al canal de radiofreqüència al llarg del dia i es van associar amb els estats digestius ruminals. A partir d’aquests resultats s’ha proposat un pla de reducció de potència combinant el patró de pèrdua de la trajectòria diürna amb el perfil de potència existent del petit bol ruminal.
Actualmente, los nodos de sensores inalámbricos que residen en la cámara retículo-ruminal de los animales rumiantes para recolectar y transmitir datos bioclimáticos vitales están ganando un reconocimiento mundial en el manejo del ganado. Los beneficios de estos dispositivos, generalmente conocidos como bolos ruminales (de detección), incluyen la supervisión en tiempo real de la estabilidad del rumen, la prevención de pérdidas y la mejora del bienestar animal. Europa, con la mayor exportación de productos lácteos del mundo, ha sido pionera en la investigación y el desarrollo de bolos ruminales, la mayoría de los cuales trabajan en la banda de frecuencia de uso abierto y sin licencia dentro de las áreas científica e industrial de 433,05 MHz --- 434,79 MHz. Por otro lado, la creciente necesidad de aplicar bolos ruminales adecuados al monitoreo de la salud de los pequeños rumiantes, como son las ovejas y las cabras, presenta nuevos desafíos para los investigadores. Teniendo en cuenta que el tamaño corporal de estos rumiantes es mucho más pequeño en comparación con las vacas, es indispensable reducir el tamaño del bolo ruminal. Esto afecta no solo la eficiencia de la transmisión radio, sino también a la vida útil del pequeño bolo ruminal, como resultado de las limitaciones de espacio tanto para su componente de radiofrecuencia como para la unidad de potencia. Así pues, para los dispositivos utilizados en redes inalámbricas de área corporal, el consumo de energía suele estar estrechamente relacionado con las configuraciones del sistema dado que en el canal inalámbrico, no solo los elementos de transmisión, sino también influyen las características de transmisión de radiofrecuencia en el canal. Desafortunadamente, se han dedicado muy pocos esfuerzos de investigación al canal inalámbrico de bolos ruminales para pequeños rumiantes. Esta tesis doctoral se ha centrado en la búsqueda de una solución de radiofrecuencia para bolos ruminales destinados a pequeños rumiantes, que equilibrar las restricciones en la dimensión y el rendimiento del dispositivo. Dicha solución de radiofrecuencia ha consistido en la implementación de una pequeña antena que puede ajustarse a un pequeño bolo ruminal que funciona a 433 MHz y la caracterización del canal de transmisión de radiofrecuencia desde dentro del cuerpo con un pequeño bolo ruminal hacia fuera del cuerpo con un receptor externo. El trabajo de investigación comenzó con el diseño de una antena en espiral, con una estructura geométrica simple y personalizada para el entorno de propagación de radiofrecuencia deseado. Para investigar el enlace de radiofrecuencia entre la antena espiral y un receptor de referencia, se desarrollaron modelos teóricos de pérdida de trayectoria, mediante mediciones de laboratorio con líquidos de simulación de tejidos y análisis numérico con herramientas electromagnéticas computacionales tridimensionales. La viabilidad del enlace se verificó a nivel de sistema mediante el análisis de la estimación del enlace, utilizando los modelos teóricos de pérdida de trayectoria. Más allá de los estudios de canales teóricos, el canal de transmisión de radiofrecuencia real también presenta características que varían con el tiempo, algunas de las cuales están alineadas con los comportamientos biológicos de los animales rumiantes. Por lo tanto, los estudios in situ se llevaron a cabo con un animal con el rumen canulado situado en un establo. Se organizaron series de medición in vivo para investigar los comportamientos del canal de radiofrecuencia en los escenarios reales. Se desarrolló un patrón de pérdida de la trayectoria diurna a través de observaciones continuas basadas en un prototipo de un pequeño bolo ruminal y un receptor externo en el cuerpo. Se han demostrado las variaciones en la pérdida de la trayectoria en el canal de radiofrecuencia a lo largo del día y se han asociado con los estados digestivos ruminales. A partir de estos resultados, se ha propuesto un plan de reducción de potencia combinando el patrón de pérdida de la trayectoria diurna con el perfil de potencia existente del pequeño bolo ruminal.
In recent years, using indwelling wireless sensor nodes to collect and transmit essential bioclimatic data from the reticulo-ruminal chamber is gaining a global recognition in cattle management. Benefits of these devices, usually referred to as ruminal (sensing) boluses, include real-time supervisions of rumen stability, loss prevention, and improved animal welfare. As the major export party of global dairy products, Europe has been pioneering in the research and development of ruminal boluses, mostly working at the license-free industrial, scientific, and medical radio band of 433.05 MHz—434.79 MHz. Meanwhile, the increasing need to apply adequate ruminal boluses to monitor the health status of small ruminants, such as sheep and goats, is bringing new challenges to researchers. In consideration of the much smaller body size compared to cows, a notable downsizing of device form-factor is indispensable. However, this would affect not only the radiation efficiency but also the shelf life of the small ruminal boluses, since both the radio component and the power unit would benefit from abundant space. For devices used in wireless body area networks, power consumption is closely related to system configurations in view of the wireless channel: not only the radiation elements, but also the characteristics of the radio transmission channel. Unfortunately, very few research efforts have been dedicated to the wireless channel of ruminal boluses for small ruminants. This doctoral thesis focused on the search of a radio solution for ruminal boluses targeted on small ruminants, which could balance the restrictions in device dimension and performance. This radio solution consists of the implementation of a small antenna that could fit for a compact ruminal bolus working at 433 MHz, and the characterization of the in-to-out body radio transmission channel between a small ruminal bolus and an on-body receiver. A small spiral antenna was devised for integration into a ruminal bolus for small ruminants, taking into consideration of the other encapsulated components and mediums, as well as the in-body environment where the ruminal bolus resides. To investigate the radio link between the spiral antenna and a reference receiver, theoretical path loss models were developed, by means of both laboratory measurement in a tissue-simulating liquid and numerical analysis with 3-dimensional computational electromagnetic tools. Link viability was verified on a system level through link budget analysis, utilizing the theoretical path loss models. Beyond the theoretical channel studies, the actual radio transmission channel also exhibits time-varying features, some of which are aligned with biological behaviors of the ruminant animals. On-site studies were therefore carried out with a rumen-cannulated animal in a barn. Series of in vivo measurement campaigns were arranged to investigate the radio channel’s characteristics in the authentic scenarios. A diurnal path loss pattern was developed through continuous observations based on a prototype of the small bolus and an on-body receiver. Variances of path loss in the radio channel across the day were demonstrated and associated with ruminal digestive statuses. A power-reduction plan was then proposed combining the diurnal path loss pattern to the existing power profile of the small ruminal bolus.

In this thesis, a novel graphene (GN) based electrocardiogram (ECG) sensor is designed, constructed and tested to validate the concept of coating GN, which is a highly electrically conductive material, on Ag substrates of conventional electrodes. The background theory, design, experiments and results for the proposed GN-based ECG sensor are also presented. Due to the attractive electrical and physical characteristics of graphene, a new ECG sensor was investigated by coating GN onto itself. The main focus of this project was to examine the effect of GN on ECG monitoring and to compare its performance with conventional methods. A thorough investigation into GN synthesis on Ag substrate was conducted, which was accompanied by extensive simulation and experimentation. A GN-enabled ECG electrode was characterised by Raman spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy along with electrical resistivity and conductivity measurements. The results obtained from the GN characteristic experimentation on Raman spectroscopy, detected a 2D peak in the GN-coated electrode, which was not observed with the conventional Ag/AgCl electrode. SEM characterisation also revealed that a GN coating smooths the surface of the electrode and hence, improves the skin-to-electrode contact. Furthermore, a comparison regarding the electrical conductivity calculation was made between the proposed GN-coated electrodes and conventional Ag/AgCl ones. The resistance values obtained were 212.4 Ω and 28.3 Ω for bare and GN-coated electrodes, respectively. That indicates that the electrical conductivity of GN-based electrodes is superior and hence, it is concluded that skin-electrode contact impedance can be lowered by their usage. Additional COMSOL simulation was carried out to observe the effect of an electrical field and surface charge density using GN-coated and conventional Ag/AgCl electrodes on a simplified human skin model. The results demonstrated the effectiveness of the addition of electrical field and surface charge capabilities and hence, coating GN on Ag substrates was validated through this simulation. This novel ECG electrode was tested with various types of electrodes on ten different subjects in order to analyse the obtained ECG signals. The experimental results clearly showed that the proposed GN-based electrode exhibits the best performance in terms of ECG signal quality, detection of critical waves of ECG morphology (P-wave, QRS complex and T-wave), signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) with 27.0 dB and skin-electrode contact impedance (65.82 kΩ at 20 Hz) when compared to those obtained by conventional a Ag/AgCl electrode. Moreover, this proposed GN-based ECG sensor was integrated with core body temperature (CBT) sensor in an ear-based device, which was designed and printed using 3D technology. Subsequently, a finger clipped photoplethysmography (PPG) sensor was integrated with the two-sensors in an Arduino based data acquisition system, which was placed on the subject's arm to enable a wearable multiple physiological measurement system. The physiological information of ECG and CBT was obtained from the ear of the subject, whilst the PPG signal was acquired from the finger. Furthermore, this multiple physiological signal was wirelessly transmitted to the smartphone to achieve continuous and real-time monitoring of physiological signals (ECG, CBT and PPG) on a dedicated app developed using the Java programming language. The proposed system has plenty of room for performance improvement and future development will make it adaptabadaptable, hence being more convenient for the users to implement other applications than at present.

Having a device with the capability of measure motions from gait produced by a human being, could be of most importance in medicine and sports. Physicians or researchers could measure and analyse key features of a person's gait for the purpose of rehabilitation or science, regarding neurological disabilities. Also in sports, professionals and hobbyists could use such a device for improving their technique or prevent injuries when performing. In this master thesis, I present the research of what technology is capable of today, regarding gait analysis devices. The research that was done has then help the development of a suggested standalone hardware sensor node for a Body Area Network, that can support research in gait analysis. Furthermore, several algorithms like for instance UWB Real-Time Location and Dead Reckoning IMU/AHRS algorithms, have been implemented and tested for the purpose of measuring motions and be able to run on the sensor node device. The work in this thesis shows that a IMU sensor have great potentials for generating high rate motion data while performing on a small mobile device. The UWB technology on the other hand, indicates a disappointment in performance regarding the intended application but can still be useful for wireless communication between sensor nodes. The report also points out the importance of using a high performance micro controller for achieving high accuracy in measurements.

Abstract This thesis proposes cross-layer approaches which enable to improve energy efficiency of wireless sensor networks and wireless body area networks (WSN & WBAN). The focus is on the physical (PHY) and medium access control (MAC) layers of communication protocol stack and exploiting their interdependencies. In the analysis of the PHY and MAC layers, their relevant characteristics are taken into account, and cross-layer models are developed to study the effect of these layers on energy efficiency. In addition, cross-layer analysis is applied at the network level by addressing hierarchical networks' energy efficiency. The objective is to improve energy efficiency by taking into account that substantial modifications to current standards and techniques are not required to take advantage of the proposed methods. The studied scenarios of WSN take advantage of the wake-up radio (WUR). A generic WUR-based MAC (GWR-MAC) protocol with objective to improve energy efficiency by avoiding idle listening is proposed. First, the proposed cross-layer model is developed at a general level and applied to study the forward error correction (FEC) code rate selection effect on the length of the transmission period and energy efficiency in a star topology network. Then an energy efficiency model for intelligent hierarchical architecture based on GWR-MAC is proposed and performance comparison with a duty-cycle radio (DCR) approach is performed. Interactions between different layers' devices are taken into account, and the WUR and DCR approaches are compared as a function of event frequency. The third cross-layer model focuses on the effect of the FEC code rate and data packet payload length on the energy efficiency of the IEEE Std 802.15.6-based WBANs using IR-UWB PHY. The results acquired by using analytical modelling and simulations with the Matlab software clearly illustrates the potential energy gains that can be achieved with the proposed cross-layer approaches. The developed WUR-based MAC protocol, analytical models and achieved results can be exploited by other researchers in the WSN and WBAN field. The contribution of this thesis is also to stimulate further research on these timely topics and foster development of short-range communication, which has a crucial role in future converging networks such as the Internet of Things
Tiivistelmä Tässä väitöskirjassa ehdotetaan protokollakerrosten välistä tietoa hyödyntäviä (cross-layer) lähestymistapoja, jotka mahdollistavat energiatehokkuuden parantamisen langattomissa sensori- ja kehoverkoissa. Työ kohdistuu fyysisen- ja kanavanhallintakerroksen välisen vuorovaikutuksen tutkimiseen. Fyysisen- ja kanavanhallintakerrosten analyysissä huomioidaan niiden tärkeimmät ominaisuudet ja tutkitaan kerrosten yhteistä energiatehokkuutta. Lisäksi kerrosten välistä analyysiä sovelletaan verkkotasolle tutkimalla hierarkkisen verkon energiatehokkuutta. Tavoitteena on energiatehokkuuden parantamisen mahdollistaminen siten, että merkittäviä muutoksia nykyisiin standardeihin ja tekniikoihin ei tarvitse tehdä hyödyntääkseen ehdotettuja menetelmiä. Tutkitut sensoriverkkoskenaariot hyödyntävät heräteradiota. Väitöskirjassa ehdotetaan geneerinen heräteradiopohjainen kanavanhallintaprotokolla (GWR-MAC), jolla parannetaan energiatehokkuutta vähentämällä turhaa kanavan kuuntelua. Kerrosten välinen malli kehitetään ensin yleisellä tasolla ja sen avulla tutkitaan virheenkorjauskoodisuhteen valinnan vaikutusta lähetysperiodin pituuteen ja energiatehokkuuteen tähtitopologiaan pohjautuvissa sensoriverkoissa. Sitten väitöskirjassa ehdotetaan energiatehokkuusmalli älykkäälle GWR-MAC -protokollaan perustuvalle hierarkkiselle arkkitehtuurille ja sen suorituskykyä vertaillaan toimintajaksoperiaatteella toimivaan lähestymistapaan. Eri kerroksilla olevien laitteiden väliset vuorovaikutukset huomioidaan heräteradio- ja toimintajaksoperiaatteella toimivien verkkojen suorituskykyvertailussa tapahtumatiheyden funktiona. Kolmas malli kohdistuu virheenkorjauskoodisuhteen ja datapaketin hyötykuorman pituuden energiatehokkuusvaikutuksen tutkimiseen IEEE 802.15.6 -standardiin perustuvissa langattomissa kehoverkoissa. Analyyttinen mallinnus ja Matlab-ohjelmiston avulla tuotetut simulointitulokset osoittavat selvästi energiatehokkuushyödyt, jotka saavutetaan ehdotettuja menetelmiä käyttämällä. Kehitetty GWR-MAC -protokolla, analyyttiset mallit ja tulokset ovat hyödynnettävissä sensori- ja kehoverkkotutkijoiden toimesta. Tämän väitöskirjan tavoitteena on myös näiden ajankohtaisten aiheiden jatkotutkimuksen stimulointi sekä lyhyen kantaman viestinnän kehityksen vauhdittaminen, sillä niillä on erittäin merkittävä rooli tulevaisuuden yhteen liittyvissä verkoissa, kuten esineiden ja asioiden Internetissä

I segnali biopotenziali cardiaci e neurali nelle forme di elettroencefalogramma (EEG) ed elettrocardiogramma (ECG) sono due indicatori fisiologici molto importanti che ben si prestano ad un monitoraggio sanitario wireless a lungo termine. Nonostante gli innumerevoli progressi compiuti nel campo della tecnologia wireless e della microelettronica, l’utilizzo dell'EEG/ECG risulta essere ancora limitato dai disagi e dalle scomodità dovute all’impiego di elettrodi a contatto bagnato (wet contact electrodes). Gli elettrodi adesivi ad uso clinico sono spesso percepiti dai pazienti su cui vengono applicati come irritanti e scomodi, riducendo notevolmente l’accondiscendenza ad un loro utilizzo costante nell'ambiente domestico, ovvero al di fuori dello stretto controllo medico-sanitario. Come alternativa si ricorre all’uso di elettrodi a secco (dry electrodes), questi però, in mancanza della capacità di conduzione del gel, sono molto più sensibili alle condizioni della pelle e pertanto suscettibili agli artefatti legati al movimento. Questa tesi si ripropone di illustrare in maniera il più possibile organica e precisa il principio di funzionamento degli elettrodi senza contatto, con particolare attenzione al ruolo rivestito dai segnali EEG ed ECG. L’analisi intende inoltre mettere in evidenza l’entità dei vantaggi derivanti dall’impiego degli elettrodi senza contatto rispetto a quelli tradizionali.

A realtime wireless motion tracking system is developed. The system is capable of tracking the orientations of multiple wireless sensors, using a semi-distributed implementation to reduce network bandwidth and latency, to produce real-time animation of rigid body models, such as the human skeleton. The system has been demonstrated to be capable of full-body posture tracking of a human subject using fifteen devices communicating with a basestation over a single, low bandwidth, radio channel. The thesis covers the theory, design, and implementation of the tracking platform, the evaluation of the platform’s performance, and presents a summary of possible future applications.

Parkinson’s disease is associated with reduced coordination between respiration and locomotion. For the neurological rehabilitation research, it requires a long-time monitoring system, which enables the online analysis of the patient’s vegetative locomotor coordination. In this work a real time step detector using three-dimensional accelerometer signal for the patients with Parkinson‘s disease is developed. This step detector is a complement for a recently developed system included of intelligent, wirelessly communicating sensors. The system helps to focus on the scientific questions whether this coordination may serve as a measure for the rehabilitation progress of PD patients.
+46-762453110 +46-462886970

Nowadays, each user or organization is already connected to a large number of sensor nodes which generate a substantial amount of data, making their management not an obvious issue. In addition, these data can be confidential. For these reasons, developing a secure system managing the data from heterogeneous sensor nodes is a real need. In the first part, we developed a composite-based middleware for wireless sensor networks to communicate with the physical sensors for storing, processing, indexing, analyzing and generating alerts on those sensors data. Each composite is connected to a physical node or used to aggregate data from different composites. Each physical node communicating with the middleware is setup as a composite. The middleware has been used in the context of the European project Mobesens in order to manage data from a sensor network for monitoring water quality. In the second part of the thesis, we proposed a new hybrid authentication and key establishment scheme between senor nodes (SN), gateways (MN) and the middleware (SS). It is based on two protocols. The first protocol intent is the mutual authentication between SS and MN, on providing an asymmetric pair of keys for MN, and on establishing a pairwise key between them. The second protocol aims at authenticating them, and establishing a group key and pairwise keys between SN and the two others. The middleware has been generalized in the third part in order to provide a private space for multi-organization or -user to manage his sensors data using cloud computing. Next, we expanded the composite with gadgets to share securely sensor data in order to provide a secure social sensor network

Cooperative wireless communication is an attractive technique to explore the spatial channel resources by coordination across multiple links, which can greatly improve the communication performance over single links. In this dissertation, we study the cooperative multi-link channel properties by geometric approaches in body area networks (BANs) and cellular networks respectively.

In the part of BANs, the dynamic narrowband on-body channels under body motions are modeled statistically on their temporal and spatial fading based on anechoic and indoor measurements. Common body scattering is observed to form inter-link correlation between links closely distributed and between links having synchronized movements of communication nodes. An analytical model is developed to explain the physical mechanisms of the dynamic body scattering. The on-body channel impacts to simple cooperation protocols are evaluated based on realistic measurements.

In the part of cellular networks, the cluster-level multi-link COST 2100 MIMO channel model is developed with concrete modeling concepts, complete parameterization and implementation methods, and a compatible structure for both single-link and multi-link scenarios. The cluster link-commonness is introduced to the model to describe the multi-link properties. The multi-link impacts by the model are also evaluated in a distributed MIMO system by comparing its sum-rate capacity at different ratios of cluster link-commonness.
Doctorat en Sciences de l'ingénieur
info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Long-term body temperature measurements for research and diagnosis are currently done in hospitals or specialized research labs. This method has several drawbacks: the use of wired ob- trusive sensors (e.g., rectal probes to measure the core body temperature) may be uncomfortable for patients. Furthermore, situations recorded in laboratory settings do not reflect reality as patients are not subject to their normal living environment. Furthermore, it is labor-intensive to regularly check upon patients and care for their well-being. Using small wireless sensor nodes in a body sensor network to measure body functions, one can mostly offset the limitations listed above. For this work, we have developed a wireless sensor node that uses an infrared thermopile as a sensor to unobtrusively measure the core temperature at the tympanic membrane. Due to their construction, these sensors are heavily dependent on the ambient temperature in the surroundings of the sensor packaging. While this does not affect their use in single-shot measurements (e.g., using an ear thermometer), it poses a challenge for continuous measurements, as common living environments do not have constant ambient air temperatures and people frequently commute between different places. These conditions may offset measurements significantly, an important problem for medical applications that require high accuracy. In this work, we employ infrared thermopiles in a body sensor network and characterize their behaviour in various situations, especially in the presence of varying environmental conditions. Based on our observations, we describe methods for post-processing measurements in order to compensate environmental changes and hence get results reflecting reality more closely. Our evaluation shows that these methods can offset the infrared thermopile’s weakness but need further work to achieve the degree of accuracy that is needed for medical applications.

Motivés par la demande croissante de services de santé améliorés et à distance, qui tend à augmenter notamment avec une population de plus en plus âgée, et la réduction du coût de l'utilisation des infrastructures réseaux, afin d'assurer des applications de santé temps-réel et à faible débit de données, les réseaux de capteurs médicaux sans fil (WBANs) forment encore un domaine de recherche en forte croissance, notamment avec le développement de WBANs coopératifs. Dans ce contexte, en utilisant les utilisateurs du réseau eux-mêmes en tant que relais on pourrait étendre les infrastructures réseaux existantes, tout en améliorant la capacité du réseau et optimisant l'utilisation du spectre radio. Ainsi, les opérateurs réseaux, qui planifient déjà pour l'intégration de l'internet des objets (IoT) et l'informatique en nuage (cloud), devraient aussi penser à créer un nouveau type de réseau ad hoc mobile, où les utilisateurs du réseau sont utilisés comme des stations de base ad hoc simplifiées, afin de partager l'information en temps-réel entre des personnes colocalisées portant des capteurs corporels. Ce nouveau type de réseau est appelé réseau corporel sans fil (BBN: Body-to-Body Network). Dans un BBN, un appareil radio, collecte les données des nœuds capteurs attachés ou portés par une personne, et les transmet à un appareil récepteur situé sur une autre personne du voisinage, afin d'être traitées ou retransmises à d'autres utilisateurs du BBN. le BBN peut trouver des applications dans divers domaines tels que la santé, les sports d'équipe, le militaire, les divertissements, ainsi que des expériences passionnantes des réseaux sociaux. Fonctionnant dans la bande Industrielle, Scientifique et Médicale (ISM), les liaisons de communication dans un BBN seront très sensibles aux interférences entre les différentes technologies qui partagent le spectre radio limité. Ainsi, l'interférence entre ces technologies devient une préoccupation importante pour la conception de protocoles pour l'utilisateur final du BBN. À ce jour, très peu d'études existent, qui effectuent une analyse en profondeur de ce type de scénario implicant le corps humain dans des communications radio. Le problème d'interférence dans un tel système distribué, doit être abordé avec des mécanismes distribués, tels que la théorie des jeux. Les décideurs dans le jeu sont soit les WBANs formant le BBN ou les opérateurs de réseaux qui contrôlent les dispositifs de communication inter-WBAN. Ces dispositifs doivent faire face à des ressources de transmission limitées (bande ISM) ce qui donne lieu à des conflits d'intérêts. Cette thèse vise à explorer les opportunités pour permettre des communications inter-WBANs en assurant le partage du spectre radio par le biais de deux approches. D'abord, l'atténuation des interférences mutuelles et croisées, et par la conception d'un protocole de routage spécifique BBN utilisé dans une application de contrôle de l'expansion d'une épidémie dans les zones de rassemblement de masse, tels que les aéroports. Dans un premier volet, une approche basée sur la théorie des jeux est proposée pour résoudre le problème d'interférence distribué dans les BBNs. Le jeu d'atténuation des interférences socialement conscient des intérêts de la collectivité (SIM) a une double tâche: à l'échelle WBAN, il alloue des canaux ZigBee aux capteurs corporels pour la collecte intra-WBAN des données, et à l'échelle BBN, il alloue les canaux WiFi aux appareils mobiles pour la transmission et le relais des données inter-WBANs. Deux algorithmes, BR-SIM et SORT-SIM, ont été développés pour rechercher les points d'équilibre de Nash du jeu SIM. Le premier (BR-SIM) assure les solutions de meilleure réponse (Best-response) tandis que le second (SORT-SIM) tente d'obtenir un compromis entre des solutions quasi-optimales et un temps de convergence réduit. (...)
Motivated by the rising demand for remote and improved healthcare, while decreasing the cost of using network infrastructures to ensure time and data rate-constrained applications, Wireless Body Area Networks (WBANs) still form a strongly growing research field. Besides, engineers and researchers are investigating new solutions to supplement mobile communications through developing opportunities for cooperative WBANs. In this context, using network users themselves as relays could complement and extend existing infrastructure networks, while improving network capacity and promoting radio spectrum usage. Yet, network operators, that are already planning for the Internet of Things (IoT) and cloud computing technologies integration, should also think about this new possibility of creating a new type of mobile ad hoc network, where network users themselves are used as simplified ad hoc base stations, to fulfill the desire of sharing real-time information between colocated persons carrying body sensors. This emerging type of network is called Body-to-Body Network (BBN). In a BBN, a radio device situated on one person gathers the sensor data from the sensor nodes worn by that person, and transmit them to a transceiver situated on another person in the nearby area, in order to be processed or relayed to other BBN users. BBNs can find applications in a range of areas such as healthcare, team sports, military, entertainment, as well as exciting social networking experiences. Operating in the popular Industrial, Scientific and Medical (ISM) band, the communication links in a BBN will be heavily susceptible to interference between the different radio technologies sharing the limited radio spectrum. Thus, inter-body interference become an important concern for protocol design and quality of service for the BBN end user. Yet, higher layer MAC and networking mechanisms need to be in place to overcome this interference problem. To date, very few studies, that perform in-depth analysis of this type of body-centric scenario, exist. The interference problem in such distributed system, should be tackeled with distributed mechanisms, such as Game Theory. The decision makers in the game are either the WBANs/people forming the BBN or the network operators who control the inter-WBAN communicating devices. These devices have to cope with a limited transmission resource (ISM band) that gives rise to a conflict of interests. This thesis aims at exploring the opportunities to enable inter-WBAN communications by ensuring feasible sharing of the radio spectrum through two challenging research issues. First, mutual and cross-technology interference mitigation, and second, the design of a BBN specific routing protocol applied to an epidemic control application within mass gathering areas, such as the airport, as use case in this thesis. In a first phase, a game theoretical approach is proposed to resolve the distributed interference problem in BBNs. The Socially-aware Interference Mitigation (SIM) game performs twofold: at the WBAN stage, it allocates ZigBee channels to body sensors for intra-WBAN data sensing, and at the BBN stage, it allocates WiFi channels to mobile devices for inter-WBAN data transmitting and relaying. Two algorithms, BR-SIM and SORT-SIM, were developed to search for Nash equilibra to the SIM game. The first (BR-SIM) ensures best response solutions while the second (SORT-SIM) attempts to achieve tradeoff between sub-optimal solutions and short convergence time. Then, in order to highlight the social role of BBNs, the second part of this thesis is devoted to propose an epidemic control application tailored to BBNs, in indoor environment. This application implements a geographic routing protocol, that differentiates WBANs traffic and ensures real-time quarantine strategies. (...)

Low Power Wireless Sensor Networks, Preventative Healthcare and Pervasive Systems are set to provide long-term continuous monitoring, diagnosis and care for patients in the next few years. Distributed forms of these networks are investigated from a holistic point of view. Individual components of these systems including: sensors, software and hardware implementations are investigated and analysed. Novel sensors are developed for low power capturing of Body Sensor Network (BSN) information to enable long term use. Software frameworks are designed to enable these technologies to run on low power nodes as well as enabling them to perform evaluation of their data before transmission into the network. An architecture is designed to enable task distribution to intensive processing from low power nodes. Two forms of distributed BSNs are also developed: a horizontal network and a vertical network. It is shown that using these two types of networks enables information and task distribution allowing low power sensing nodes to evaluate information before transmission. These systems have the opportunity to revolutionalise expensive acute episodic care systems of today, but are not currently being implemented or investigated to the extent that they could. The technological barriers to entry are addressed in this thesis with the investigation and evaluation of distributed body sensor networks. It is shown that horizontal networks can distribute information eficiently, while vertical networks can distribute processing eficiently.

The IEEE 802.15.4 standard is an interesting technology for use in Wireless Body Sensor Networks (WBSN), where entire networks of sensors are carried by humans. In many environments the sensor nodes experience external interference for example, when the WBSN is operated in the 2.4 GHz ISM band and the human moves in a densely populated city, it will likely experience WiFi interference, with a quickly changing ``interference landscape''. In this thesis we propose Adaptive Resource Allocation schemes, to be carried out by the WBSN, which provided noticeable performance gains in such environments. We investigate a range of adaptation schemes and assess their performance both through simulations and experimentally.

Advances in reconstructive surgery are providing treatment options in the face of major trauma and cancer. Body Sensor Networks (BSN) have the potential to offer smart solutions to a range of clinical challenges. The aim of this thesis was to review the current state of the art devices, then develop and apply bespoke technologies developed by the Hamlyn Centre BSN engineering team supported by the EPSRC ESPRIT programme to deliver post-operative monitoring options for patients undergoing reconstructive surgery. A wireless optical sensor was developed to provide a continuous monitoring solution for free tissue transplants (free flaps). By recording backscattered light from 2 different source wavelengths, we were able to estimate the oxygenation of the superficial microvasculature. In a custom-made upper limb pressure cuff model, forearm deoxygenation measured by our sensor and gold standard equipment showed strong correlations, with incremental reductions in response to increased cuff inflation durations. Such a device might allow early detection of flap failure, optimising the likelihood of flap salvage. An ear-worn activity recognition sensor was utilised to provide a platform capable of facilitating objective assessment of functional mobility. This work evolved from an initial feasibility study in a knee replacement cohort, to a larger clinical trial designed to establish a novel mobility score in patients recovering from open tibial fractures (OTF). The Hamlyn Mobility Score (HMS) assesses mobility over 3 activities of daily living: walking, stair climbing, and standing from a chair. Sensor-derived parameters including variation in both temporal and force aspects of gait were validated to measure differences in performance in line with fracture severity, which also matched questionnaire-based assessments. Monitoring the OTF cohort over 12 months with the HMS allowed functional recovery to be profiled in great detail. Further, a novel finding of continued improvements in walking quality after a plateau in walking quantity was demonstrated objectively. The methods described in this thesis provide an opportunity to revamp the recovery paradigm through continuous, objective patient monitoring along with self-directed, personalised rehabilitation strategies, which has the potential to improve both the quality and cost-effectiveness of reconstructive surgery services.

Motion capture is the process of measuring and subsequently reconstructing the movement of an animated object or being in virtual space. Virtual reconstructions of human motion play an important role in numerous application areas such as animation, medical science, ergonomics, etc. While optical motion capture systems are the industry standard, inertial body sensor networks are becoming viable alternatives due to portability, practicality and cost. This thesis presents an innovative inertial motion capture framework for constructing body sensor networks through software environments, smartphones and web technologies. The first component of the framework is a unique inertial motion capture software environment aimed at providing an improved experimentation environment, accompanied by programming scaffolding and a driver development kit, for users interested in studying or engineering body sensor networks. The software environment provides a bespoke 3D engine for kinematic motion visualisations and a set of tools for hardware integration. The software environment is used to develop the hardware behind a prototype motion capture suit focused on low-power consumption and hardware-centricity. Additional inertial measurement units, which are available commercially, are also integrated to demonstrate the functionality the software environment while providing the framework with additional sources for motion data. The smartphone is the most ubiquitous computing technology and its worldwide uptake has prompted many advances in wearable inertial sensing technologies. Smartphones contain gyroscopes, accelerometers and magnetometers, a combination of sensors that is commonly found in inertial measurement units. This thesis presents a mobile application that investigates whether the smartphone is capable of inertial motion capture by constructing a novel omnidirectional body sensor network. This thesis proposes a novel use for web technologies through the development of the Motion Cloud, a repository and gateway for inertial data. Web technologies have the potential to replace motion capture file formats with online repositories and to set a new standard for how motion data is stored. From a single inertial measurement unit to a more complex body sensor network, the proposed architecture is extendable and facilitates the integration of any inertial hardware configuration. The Motion Cloud's data can be accessed through an application-programming interface or through a web portal that provides users with the functionality for visualising and exporting the motion data.

Pour réduire la consommation d'énergie due aux transmissions radio dans les réseaux de capteurs sans fil, nous proposons une nouvelle approche associant les techniques de précodage MIMO et de relais, appelé précodage distribué max-dmin (DMP). Considérant une source et un relais avec une antenne chacun, et une destination disposant de deux antennes, nous déployons un système MIMO précodé virtuel 2 × 2. Dans ce contexte, nous étudions deux techniques de relais Amplify and Forward (AF) et Decode and Forward (DF). Des comparaisons en termes de taux d'erreur et d'efficacité énergétique par rapport aux systèmes plus classiques comme les codes spatio-temporels distribués ou les combinaisons à gain maximal montrent que notre système est intéressant pour des distances de transmission moyennes (à partir de 16 mètres). Toujours dans l'objectif de maximiser l'efficacité énergétique, nous proposons une allocation de puissance sur les nœuds source et relais. Pour cela, nous dérivons analytiquement les performances du système précodage distribué max-dmin selon le mode AF et DF. Enfin,pour améliorer les performances des systèmes avec décodage au relais (DF), nous proposons un nouveau récepteur (à la destination) qui tient compte des erreurs éventuelles au niveau du relais
Among various cooperative techniques aiming to reduce power consumption for transmissions between Wireless Body Area Networks (WBAN) and base stations, we present a new approach, named distributed max-dmin precoding (DMP), combining MIMO precoding techniques and relay communications. This protocol is based on the deployment of a virtual 2 × 2 max-dmin precoding over one source, one forwarding relay, both equipped with one antenna and a destination involving 2 antennas. In this context, two kinds of relaying, amplify and forward (AF) or decode and forward (DF) protocols, are investigated. The performance evaluation in terms of Bit-Error-Rate (BER) and energy efficiency are compared with non cooperative techniques and the distributed space time block code (STBC) scheme. Our investigations show that the DMP takes the advantage in terms of energy efficiency from medium transmission distances (after 10 meters). In order to maximise the energy efficiency, we propose a power allocation over the source and the relay. Thus, we derive the performance of our system, both for AF and DF, analytically. To further increase the performance of DF cooperative schemes, we also propose to design a new decoder at the destination that takes profit from side information, namely potential errors at the relay

Negli ultimi dieci anni si è rinnovata l’esigenza di sviluppare nuove tecnologie legate alla telemedicina, specie a seguito dello sviluppo dei sistemi di telecomunicazione che consentono ad ogni persona di avere a disposizione sistemi portatili, come gli smartphone, sempre connessi e pronti a comunicare. Lo stesso sviluppo si è avuto all’interno dei sistemi sanitari in cui è diventato fondamentale informatizzare le attività ospedaliere per via del contesto demografico a cui si va incontro: invecchiamento della popolazione e aumento del numero di pazienti affetti da malattie croniche. Tutti questi aspetti portano all’attuazione di un cambiamento strategico. Le Body Area Network, fulcro di questo lavoro di tesi, rappresentano la risposta a questa necessità. Si spiegano l'architettura e le tecnologie abilitanti per la realizzazione di queste reti di sensori, gli standard di comunicazione tramite i quali avviene la trasmissione dei dati e come le reti si interfacciano con i pazienti e le strutture sanitarie. Si conclude con una panoramica sui sensori di una BAN e alcuni esempi in commercio.

With the advancements in technology and computing environment capabilities, the number of devices that people carry has increased exponentially. This increase initially occurred as a result of necessity to monitor the human body condition due to chronic diseases, heart problems etc. Later, individuals’ interest was drawn towards self-monitoring their physiology and health care. This is achieved by implanting various sensors that can proactively monitor the human body based on medical necessity and the health condition of the user. Sensors connected on a human body perceive phenomena such as locomotion or heartbeat, and act accordingly to form a Body Area Network. The primary concern of these sensors is to ensure a secure way of communication and coordination among the devices to form a flawless system. A secondary concern is wireless sensor authentication, which ensures trustworthiness and reliable gathering of a user’s data. To address this concern, we designed a secure approach using low cost accelerometers to authenticate sensors in Body Area Networks. To ensure authentication in on-body sensor networks, we need a mechanism which intuitively proves all the communicating nodes are trusted ones. In order to achieve sensor authentication, we used accelerometer data gathered from sensors to distinguish whether or not the devices are carried on waist of same individual’s body. Our approach is focused at analyzing walking patterns recorded from smartphone accelerometers placed in the same location of the user’s body, and we present results showing these sensors record similar pattern.

The main focus of the work presented in this thesis concerns the development and improvement of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) as well as Wireless Body Area Networks (WBANs). WSN consist of interlinked, wireless devices (nodes) capable of relaying data wirelessly between the nodes. The applications of WSNs are very broad and cover both wireless fitness monitoring systems such as pulse watches or wireless temperature monitoring of buildings, among others. The topics investigated in the work presented within this thesis covers antenna design, wireless propagation environment evaluation and modeling, adaptive antenna control and wireless nodes system design and evaluation. In order to provide an end-user suitable solution for wireless nodes the devices require both small form factor and good performance in order to be competitive on the marked and thus the main part of this thesis focuses on techniques developed and data collected to help achieve these goals.  Several different prototype systems have been developed which have been used to measure data by the Swedish Defence Research Agency (FOI), GKN Aerospace Sweden AB, the Swedish Transport Administration. The system developed with GKN Aerospace was used to do real-time test measurements inside a running RM12 jet engine and required a substantial amount of measurements, environmental modeling and system validation in order to properly design a wireless system suitable for the harsh and fast fading environment inside a jet engine. For FOI improvements were made on a wearable wireless body area network initially developed during the authors master thesis work. Refinements included work on new generation wireless nodes, antenna packaging and node-supported diversity techniques. Work and papers regarding the design of different types of antennas suitable for wireless nodes are presented. The primary constraints on the presented antennas are the limited electrical size. The types of antennas developed include electrically small helix antennas manufactured both on stretchable substrates consisting of a PDMS substrate with Galinstan as the liquid metal conductors, screen printed silver ink for helix antennas and conformal dual patch antennas for wireless sensor nodes. Other standard type antennas are included on the wireless sensors as well.

This thesis is looking into the dependability of a Electrocardiogram(ECG) based Healthcare Body Sensor Network system (HC-BSNs). For these type of devices, the dependability is not only depending on the devices themselves, but also heavily depending on how the devices are used. Existing literature has identified that there are around 4% of usage issues when existing ECG devices are used by professionals. The rate of usage issue will not be better for the ECG-Based HC-BSNs as these devices are more likely to be used by untrained people. Subsequently, it is with paramount importance to address the usage issues so that the overall dependability of the ECG-Based HC-BSNs can be assured. Our approach to address the usage issue is to detect the usage-related anomaly, which is contained in the captured signal when erroneous usage is made, and identify the cause to the usage-related anomaly automatically and without human intervention. By doing this, the user can be prompted with clearer and accurate correction instruction. Subsequently, the usage issues can be well corrected by the user. Based on the above concept, in this thesis, we have studied the anomalous signals which can be caused by the usage issues. Two methodologies, names as AID and FFNAID, have been proposed and evaluated to detect the usage-related anomalies. We have also studied how each usage issue can affect the signals on a mote, and we use the knowledge learnt from the study to propose a methodology, named as ACLP, to identify the root cause to the usage-related anomaly. All these methodologies are fully automated and does not require any human intervention once they are deployed. The evaluations have also shown the effectiveness of these methodologies.

Les réseaux de capteurs corporels (RC2) sont constitués de bio-capteurs à faibles ressources énergétiques et de calcul. Ils collectent des données physiologiques du corps humain et de son environnement, et les transmettent à un coordinateur comme le PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) ou un smartphone, pour être acheminé ensuite aux experts de santé. Les réseaux de capteurs corporels collaboratifs (RC3) sont une collection de RC2 qui se déplacent dans une zone donnée et collaborent,interagissent et échangent des données entre eux pour identifier l'activité du groupe et surveiller l'état individuel et collectif des participants. Dans les réseaux RC2 et RC3, l'envoi de données de manière fiable tout en assurant une bonne Quality of Service (QoS) et une latence de données optimisée est crucial, vu la sensibilité des données collectées. La QoS dans ce type de réseaux dépend en grande partie du choix des protocoles de contrôle d'accès MAC (Medium Access Control) et des protocoles de routage, de l'efficacité énergétique, de la précision et de la détection des anomalies.Les protocoles existants dans la littérature et proposés pour les RC2et RC3 présentent de nombreuses limites au niveau de la latence de données, de la fiabilité, et de la détection de pannes. Le travail présenté dans cette thèse a trois objectifs principaux. Le premier consiste à étudier et concevoir de nouveaux algorithmes pour la couche MAC, robustes et capables de répondre aux défis de RC2 et RC3. Pour cela, nous avons conçu un nouveau protocole MAC qui prend en considération le trafic élevé et les contraintes de ressources dans ces types de réseaux, ainsi que la latence des données et l'urgence de relayer les informations sensibles. Le deuxième objectif consiste à proposer des protocoles de routage efficaces en termes de consommation d'énergie et de calcul, adaptés aux RC2 et RC3. Le troisième objectif est dédiée à l'étude d'un algorithme d’échantillonnage de données permettant de réduire la quantité de données collectées et transmises dans le réseau, sans perte d'information. Notre approche garantit la détection et l'envoi d'information en cas d'urgence tout en optimisant la consommation énergétique des nœuds. Pour montrer l'efficacité de nos approches, nous les avons testées dans un environnement de simulation OPNet dédié aux réseaux de capteurs et nous les avons comparées à plusieurs protocoles existants. Les résultats obtenus montrent l'efficacité de ces protocoles en termes d'optimisation de la consommation d'énergie, de latence et d'intégrité des données, et de détection d'anomalies
Body Sensor Networks (BSNs) are formed of medical sensors that gather physiological and activity data from the human body and its environment, and send them wirelessly to a personal device like Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) or a smartphone that acts as a gateway to health care. Collaborative Body Sensor Networks (CBSNs) are collection of BSNs that move in a given area and collaborate, interact and exchange data between each other to identify group activity, and monitor the status of single and multiple persons.In both BSN and CBNS networks, sending data with the highest Quality of Service (QoS) and performance metrics is crucial since the data sent affects people’s life. For instance, the sensed physiological data should be sent reliably and with minimal delay to take appropriate actions before it is too late, and the energy consumption of nodes should be preserved as they have limited capacities and they are expected to serve for a long period of time. The QoS in BSNs and CBSNs largely depends on the choice of the Medium Access Control (MAC) protocols, the adopted routing schemes, and the efficient and accuracy of anomaly detection.The current MAC, routing and anomaly detection schemes proposed for BSNs and CBSNs in the literature present many limitations and open the door toward more research and propositions in these areas. Thus this thesis work focuses on three main axes. The first axe consists in studying and designing new and robust MAC algorithms able to address BSNs and CBSNs' challenges. Standard MAC protocols are compared in high traffic BSNs and a new MAC protocol is proposed for such environments; then an emergency aware MAC scheme is presented to address the dynamic traffic requirements of BSN in ensuring delivery of emergency data within strict delay requirements, and energy efficiency of nodes during regular observations; moreover, a traffic and mobility aware MAC scheme is proposed for CBSNs to address both traffic and mobility requirements for these networks.The second axe consists in proposing a thorough and efficient routing scheme suitable for BSNs and CBSNs. First, different routing models are compared for CBSNs and a new routing scheme is proposed in the aim of reducing the delay of data delivery, and increasing the network throughput and the energy efficiency of nodes. The proposed scheme is then adapted to BSN's requirements to become a solid solution for the challenges faced by this network. The third axe involves proposing an adaptive sampling approach that guarantees high accuracy in the detection of emergency cases, while ensuring at the same time high energy efficiency of the sensors.In the three axes, the performance of the proposed schemes is qualitatively compared to existing algorithms in the literature; then simulations are carried a posteriori with respect to different performance metrics and under different scenarios to assess their efficiency and ability to face BSNs and CBSNs' challenges.Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed MAC, routing and anomaly detection schemes outperform the existing algorithms, and present strong solutions that satisfy BSNs and CBSNs' requirements

Wireless sensors and their applications have become increasingly attractive for industry, building automation and energy control, paving the way for new applications of sensor networks which go well beyond traditional sensor applications. In recent years, there has been a rapid growth in the number of wireless devices operating in close proximity to the human body. Wearable sensor nodes are growing popular not only in our normal living lifestyle, but also within healthcare and military applications, where different radio units operating in/on/off body communicate pervasively. Expectations go beyond the research visions, towards deployment in real-world applications that would empower business processes and future business cases. Although theoretical and simulation models give initial results of the antenna behaviour and the radio channel performance of wireless body area network (WBAN) devices, empirical data from different set of measurements still form an essential part of the radio propagation models. Usually, measurements are performed in laboratory facilities which are equipped with bulky and expensive RF instrumentation within calibrated and controllable environments; thus, the acquired data has the highest possible reliability. However, there are still measurement uncertainties due to cables and connections and significant variations when designs are deployed and measured in real scenarios, such as hospitals wards, commercial buildings or even the battle field. Consequently, more flexible and less expensive measurement tools are required. In this sense, wireless sensor nodes offer not only easiness to deploy or flexibility, but also adaptability to different environments. In this thesis, custom-built wireless sensor nodes are used to characterise different on-body radio channels operating in the IEEE 802.15.4 communication standard at the 2.45 GHz ISM band. Measurement results are also compared with those from the conventional technique using a Vector Network Analyser. The wireless sensor nodes not only diminished the effect of semi-rigid or flexible coaxial cables (scattering or radiation) used with the Vector Network Analyser (VNA), but also provided a more realistic response of the radio link channel. The performance of the wireless sensors is presented over each of the 16 different channels present at the 2.45 GHz band. Additionally, custom-built wireless sensors are used to characterise and model the performance of different on-body radio links in dynamic environments, such as jogging, rowing, and cycling. The use of wireless sensors proves to be less obstructive and more flexible than traditional measurements using coaxial cables, VNA or signal generators. The statistical analysis of different WBAN channels highlighted important radio propagation features which can be used as sport classifiers models and motion detection. Moreover, specific on-body radio propagation channels are further explored, with the aim to recognize physiological features such as motion pattern, breathing activity and heartbeat. The time domain sample data is transformed to the frequency domain using a non-parametric FFT defined by the Welch’s periodogram. The Appendix-Section D explores other digital signal processing techniques which include spectrograms (STFT) and wavelet transforms (WT). Although a simple analysis is presented, strong DSP techniques proved to be good for signal de-noising and multi-resolution analysis. Finally, preliminary results are presented for indoor tracking using the RSS recorded by multiple wireless sensor nodes deployed in an indoor scenario. In contrast to outdoor environments, indoor scenarios are subject to a high level of multipath signals which are dependent on the indoor clutter. The presented algorithm is based on path loss analysis combined with spatial knowledge of each wireless sensor.

Wireless personal area networks have emerged as an important communication infrastructure in areas such as at-home healthcare and home automation, independent living and assistive technology, as well as sports and wellness. Wireless personal area networks, including body sensor networks, are becoming more mature and are considered to be a realistic alternative as communication infrastructure for demanding services. However, to transmit data from e.g., an ECG in wireless networks is also a challenge, especially if multiple sensors compete for access. Contention-based networks offer simplicity and utilization advantages, but the drawback is lack of predictable performance. Recipients of data sent in wireless sensor networks need to know whether they can trust the information or not. Performance measurements, monitoring and control is of crucial importance for medical and healthcare applications in wireless sensor networks. This thesis focuses on development, prototype implementation and evaluation of a performance management system with performance and admission control for wireless sensor networks. Furthermore, an implementation of a new method to compensate for clock drift between multiple wireless sensor nodes is also shown. Errors in time synchronization between nodes in Bluetooth networks, resulting in inadequate data fusion, are also analysed.

QC 20120529

The main contribution of the thesis is to provide modeling, analysis, and design for Medium Access Control (MAC) and link-quality based routing protocols of Wireless Body Area Sensor Networks (WBASNs) for remote patient monitoring applications by considering saturated and un-saturated traffic scenarios. The design of these protocols has considered the stringent Quality of Service (QoS) requirements of patient monitoring systems. Moreover, the thesis also provides intelligent routing metrics for packet forwarding mechanisms while considering the integration of WBASNs with the Internet of Things (IoTs). First, we present the numerical modeling of the slotted Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Avoidance (CSMA/CA) for the IEEE 802.15.4 and IEEE 802.15.6 standards. By using this modelling, we proposed a MAC layer mechanism called Delay, Reliability and Throughput (DRT) profile for the IEEE 802.15.4 and IEEE 802.15.6, which jointly optimize the QoS in terms of limited delay, reliability, efficient channel access and throughput by considering the requirements of patient monitoring system under different frequency bands including 420 MHz, 868 MHz and 2.4 GHz. Second, we proposed a duty-cycle based energy efficient adaptive MAC layer mechanism called Tele-Medicine Protocol (TMP) by considering the limited delay and reliability for patient monitoring systems. The proposed energy efficient protocol is designed by combining two optimizations methods: MAC layer parameter tuning and duty cycle-based optimization. The duty cycle is adjusted by using three factors: offered network traffic load, DRT profile and superframe duration. Third, a frame aggregation scheme called Aggregated-MAC Protocol Data Unit (A- MPDU) is proposed for the IEEE 802.15.4. A-MPDU provides high throughput and efficient channel access mechanism for periodic data transmission by considering the specified QoS requirements of the critical patient monitoring systems. To implement the scheme accurately, we developed a traffic pattern analysis to understand the requirements of the sensor nodes in patient monitoring systems. Later, we mapped the requirements on the existing MAC to find the performance gap. Fourth, empirical reliability assessment is done to validate the wireless channel characteristics of the low-power radios for successful deployment of WBASNs/IoTs based link quality routing protocols. A Test-bed is designed to perform the empirical experiments for the identification of the actual link quality estimation for different hospital environments. For evaluation of the test-bed, we considered parameters including Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI), Link Quality Indicator (LQI), packet reception and packet error rate. Finally, there is no standard under Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) which provides the integration of the IEEE 802.15.6 with IPv6 networks so that WBASNs could become part of IoTs. For this, an IETF draft is proposed which highlights the problem statement and solution for this integration. The discussion is provided in Appendix B.

Plusieurs défis existent dans les réseaux de capteurs corporels sans fil tels que la collecte et la fusion de données physiologiques dans un environnement contraignant. En effet, les nœuds de capteurs sans fil ont des ressources limitées en énergie, traitement et mémoire. En outre, une grande quantité de données est collectée. Ces données sont hétérogènes, ambiguës et imprécises. Ajoutons que l'interprétation des données est influencée par plusieurs facteurs externes tels que les informations contextuelles fournies par la personne surveillée. En conséquence la prise de décisions et l'analyse des informations extraite sont influencées.Tout d'abord une technique de collecte de données est proposée. Celle-ci a pour intérêt de réduire la quantité de données collectée et la consommation d'énergie. Dans le modèle proposé, l'énergie consommée par les nœuds capteurs sans fil pour capter et pour transmettre les signes vitaux est particulièrement ciblée. Il s'agit à la fois d'un mécanisme temps-réel pour l'adaptation du taux d'échantillonnage et d'un système de détection local permettant aux nœuds de transmettre uniquement les données indiquant un changement dans l'état de santé de la personne.Deuxièmement, un modèle de fusion de données pour l'évaluation de l'état de santé de la personne surveillée est proposé. Les données fusionnées sont les signes vitaux de la personne qui proviennent de plusieurs capteurs. Ces données sont interprétées de manière humaine et sont caractérisées par l'ambiguïté et l'imprécision. Ainsi, nous proposons d'utiliser un système d'inférence floue.Ensuite, nous proposons d'évaluer l'état de santé de la personne surveillée tout en prenant en compte le contexte dans lequel elle se trouve. Étant donné que les signes vitaux de l'être humain ainsi que son contexte tels que : son activité physique, son dossier médical et ses informations personnelles sont fortement corrélés, interprétation des signes vitaux est largement influencée. Plus particulièrement, nous proposons d'utiliser les ensembles flous hésitants pour déterminer subjectivement l'intensité de l'activité physique de la personne. L'approche proposée prend en considération le profil de la personne ainsi que les caractéristiques de l'activité physique en cours.Finalement, une application médicale spécifique est ciblée. Nous proposons de détecter et d'évaluer le stress en temps réel tout en considérant la consommation d'énergie. Shimmer 3 GSR + est utilisé comme capteur sans fil pour capter le signal Photoplethysmogram (PPG) et la conductance cutanée. Une application mobile Android est développée pour extraire du signal PPG les signes vitaux qui sont corrélés au stress tels que la fréquence cardiaque, la fréquence respiratoire et la pression artérielle
Several challenges exist in Wireless Body Sensor Networks such as the data collection and fusion especially that (1) wireless sensor nodes have limited energy, processing and memory resources, (2) the amount of periodically gathered data is huge, (3) the gathered data are characterized by a heterogeneous nature and (4) the data interpretation to ensure decision-support is influenced byseveral external factors such as the provided context information of the monitored person.In this thesis, the aforementioned challenges were tackled by proposing scientific aproaches. Firstly, an energy-efficient data collection technique is proposed. This technique targets the energy consumed by biosensor nodes for sensing and transmitting vital signs. It consists of a real-timesampling rate adaptation mechanism and a local detection system which are provided at the level of the nodes. Second, in order to perform a health assessment based on the collected data, a multisensor data fusion model is proposed. In this approach, the coordinator of the network performs anassessment of the patient's health condition based on the collected measurements of his/her vital signs. Such data is interpreted in a human-reasoning way and are characterized by ambiguity and imprecision. Thus, we propose to use a Fuzzy Inference System. Then, given that vital signs are highly correlated to the context of the monitored person, a context-aware multi-sensor data fusionmodel for health assessment is proposed. The person's context include his/her physical activity status, medical record and personal information. This information highly influences the interpretation of vital signs. Hesitant fuzzy sets are used to subjectively evaluate the intensity of the person's physical activities based on his/her personal information and the activity's characteristics. Finally, a specific healthcare monitoring application is targeted. A real-time stress detection and evaluation framework is proposed while taking into consideration the energy consumption constraint. Shimmer 3 GSR+ is used as a wireless sensor node to sense the Photoplethysmogram (PPG) signal and the skin conductance. An android mobile application is developed to extract from the PPG signal stress correlated vital signs such as the heart rate, the respiration rate and the blood pressure

L’amélioration de la qualité et de l’efficacité en santé est un réel enjeu sociétal. Elle implique la surveillance continue des paramètres vitaux ou de l’état mental du sujet. Les champs d’applications sont vastes : l’application la plus importante est la surveillance des patients à distance. Les avancées en micro-électronique, capteurs et réseaux sans-fil permettent aujourd’hui le développement de systèmes ambulatoires performants pour le monitoring de paramètres physiologiques, capables de prendre en compte d’importantes contraintes techniques : forte intégration pour la réduction de la taille et faible consommation pour une plus grande autonomie [1]. Cependant, la conception de ce type de réseaux de capteurs médicaux WBANs (Wireles Body Area Networks) se heurte à un certain nombre de difficultés techniques, provenant des contraintes imposées par les capacités réduites des capteurs individuels : basse puissance, énergie limitée et faible capacité de stockage. Ces difficultés requièrent des solutions différentes, encore très embryonnaires, selon l’application visée (monitoring à but médical). La forte mobilité et le changement rapide de la topologie du réseau dévoilent un verrou scientifique et social. En outre, l’interférence de différents capteurs constituant le WBAN augmente la difficulté de la mise en place de ce type de réseaux. De nombreuses solutions dans la littérature ont été étudiées, comme nous allons illustrer dans ce manuscrit, néanmoins elles restent limitées. Nous nous intéresserons tout particulièrement à la gestion des interférences Intra- et Inter-WBAN, leur impacte sur la fiabilité des transmissions (des liens) et la durée de vie de ce type de réseaux. Plus précisément, nous abordons ces problématiques en se basant sur des modélisations théoriques et analytiques et avec une conception pratique des solutions proposées. Afin d’atteindre les objectifs cités ci-dessous, nous abordons quatre solutions : • Une gestion des interférences intra-WBAN • Une gestion coopérative des interférences Inter-WBAN • Une gestion non coopérative des interférences, Inter-WBAN • Une gestion des interférences WBAN dans un contexte IoT Dans la première partie de cette thèse et afin de répondre en partie aux problèmes de gestion des interférences Intra-WBAN. Nous présentons deux mécanismes pour le WBAN : (a) CFTIM qui alloue dynamiquement des slots et des canaux dit- stables (avec un taux d’interférences le bas possible dans le temps) pour réduire les interférences intra-WBAN. (b) IAA ajuste dynamiquement la taille du superframe et limite le nombre de canaux à 2 pour abaisser les interférences Intra-WBAN et ainsi économiser l’énergie. Une validation avec un model probabiliste est proposé afin de valider théoriquement l’efficacité de notre solution. Les résultats de la simulation démontrent l’efficacité du CFTIM et de l’IAA en termes de réduction de la probabilité d’interférence, l’extension de la durée de vie du réseau et l’amélioration du débit et de la fiabilité des transmissions. Notre seconde contribution, propose une gestion coopératives des interférences Inter-WBAN en utilisant des codes orthogonaux. Motivé par un approvisionnement temporel distribué basé sur la norme [2] IEEE 802.15.6, nous proposons deux solutions. (a) DTRC qui fournit à chaque WBAN les connaissances sur les superframes qui se chevauchent. Le second, (b) OCAIM qui attribue des codes orthogonaux aux capteurs appartenant à deux listes de groupe de capteur en interférences de deux WBAN différents (SIL). Les résultats démontrent qu’OCAIM diminue les interférences, améliore le débit et préserve la ressources énergétiques. La troisième partie nous a permis d’aborder la gestion des interférences, mais cette fois ci d’une manière non-coopérative en se basant sur l’affectation couple Slot/Canal. Plus précisément, nous proposons deux schémas basés sur les carrés latins. (...)
A Wireless Body Area Network (WBAN) is a short-range network that consists of a coordinator (Crd) and a collection of low-power sensors that can be implanted in or attached to the human body. Basically, WBANs can provide real-time patient monitoring and serve in various applications such as ubiquitous health-care, consumer electronics, military, sports, etc. [1]. As the license-free 2.4 GHz ISM band is widely used among WBANs and across other wireless technologies, the fundamental problem is to mitigate the resulting co-channel interference. Other serious problems are to extend the network lifetime and to ensure reliable transmission within WBANs, which is an urgent requirement for health-care applications. Therefore, in this thesis, we conduct a systematic research on a few number of research problems related to radio co-channel interference, energy consumption, and network reliability. Specifically, we address the following problems ranging from theoretical modeling and analysis to practical protocol design: • Intra-WBAN interference mitigation and avoidance • Cooperative inter-WBAN interference mitigation and avoidance • Non-cooperative inter-WBAN interference mitigation and avoidance • Interference mitigation and avoidance in WBANs with IoT Firstly, to mitigate the intra-WBAN interference, we present two mechanisms for a WBAN. The first is called CSMA to Flexible TDMA combination for Interference Mitigation, namely, CFTIM, which dynamically allocates time-slots and stable channels to lower the intra-WBAN interference. The second is called Interference Avoidance Algorithm, namely IAA that dynamically adjusts the superframe length and limits the number of channels to 2 to lower the intra-WBAN interference and save energy. Theoretically, we derive a probabilistic model that proves the SINR outage probability is lowered. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness and the efficiency of CFTIM and IAA in terms of lowering the probability of interference, extending network lifetime, improving throughput and reliability. Secondly, we address the problem of interference among cooperative WBANs through using orthogonal codes. Motivated by distributed time provisioning supported in IEEE 802.15.6 standard [2], we propose two schemes. The first is called Distributed Time Correlation Reference, namely, DTRC that provides each WBAN with the knowledge about which superframes overlap with each other. The second is called Orthogonal Code Allocation Algorithm for Interference Mitigation, namely, OCAIM, that allocates orthogonal codes to interfering sensors belonging to sensor interference lists (SILs), which are generated based on the exchange of power-based information among WBANs. Mathematically, we derive the successful and collision probabilities of frames transmissions. Extensive simulations are conducted and the results demonstrate that OCAIM can diminish the interference, improve the throughput and save the power resource. Thirdly, we address the problem of co-channel interference among non-cooperative WBANs through time-slot and channel hopping. Specifically, we propose two schemes that are based on Latin rectangles. The first is called Distributed Algorithm for Interference mitigation using Latin rectangles, namely, DAIL that allocates a single channel to a timeslot combination to each sensor to diminish inter-WBAN interference and to yield better schedules of the medium access within each WBAN. The second is called Channel Hopping for Interference Mitigation, namely, CHIM, which generates a predictable interference free transmission schedule for all sensors within a WBAN. CHIM applies the channel switching only when a sensor experiences interference to save the power resource. Furthermore, we present an analytical model that derives bounds on collision probability and throughput for sensors transmissions. (...)

Ce manuscrit contient d'abord l'étude d'une extension du modèle des protocoles de populations, qui représentent des réseaux de capteurs asynchrones, passivement mobiles, limités en ressources et anonymes. Pour la première fois (à notre connaissance), un modèle formel de consommation d'énergie est proposé pour les protocoles de populations. A titre d'application, nous étudions à la complexité en énergie (dans le pire des cas et en moyenne) pour le problème de collecte de données. Deux protocoles prenant en compte la consommation d'énergie sont proposés. Le premier est déterministe et le second randomisé. Pour déterminer les valeurs optimales des paramètres, nous faisons appel aux techniques d'optimisation. Nous appliquons aussi ces techniques dans un cadre différent, celui des réseaux de capteurs corporels (WBAN). Une formulation de flux est proposée pour acheminer de manière optimale les paquets de données en minimisant la pire consommation d'énergie. Une procédure de recherche à voisinage variable est développée et les résultats numériques montrent son efficacité. Enfin, nous considérons le problème d'optimisation avec des paramètres aléatoires. Précisément, nous étudions un modèle semi-défini positif sous contrainte en probabilité. Un nouvel algorithme basé sur la simulation est proposé et testé sur un problème réel de théorie du contrôle. Nous montrons que notre méthode permet de trouver une solution moins conservatrice que d'autres approches en un temps de calcul raisonnable
In this thesis, we propose a formal energy model which allows an analytical study of energy consumption, for the first time in the context of population protocols. Population protocols model one special kind of sensor networks where anonymous and uniformly bounded memory sensors move unpredictably and communicate in pairs. To illustrate the power and the usefulness of the proposed energy model, we present formal analyses on time and energy, for the worst and the average cases, for accomplishing the fundamental task of data collection. Two power-aware population protocols, (deterministic) EB-TTFM and (randomized) lazy-TTF, are proposed and studied for two different fairness conditions, respectively. Moreover, to obtain the best parameters in lazy-TTF, we adopt optimization techniques and evaluate the resulting performance by experiments. Then, we continue the study on optimization for the power-aware data collection problem in wireless body area networks. A minmax multi-commodity netflow formulation is proposed to optimally route data packets by minimizing the worst power consumption. Then, a variable neighborhood search approach is developed and the numerical results show its efficiency. At last, a stochastic optimization model, namely the chance constrained semidefinite programs, is considered for the realistic decision making problems with random parameters. A novel simulation-based algorithm is proposed with experiments on a real control theory problem. We show that our method allows a less conservative solution, than other approaches, within reasonable time

This thesis concerns the application of different artificial neural network architectures on the classification of multivariate accelerometer time series data into activity classes such as sitting, lying down, running, or walking. There is a strong correlation between increased health risks in children and their amount of daily screen time (as reported in questionnaires). The dependency is not clearly understood, as there are no such dependencies reported when the sedentary (idle) time is measured objectively. Consequently, there is an interest from the medical side to be able to perform such objective measurements. To enable large studies the measurement equipment should ideally be low-cost and non-intrusive. The report investigates how well these movement patterns can be distinguished given a certain measurement setup and a certain network structure, and how well the networks generalise to noisier data. Recurrent neural networks are given extra attention among the different networks, since they are considered well suited for data of sequential nature. Close to state-of-the-art results (95% weighted F1-score) are obtained for the tasks with 4 and 5 classes, which is notable since a considerably smaller number of sensors is used than in the previously published results. Another contribution of this thesis is that a new labeled dataset with 12 activity categories is provided, consisting of around 6 hours of recordings, comparable in number of samples to benchmarking datasets. The data collection was made in collaboration with the Department of Public Health at Karolinska Institutet.
Inom ramen för uppsatsen testas hur väl rörelsemönster kan urskiljas ur accelerometerdatamed hjälp av den gren av maskininlärning som kallas djupinlärning; där djupa artificiellaneurala nätverk av noder funktionsapproximerar mappandes från domänen av sensordatatill olika fördefinerade kategorier av aktiviteter så som gång, stående, sittande eller liggande.Det finns ett intresse från den medicinska sidan att kunna mäta fysisk aktivitet objektivt,bland annat eftersom det visats att det finns en korrelation mellan ökade hälsorisker hosbarn och deras mängd daglig skärmtid. Denna typ av mätningar ska helst kunna göras medicke-invasiv utrustning till låg kostnad för att kunna göra större studier.Enklare nätverksarkitekturer samt återimplementeringar av bästa möjliga teknik inomområdet Mänsklig aktivitetsigenkänning (HAR) testas både på ett benchmarkingdataset ochpå egeninhämtad data i samarbete med Institutet för Folkhälsovetenskap på Karolinska Institutetoch resultat redovisas för olika val av möjliga klassificeringar och olika antal dimensionerper mätpunkt. De uppnådda resultaten (95% F1-score) på ett 4- och 5-klass-problem ärjämförbara med de bästa tidigare publicerade resultaten för aktivitetsigenkänning, vilket äranmärkningsvärt då då betydligt färre accelerometrar har använts här än i de åsyftade studierna.Förutom klassificeringsresultaten som redovisas bidrar det här arbetet med ett nyttinhämtat och kategorimärkt dataset; KTH-KI-AA. Det är jämförbart i antal datapunkter medspridda benchmarkingdataset inom HAR-området.