Impact of Mobile and Wireless Technology on Healthcare Delivery services

Modern healthcare delivery services embrace the use of leading edge technologies and new scientific discoveries to enable better cures for diseases and better means to enable early detection of most life-threatening diseases. The healthcare industry is finding itself in a state of turbulence and flux. The major innovations lie with the use of information technologies and particularly, the adoption of mobile and wireless applications in healthcare delivery [1]. Wireless devices are becoming increasingly popular across the healthcare field, enabling caregivers to review patient records and test results, enter diagnosis information during patient visits and consult drug formularies, all without the need for a wired network connection [2]. A pioneering medical-grade, wireless infrastructure supports complete mobility throughout the full continuum of healthcare delivery. It facilitates the accurate collection and the immediate dissemination of patient information to physicians and other healthcare care professionals at the time of clinical decision-making, thereby ensuring timely, safe, and effective patient care. This paper investigates the wireless technologies that can be used for medical applications, and the effectiveness of such wireless solutions in a healthcare environment. It discusses challenges encountered; and concludes by providing recommendations on policies and standards for the use of such technologies within hospitals

Edge Computing for Internet of Things

The Internet-of-Things is becoming an established technology, with devices being deployed in homes, workplaces, and public areas at an increasingly rapid rate. IoT devices are the core technology of smart-homes, smart-cities, intelligent transport systems, and promise to optimise travel, reduce energy usage and improve quality of life. With the IoT prevalence, the problem of how to manage the vast volumes of data, wide variety and type of data generated, and erratic generation patterns is becoming increasingly clear and challenging. This Special Issue focuses on solving this problem through the use of edge computing. Edge computing offers a solution to managing IoT data through the processing of IoT data close to the location where the data is being generated. Edge computing allows computation to be performed locally, thus reducing the volume of data that needs to be transmitted to remote data centres and Cloud storage. It also allows decisions to be made locally without having to wait for Cloud servers to respond

Network-based business process management: embedding business logic in communications networks

Advanced Business Process Management (BPM) tools enable the decomposition of previously integrated and often ill-defined processes into re-usable process modules. These process modules can subsequently be distributed on the Internet over a variety of many different actors, each with their own specialization and economies-of-scale. The economic benefits of process specialization can be huge. However, how should such actors in a business network find, select, and control, the best partner for what part of the business process, in such a way that the best result is achieved? This particular management challenge requires more advanced techniques and tools in the enabling communications networks. An approach has been developed to embed business logic into the communications networks in order to optimize the allocation of business resources from a network point of view. Initial experimental results have been encouraging while at the same time demonstrating the need for more robust techniques in a future of massively distributed business processes.active networks;business process management;business protocols;embedded business logic;genetic algorithms;internet distributed process management;payment systems;programmable networks;resource optimization

Regulación y estrategias para la transformación digital eficiencia en la expansión de redes y en la provisión de bienes y servicios digitales

Tesis de la Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Empresariales, leída el 06/11/2017The digital transformation taking place in the last decades is a revolution with a deep economic, social, and cultural impact. It has created enormous opportunities and also new risks. Growth, enhanced productivity, increased citizenship engagement, better democracy and social inclusion are some of the opportunities but at the same time these transformations are challenging human and consumer rights, social policies and economic efficiency. Reaching the huge potential benefits of the digital revolution requires economic analysis to guide new regulations and policies accompanying technological advancement. This thesis proposes regulations and strategies for an optimal provision of digital networks, goods and services contributing to some of the topics of focus in recent literature on digital economy. One problem is entry barriers to companies selling internet access. We contribute to the literature by analyzing one of the causes of the existence of entry barriers, the problem of how efficiently allocate the radio-spectrum. Another problem is the optimal prices to remunerate network providers, digital service providers, consumers and vendors. We contribute by examining the impact of price discrimination of internet content providers under duopolistic competition and multi-dimensional product differentiation in retail broadband access in chapter 3. Chapter 1 offers some proposals for the evaluation of the efficient allocation of spectrum to radio communication services. New approaches to spectrum management have resulted in a more efficient production of services. However, the role of the public sector is still essential in spectrum allocation. This chapter provides a methodology to measure the net benefit of the reallocation of a spectrum band intended to guide regulators and policy makers. We have identified the following facts...La transformación digital que está teniendo lugar en las últimas décadas es una revolución con un profundo impacto económico, social y cultural que ha creado enormes oportunidades y también nuevos retos. Algunas de las oportunidades son un mayor crecimiento económico, mejoras de la productividad, mayor participación ciudadana y una mayor inclusión social, pero al mismo tiempo estas transformaciones desafían los derechos de los ciudadanos y de los consumidores, las políticas sociales y la eficiencia económica. Para alcanzar el enorme potencial de la revolución digital es necesario que el análisis económico guie la regulación y las políticas que acompañan al desarrollo tecnológico. Esta tesis propone nuevas normas y estrategias para una óptima provisión de redes, bienes y servicios digitales, contribuyendo en algunos de los temas de interés de la literatura reciente sobre economía digital. Un problema es la existencia de barreras a la entrada en el mercado de provisión de servicios de acceso a internet. Contribuimos a la literatura existente sobre este asunto, analizando en los capítulos 1 y 2, una de las causas de la existencia dichas barreras, la atribución ineficiente del espectro radioeléctrico. Otro problema es la formación de precios socialmente óptima para remunerar a los proveedores de acceso a internet, los proveedores de servicios digitales, los usuarios y los vendedores de publicidad. Contribuimos a esta materia examinando en el capítulo 3 el impacto de la discriminación de precios sobre proveedores de contenidos cuando en el mercado minorista de acceso a internet existe competencia imperfecta, duopolio, y diferenciación multidimensional de producto. El capítulo 1 ofrece propuestas para la evaluación de la eficiencia de una atribución de espectro a un servicio de radiocomunicaciones. Las nuevas técnicas de gestión del espectro han dado lugar a una provisión más eficiente de los servicios. Sin embargo, el papel del sector público sigue siendo necesario en la gestión del espectro. Este capítulo ofrece una metodología para medir el beneficio neto de una re-atribución de una banda de frecuencias para guiar a reguladores y diseñadores de políticas públicas. Se han obtenido los siguientes resultados destacables...Fac. de Ciencias Económicas y EmpresarialesTRUEunpu

A generic communication architecture for end to end mobility management in the Internet

The proliferation of laptops, cellular phones, and other mobile computing platforms connected to the Internet has triggered numerous research works into mobile networking. The increasingly dense set of wireless access networks that can be potentially accessed by mobile users open the door to an era of pervasive computing. However, the puzzle of wireless access networks that tends to become the natural access networks to the Internet pushes legacy“wireoriented” communication architectures to their limit. Indeed, there is a critical gap between the increasingly used stream centric multimedia applications and the incapacity of legacy communication stacks to insure the continuity of these multimedia sessions for mobile users. This paper proposes a generic communication architecture (i.e. not dedicated to a specific protocol or technology) that aims to fill the gap between the application layer continuity needs and the discontinuity of the communication service inherent to the physical layer of wireless mobile networks. This paper introduces an end to end communication architecture that preserves efficiently session continuity in the context of mobile and wireless networks. This architecture is mainly based on end to end mechanisms that could be integrated into a new generation reconfigurable transport protocol. The proposed contribution efficiently satisfies mobility requirements such as efficient location management, fast handover, and continuous connection support

Design and experimental validation of a software-defined radio access network testbed with slicing support

Network slicing is a fundamental feature of 5G systems to partition a single network into a number of segregated logical networks, each optimized for a particular type of service or dedicated to a particular customer or application. The realization of network slicing is particularly challenging in the Radio Access Network (RAN) part, where multiple slices can be multiplexed over the same radio channel and Radio Resource Management (RRM) functions shall be used to split the cell radio resources and achieve the expected behaviour per slice. In this context, this paper describes the key design and implementation aspects of a Software-Defined RAN (SD-RAN) experimental testbed with slicing support. The testbed has been designed consistently with the slicing capabilities and related management framework established by 3GPP in Release 15. The testbed is used to demonstrate the provisioning of RAN slices (e.g., preparation, commissioning, and activation phases) and the operation of the implemented RRM functionality for slice-aware admission control and scheduling.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Optimal Witnessing of Healthcare IoT Data Using Blockchain Logging Contract

Verification of data generated by wearable sensors is increasingly becoming of concern to health service providers and insurance companies. There is a need for a verification framework that various authorities can request a verification service for the local network data of a target IoT device. In this paper, we leverage blockchain as a distributed platform to realize an on-demand verification scheme. This allows authorities to automatically transact with connected devices for witnessing services. A public request is made for witness statements on the data of a target IoT that is transmitted on its local network, and subsequently, devices (in close vicinity of the target IoT) offer witnessing service. Our contributions are threefold: (1) We develop a system architecture based on blockchain and smart contract that enables authorities to dynamically avail a verification service for data of a subject device from a distributed set of witnesses which are willing to provide (in a privacy-preserving manner) their local wireless measurement in exchange of monetary return; (2) We then develop a method to optimally select witnesses in such a way that the verification error is minimized subject to monetary cost constraints; (3) Lastly, we evaluate the efficacy of our scheme using real Wi-Fi session traces collected from a five-storeyed building with more than thirty access points, representative of a hospital. According to the current pricing schedule of the Ethereum public blockchain, our scheme enables healthcare authorities to verify data transmitted from a typical wearable device with the verification error of the order 0.01% at cost of less than two dollars for one-hour witnessing service.Comment: 12 pages, 12 figure

Descoberta de serviços independentes do acesso para redes heterogéneas

Mestrado em Engenharia de Computadores e TelemáticaA recente proliferação de nós móveis com múltiplas interfaces sem fios e a constituição de ambientes heterogéneos possibilitaram a criação de cenários complexos onde os operadores de rede necessitam de disponibilizar conectividade para diferentes tipos de redes de acesso. Assim, a norma IEEE 802.21 foi especificada de forma a facilitar e optimizar os procedimentos de handover entre diferentes tecnologias de acesso sem perda de conectividade. Para cumprir o seu propósito, a norma disponibiliza serviços chamados Media Independent Handover e que permitem o controlo e a obtenção de informação de diferentes ligações. A configuração estática destes serviços por parte do nó móvel torna-se ineficiente devido aos múltiplos cenários possíveis. Desta forma, o nó móvel deve descobrir nós da rede que providenciem serviços de mobilidade e as suas capacidade de uma forma dinâmica. Nesta dissertação, um conjunto de mecanismos para descoberta de serviços de handover independentes do acesso são analisados, implementados e avaliados em termos de duração e quantidade de informação trocada. Um novo mecanismo de descoberta de entidades locais é também proposto e avaliado, demonstrando que a sua utilização aumenta o desempenho e requer a troca de menos quantidade de informação.The recent proliferation of mobile nodes with multiple wireless interfaces, in addition to the creation of heterogeneous environments, created complex scenarios where network operators need to provide connectivity for di erent kinds of access networks. Therefore, the IEEE 802.21 standard has been speci ed to facilitate and optimize handover procedures between di erent access technologies in a seamless way. To ful l its purpose, it provides Media Independent Handover services which allow the control and gathering of information from di erent links. The static con guration of these services by the MN becomes ine cient due to the amount of possible scenarios. Thus, the MN must discover the network-supporting nodes and their capabilities in a dynamic way. In this work, a series of proposed Media Independent Handover discovery procedures are analyzed, implemented and evaluated in terms of duration and amount of exchanged information. In addition, a novel discovery procedure for local entities is proposed and evaluated, showing that its deployment increases the performance and requires less information exchanged