Medical information technologies will strongly influence the medical routine of the future. As a consequence of a rapid development of image based methods and an increasing computational power new therapeutic and diagnostic methods are used today allowing higher standards in quality and efficiency of medicine. This paper provides an investigation on the application of cluster computing in the field of medical imaging that could efficiently increase the throughput. An indepth understanding of the architecture has been made so that even medical centers that do not have access to supercomputing facilities can obtain the best out of the existing hardware and software. Also that the most commonly used image processing algorithms in medical domain are discussed with the ways and means by which parallelism could be exploited

This presentation provides an overview of e-health or telehealth applications suited to broadband. It reviews current applications, addresses value-add/benefits, and discusses challenges and barriers. Three examples of Canadian IP broadband e-health networks are outlined. The presentation closes by outlining implications and future directions

Mobile telecardiology has been considered one of the successful m-health applications. Recently, the rapid development in mobile technologies enabled corresponding advances in mobile telecardiology applications. The compression issues of Bluetooth enable mobile telecardiology system. We address the relevant hardware design issues and performance

Mobile communication technologies could strongly help in facing health emergency situation. Thanks to wireless communication techniques, real time audio, video, medical parameters transmission and information storage are nowadays possible. Electrocardiogram, blood pressure and other patient's information are sent to a remote hospital/medical database center server. Actions taken by the emergency staff are stored for real time operative-center interaction and for a successive database consultation. The emergency video recording is often useful as legal evidence in case of disputation. In this paper a real time connection telemedical system is described. The system is based on low-cost consumer technologies such as GPRS and WiFi for low-band data/video transmission, H.264 for the real time video stream encoding and database video storage. A relational database has been used for store and query data All system is based on Microsoft .Net technology allowing great portability and stability to overall modules, such as HMI (human machine interface) and multimedia codecs

The miniaturization of equipment and the falling prices of biomedical technology, combined to a highly computerized mobile "home-care environment" may result in alternative diagnostic and treatment patterns, including, home-care by mobile medical and nursing staff, health-tourism by adapting hotel, cruisers etc. to the needs of such a project, community common space activities combined to preventive medicine etc. This would result in a decreasing number of patients in hospitals and other costly traditional ambulatory services, as well as, a much more attractive way for the patient to lend himself to be treated. Some conceptual and practical configurations, based on commercially available components will be presented

Two-dimensional (2D) video-based telemedical consultation has been explored widely in the past 15-20 years. Two issues that seem to arise in most relevant case studies are the difficulty associated with obtaining the desired 2D camera views, and poor depth perception To address these problems we are exploring the use of a small array of cameras to reconstruct a real-time, on-line 3D computer model of the real environment and events. We call this 3D medical consultation (3DMC). The idea is to give remote users what amounts to an infinite set of stereoscopic viewpoints, simultaneously addressing the visibility and depth perception problems associated with 2D video. Here we describe our current prototype system, some of the methods we use, and some early experimental results

Wireless and mobile technologies are finding a role in patient monitoring in diverse environments including hospitals and nursing homes. However, the quality and reliability of patient monitoring have not been highly satisfactory due to unpredictable and spotty coverage of infrastructure-oriented wireless networks such as wide-area cellular networks and wireless LANs. Recently, the use of ad hoc wireless networks among mobile and wearable devices for patient monitoring has been proposed. Although very exciting, there are many challenges in using ad hoc wireless networks for patient monitoring including how to support reliable patient monitoring and how to manage power transmission from patients' devices. In this paper, we provide several solutions for enhancing the reliability of patient monitoring and for improving the power management of devices in normal and emergency messages transmission. We are currently evaluating the performance of the proposed solutions and protocols, and the results will be presented at the workshop

In this paper, we introduce a low-cost and easily setup wireless multimedia transmission system that can assist patient care during disasters. With real-time transfer of data from video cameras, sensors and display of information on the devices (PDAs, laptops) of EMT (Emergency Medical Team) from multiple disaster sites to the control center, the system enables disaster managers to quickly obtain patients' status information from the entire disaster area, to assist the diagnosis and treatment of patients, reducing mortality and morbidity in disaster situation. Moreover, the disaster managers in the command center can remotely control the information sent from the disaster sites. We have implemented the system prototype over the wireless network and successfully demonstrated simultaneous transmission of video, sensor information, medical image and text patient information from multiple disaster sites to the control center. The experiments conducted on the system prototype validate our system design

This paper motivates virtual topologies for more advanced network design in OBS. It discusses their principal characteristics both qualitatively and quantitatively and derives conclusions toward their resource efficient design. Finally, the OBTN approach is outlined and representative performance results are presented

In this paper we consider implementing optical burst switching as an alternative approach to meet computationally intensive grid applications. Such architecture has been referred to as grid-over-OBS (GoOBS). We first present a unique layered architecture for grid-over-OBS and position OBS protocol stack within the framework of the layered grid architecture. Then, we present a generic framework for anycast routing in the context of GoOBS when requests don't have explicit addresses and they can be serviced by any appropriate grid resource. We develop several algorithms to support an casting when only a single copy of a request is transmitted. Through simulation analysis, we show the performance of our anycast algorithms and compare them with the shortest-path unicast routing in which all jobs have specific addresses. In our performance analysis, we focus on average end-to-end delay and blocking probability of requests

We present a new optical interconnect architecture that can be used in wavelength division multiplexing synchronous optical packet/burst switching networks. The proposed design uses parametric wavelength converters and wavelength exchange optical crossbars to reduce both switching and wavelength conversion complexity. Our design reduces both the number of wavelength converters as well as the number of space switches compared to most existing designs. We briefly present the architecture and enabling technologies. The main properties of the architecture are also discussed

We present the ROMEO project, a collaboration between Alcatel and French Universities to design all optical core and access networks. Inside the core, the QoS requirements are a high throughput, low latency and bounded transport delays. Our new routing algorithm combines deflection routing and convergence routing. Deflection routing is known to avoid deadlocks but some packets never reach their destination within a finite delay while convergence routing provides a deterministic bounded delay for transport but has in general a very low network throughput. The mixed strategies we design allow an ending guarantee and are almost as efficient as deflection routing. We study the performance guarantees provided by this new algorithm using graph arguments for the ending property and simulations to give some insights into the throughput and the distribution of delays. We also show how we can optimize the two main components of the algorithm. Finally, we present how bursts are implemented inside the ROMEO core network. ROMEO bursts are not based on the usual reservation without acknowledgment mechanism. Using an Eulerian decomposition of the network topology and our routing algorithm, the bursts arrive with a probability one within a bounded delay, once they have been inserted

We describe an intra- and inter-domain routing architecture for just-in-time (JIT) optical burst switched (OBS) networks. The architecture addresses the problem of routing optical signals of varying types across an all-optical burst-switched backbone network while maintaining the optical signal quality required by each application. The architecture distinguishes between routing for bursts and ancillary signaling messages ("data plane routing"), and routing for other management and control messages ("control plane routing")

The novel applications require multiservice networks to guarantee quality of service (QoS). In this paper, we propose a multiclass admission control mechanism for providing QoS in optical burst-switched networks (OBS). The proposed mechanism admits bursts of a given service class according to network load and a class-associated parameter. Based on this parameter, referred as load level, it is possible to differentiate the burst blocking probability experienced by each service class. We also develop an analytical model for the proposed mechanism and evaluated its performance in different scenarios. Even when varying the offered load, the traffic amount of each service class, and the number of service classes, the proposed mechanism provides a lower blocking probability for the high-priority traffic in comparison with other similar admission control mechanisms

This paper deals with the burst scheduling problem in bufferless, burst-switched WDM networks. We present a control architecture and an optimal online scheduling algorithm that achieve theoretically minimal burst blocking in OBS core nodes. Using simulation, we evaluate the blocking benefit of optimal delayed scheduling over simple first-come-first serve scheduling. We find that the reduction in blocking that can be realized from minimal-loss scheduling depends strongly on the variability of input burst lengths, ranging from no benefit for constant burst length to a reduction of an order of magnitude for highly variable burst lengths

This paper compares some optical packet switching architectures that use the wavelength conversion technique to solve the packet contention problem. The architectures are equipped with shared and limited-range wavelength converters. We evaluate for these architectures the performance of the optimum scheduling algorithm by resolving an integer linear programming problem. Unfortunately the optimum scheduling algorithm has a high time complexity and it cannot be adopted for optical packet switches requiring packet scheduling time in the order of 10+100 ns. For this reason we propose some scheduling algorithms allowing the best optimum scheduling performance to be reached in low computation time. In particular we propose an algorithm able to reach good performance with a complexity O(M), M being the number of wavelengths used

In this work, we propose a mechanism to reduce the burst blocking probability in an OBS network formed by several stars interconnected by a ring. An offset windows scheme is introduced to assure that the lack of resources for a burst transmission is detected as close as possible to the ingress nodes, i.e. burst contention is only probable at the first core node of the ring that processes a control packet. The proposal guarantees that the burst transmission will be successful once the transmission has been allocated on the first link of the ring; thus, network-core resources are not wasted. Nevertheless, an additional mechanism is needed to guarantee the absence of burst losses before the reservation of resources inside the core network. A retransmission scheme and an OCDMA-based mechanism are introduced in order to achieve this objective

In this paper, a dynamic bandwidth allocation scheme is proposed to achieve collision free burst transmission in time-slotted OBS networks. Various simulation results show its superior performance over conventional OBS networks with/without wavelength converters. The signaling overhead is also affordable since only few probing, reservation and releasing packets will be sent for each connection in each frame. Some theoretical analysis for the proposed scheme are being under taken

(Pb,La)(Zr,To)O3 (PLZT) is one of the best candidates in terms of high-speed, low-voltage, and low-power consumption optical switching due to its efficient voltage-induced index change. We have established a solid-phase epitaxy to grow low-loss PLZT thin film waveguides. PLZT waveguides with PLZT buffer layers are grown on Nb-doped semiconductive SrTiO3 substrates for the effective overlap integral of the optical field and the electric field. Efficient switching of light coupled in the waveguides is achieved by applying voltage between the top electrodes and the substrates to induce the excellent electro-optic properties of PLZT waveguides including low-voltage and polarization independent index change. 1timesN optical switching devices and subsystems are demonstrated using the PLZT waveguide switch elements showing low-voltage drive and less than 10 ns response characteristics

Optical burst switching (OBS) (C. Qiao and M. Yoo, 1999) is a promising candidate for a more dynamic optical network layer. The scheduling of bursts in OBS core nodes is an important task for achieving good network performance. A lot of scheduling algorithms were published, but so far only few work was done on analyzing the realization complexity and on building prototypes for scheduling modules. In this paper we present for the first time the new scheduling scheme pre-estimate burst scheduling (PEBS) which reduces the realization complexity of scheduling modules by precalculating parts of the scheduling decisions

Impulse radio ultra wide band (IR-UWB) is gaining consensus within the recently formed IEEE 802.15.4a Task Group as a solution for providing combined communication and ranging in low data rate indoor/outdoor networks. In this work we propose a solution for medium access control in low data rate IR-UWB networks that uses the specific features of IR-UWB and enables location-based network optimizations by providing and storing estimates of the distance between network terminals. The performance of the protocol as a function of channel characteristics, transmission range, number of users and user data rates is evaluated by means of simulations, taking into account an accurate MUI model based on the concept of pulse collision. Results highlight that in all considered scenarios the protocol provides high throughput and low packet delay, and constitutes thus a viable solution for location-aware low data rate UWB networks

The WiMedia Alliance is currently specifying a distributed medium access control (MAC) protocol for ultra wide band (UWB) communications in the wireless-personal-area-network (WPAN) environment. Even though this MAC protocol includes basic mechanisms to provide mobility support, such support can be improved via coordination among devices. In this paper, we propose two enhancements for mobility support in the WiMedia MAC protocol. Our enhancements are based on the beacon period (BP)-merging algorithm of the WiMedia MAC protocol with a new distributed coordination. Two cases of mobile WPANs are studied to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed enhancements

In this paper, we propose the scheme that the technology of ultra-wide band is used in hybrid wireless networks and establish the corresponding network model. According to the limit theory, we derive the analytical expressions of capacity in hybrid wireless networks. Simulation results show that the hybrid wireless network formed by adding base stations within an ad hoc network is an effective way to improve the network capacity, while the technology of ultra-wide band used in hybrid wireless networks can enhance the capacity performance to some extent

In this paper we introduce a 3D location system for indoor environments which comprises of a hierarchical location scheme and a UWB-based location network which consists of UWB sensors and tags. By using a UWB-based network, the proposed location system takes advantage of UWB characteristics such as low power transmission, multi-path fading robustness, ultra-fine time resolution and multiple simultaneous transmissions. Using the UWB characteristics and the hierarchical organization of the proposed location scheme, the location system can provide a wide geographical coverage and precise positioning. The location scheme is based on round-trip time-of-arrival ranging measurement and RLS (recursive least square) positioning. Using simulations, we investigate the location scheme performance as a function of a number of parameters such as the reference nodes' density and power range. The simulation results prove the effectiveness of our location scheme

We consider the impact of multi-user interference on a bit-interleaved coded-modulation system with M-ary PPM (BIC M-ary PPM) in an impulse-radio ultra-wideband physical layer. In a realistic scenario such as an ad hoc network, the interference is inherently variable. This justifies the need for a physical layer that can optimally adapt its transmission parameters to the interference level. We use puncturing on the channel code so that we can not only change the modulation order M but also the channel code rate. We study by simulation how the optimal combination of modulation order M and channel code rate behaves with various degrees of interference. The results show that BIC M-ary PPM can be successfully adapted to various levels of interference conditions. It also shows the benefit of both rate and modulation adaptation, especially in the presence of multi-user interference