IJTA International Journal of Telemedicine and Applications 1687-6423 1687-6415 Hindawi Publishing Corporation 987046 10.1155/2009/987046 987046 Research Article Delay Analysis of GTS Bridging between IEEE 802.15.4 and IEEE 802.11 Networks for Healthcare Applications Mišić Jelena jmisic@cs.umanitoba.ca 1 (Sherman) Shen Xuemin xshen@bbcr.uwaterloo.ca 2 Xiao Yang 1 Department of Computer Science University of Manitoba Winnipeg MB Canada R3T 2N2 umanitoba.ca 2 Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering University of Waterloo Waterloo ON Canada N2L 3G1 uwaterloo.ca 2009 2 12 2008 2009 16 06 2008 18 09 2008 2009 Copyright © 2009 Jelena Mišić and Xuemin (Sherman) Shen. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

We consider interconnection of IEEE 802.15.4 beacon-enabled network cluster with IEEE 802.11b network. This scenario is important in healthcare applications where IEEE 802.15.4 nodes comprise patient's body area network (BAN) and are involved in sensing some health-related data. BAN nodes have very short communication range in order to avoid harming patient's health and save energy. Sensed data needs to be transmitted to an access point in the ward room using wireless technology with higher transmission range and rate such as IEEE 802.11b. We model the interconnected network where IEEE 802.15.4-based BAN operates in guaranteed time slot (GTS) mode, and IEEE 802.11b part of the bridge conveys GTS superframe to the 802.11b access point. We then analyze the network delays. Performance analysis is performed using EKG traffic from continuous telemetry, and we discuss the delays of communication due the increasing number of patients.

 http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100000038 Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada