A Survey on M2M Systems for mHealth: A Wireless Communications Perspective

Elli Kartsakli, Aris Lalos, Angelos Antonopoulos, Stefano Tennina, Marco Renzo, Luis Alonso, Christos Verikoukis
2014 Sensors  
In the new era of connectivity, marked by the explosive number of wireless electronic devices and the need for smart and pervasive applications, Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communications are an emerging technology that enables the seamless device interconnection without the need of human interaction. The use of M2M technology can bring to life a wide range of mHealth applications, with considerable benefits for both patients and healthcare providers. Many technological challenges have to be met,
more » ... owever, to ensure the widespread adoption of mHealth solutions in the future. In this context, we aim to provide a comprehensive survey on M2M systems for mHealth applications from a wireless communication perspective. An end-to-end holistic approach is adopted, focusing on different communication aspects of the M2M architecture. Hence, we first provide a systematic review of Wireless Body Area Networks (WBANs), which constitute the enabling technology at the patient's side, and then discuss end-to-end solutions that involve the design Sensors 2014, 14 18010 and implementation of practical mHealth applications. We close the survey by identifying challenges and open research issues, thus paving the way for future research opportunities. Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communications is an emerging technology that envisions the interconnection of machines without the need of human intervention. The main concept lies in seamlessly connecting an autonomous and self-organizing network of M2M-capable devices to a remote client, through heterogeneous wired or wireless communication networks. An intelligent software application is usually employed at the remote client to process the collected data and provide the end user with a set of smart services and a practical interface. Although the idea of telematics and telemetry applications is not new, the widespread use of Internet, along with the trend for ubiquitous connectivity, especially via wireless communication systems, have placed M2M systems on the spotlight of attention for both academia and industry. The increasing interest on M2M communications poses significant challenges that need to be met. A key issue to be handled is the large number of devices that must be supported in an M2M network, since market predictions estimate that the number of M2M-enabled devices with Internet connectivity will reach up to 50 billion by the end of 2020 [1]. Regardless of the exact figures, the growth rate is impressive, and major efforts are required to provide scalable solutions that support the increasing number of devices with diverse characteristics and requirements. Another challenge stems from the multitude of technical solutions that can be employed in M2M systems. Depending on the application deployment, different approaches may be adopted for the interconnection of M2M devices, such as wired or wireless technologies, short-range or long-range communications, and solutions based on existing open communication standards or proprietary technologies. The above challenges stress the imperative need for standardization of M2M communications [2]. To this direction, the European Telecommunications Standards Institution (ETSI) has established the M2M Technical Committee which aims to provide an end-to-end view of M2M standardization, focusing on the interoperability of M2M devices with existing standards. In July of 2012, ETSI and six other major standards development organizations (ARIB and TTC of Japan, ATIS and the TIA of the USA, CCSA of China, and TTA of Korea) joined their efforts in the one M2M initiative, under the goal of creating a single universal standard for M2M communications [3] . This global standardization effort is crucial to enable the integration of heterogeneous technologies in order to achieve seamless end-to-end connectivity, removing potential barriers to market growth. The penetration of M2M solutions for monitoring and remote control in a wide range of markets, including industrial automation, security and surveillance, smart metering, energy management, and transportation, generates great business opportunities. The application of M2M enabling technologies to the healthcare sector, in particular, is expected to be one of the major M2M market drivers: market • a systematic review of existing physical (PHY) layer technologies for WBANs, which, to our knowledge is not available in the literature, • an up-to-date survey of the key Medium Access Control (MAC) layer design approaches to tackle the specific challenges of mHealth applications in WBANs, and • an end-to-end perspective of M2M systems for mHealth, focusing on the integration and convergence of different communication technologies employed in WBANs and long-range communication networks and the presentation of testbed implementations. The remainder of this paper is organized as follows. First, the high-level ETSI architecture for M2M systems is described in Section 2, whereas the main design challenges for end-to-end mHealth applications are discussed in Section 3. Section 4 is dedicated to the most recent developments in wireless technologies for WBANs. After a brief description of the IEEE 802.15.6 standard for WBANs, the focus is laid on channel modeling, PHY technologies and MAC strategies. Then, Section 5 is devoted to end-to-end connectivity, focusing on integration challenges, existing testbeds and current research projects. Finally, some concluding remarks are given in Section 6.
doi:10.3390/s141018009 pmid:25264958 pmcid:PMC4239929 fatcat:kwow7xqtarh47bm5v62tpvrdte