Ambulance Data Transmission

1
Ambulance Data Transmission

• Requirements
• Overall considerations FAX,Circuit,Packet.
• Systems available
• Mobitex
• GSM GPRS
• 3G(UMTS)
• TETRA
• Satellite
• Mixed Systems
• In Hospital systems
• Sussex example
• Conclusions

2
Requirements

• Country-wide coverage
• Security
• Availability
• Data volumes - 10Kb for ECG
• Expandability
• Integration
• Data transfer at hospital

3
Fax versus Data

• FAX Advantages - Easy communication with
  Fax in hospital . - transmission supported by
  several current radio systems
• Data advantages
• Higher transmission speeds
• Better error protection
• Integration into overall Ambulance data systems
  supporting several applications
• Much increased support for data in mobile systems
  now coming to market

4
Data Transmission Circuit vs Packet

• Circuit Switched - Continuous path
• - Typically pay for connection time
• - Continuous holding leads to greater
  congestion
• - Continuous path leads to better
  performance for voice and video
• Packet Switched - Individual packets sent
  separately only use the path when there
  is something to send
• - Typically pay for amount of data sent
• - Bursty occupation leads to better sharing
  of capacity in peak times
• - Always connected operation leads to fast
  data transfer

5
Mobitex

• Mobitex specialised Packet Radio system for
  data
• Mature system(in operation for 10 years)
• Good coverage in England Rural
  Wales/Scotland/Northern Ireland not so good
• Data rate 2.5 kb/s
• Already installed in some ambulances
• Packet system with little high-volume use gives
  little contention

6
GSM

• Good coverage - some rural gaps
• In-built security encoding
• High availability and good resilience
• some tendency to local flooding when major
  movements of people
• Data Rate
• GSM Circuit Switched Data 9.6 Kb/s
  High Speed
  Circuit Switched Data (HSCSD) 19.2-28.8 Kb/s
• Widespread roaming

7
Data connection in car for Ericsson R320
The R320 sits in the car kit. The HCD -10 data
cable plugs into car kit control box. The phone
system connector at the other end of the cable
can then be connected to the DRS -10 (RS232
cable) which then is plugged directly into the
laptop. The in built modem supports data
transmission
External vehicle antenna
Car kit control box
ata Cable HCD -10
RS232 Cable DRS -10
D
8
What is GPRS?

• General Packet Radio Service bringing higher bit
  speeds
• GPRS is a GSM service for end-to-end packet
  switching
• Reuse of existing infrastructure
• Interworks with existing circuit-switched
  services
• Based on standardised open interfaces

9
Radio Network Characteristics

• On demand or dedicated GPRS channels

10
GPRS

• Packet Based system using the same radio bearer
  as GSM
• In-built security
• Good coverage - works across whole GSM network
  with no adaptation of radio and relatively small
  additions to central network
• Availability - more resilient due to channel
  sharing characteristics of packet
• Data rate up to 50Kb/s in practice (Headline rate
  115Kb/s)
• System just coming on-stream this year
• Specification includes simultaneous voice and
  data but most terminals will only do one at a
  time(Class B terminal)

11
3rd Generation Network Capabilities

• High bit-rate services
• 384 kbps in the wide area
• up to 2Mbps in indoorenvironments
• Optimized for packet data transfer
• Multimedia support
• Simultaneous sessions
• Dynamic user bandwidth
• IP connectivity from end to end
• Data and voice
• Seamless roaming

12
3G - What Does it Mean for the End User ?

• Access to the Mobile Internet
• A wealth of information,always available
• New ways to communicateand be entertained
• Image-based communication
• Advanced messaging
• High-quality audio and video
• Personalisation
• My own set of differentiatedservices
• Service convergence
• Across networks, usage and countries

13
The Corporate 3G User
Real Mobile Data applications .

• Always connected, always online
• High-speed intranet extension
• Remote LAN access
• Advanced messaging
• New types of communication - still image and
  video
• Workforce management
• Seamless user experience -fixed and mobile

14
3G(UMTS)

• System designed for Mobile Multi-Media (Mobile
  Internet)
• New spectrum round 2GHz
• Simultaneous voice and data
• Data both Circuit switched and Packet switched
• Data rates
• Circuit up to 386 Kb/s
• Packet up to 386 Kb/s
• Systems will come on-stream in 2002
• Early terminals will be dual-standard
  UMTS/GPRS/GSM so there will be coverage to GSM
  limits but with enhanced data rate and coverage
  in populated areas.
• Increased capacity and data rates will lead to
  higher availability

15
TETRA

• Phase1 Coverage Dolphin 90
• PSRCS ?
• Voice
• Data - up to 28 Kb/s (interface spec not
  currently available)
• Priority and security systems
• Phase 2 3G compatible
• Higher data rates
• Commonality of SIM with UMTS
• Tends to become 3G access type
• Date not known

16
Satellite Systems
Type Equipment Per min Subscription Inmarsat
2.4Kb/s 2000 1.3 10 per
month Inmarsat 64Kb/s 6000 4.5 10 Iridi
um 2.4Kb/s 670 0.97 10 Globalstar
9.6Kb/s Thurya 9.6Kb/s 750 0.9 10 note
Thurya has dual GSM /satellite mode Aerials
Inmarsat 10cm globe others similar to GSM car kit
17
Joint Systems

• Scenario with a parallel low-speed and high-speed
  data channel
• eg Mobitex UMTS
• Tetra UMTS

18
Data transfer at hospital

• The wide area transmission techniques may not
  give sufficient bandwidth for rapid in hospital
  data transfer.
• Systems designed for wide area use have
  relatively high output power and should not be
  used near medical equipment.
• Use of Wireless LAN or Bluetooth systems would
  solve this.
• System choice should be on the basis of wider in
  hospital requirements. Either would provide
  adequate transfer rates.
• Wireless LAN is widely available now and would be
  the system for current installation.
• Bluetooth will be widely fitted as standard to
  data systems in one to 2 years and could meet the
  need at that point.
• Wireless LAN has higher data rates and longer
  reach.

19
Sussex Situation

• Using MRL PIC
• Currently has Fax port
• Initial trials with Fax using GSM look promising
  as a short term measure
• Data port being developed for MRL PIC.
• Mobitex has been adopted with Terrafix for maps
  etc.
• Data solution based on Mobitex looks the best way
  forward.
• Use of data system will allow separate
  applications to share the same transmission
  mechanism.

20
Afterthoughts

• I did not mention SMS over GSM as a
  technique.This has the advantages of security and
  resiliencev as SMS messages are guarunteed to
  travel across the network.large data file can be
  sentb as a series of linked SMS messages.
• Another technique fir increasing availability in
  a GSM solution is to use a Guernsey subscription
  which gives accessto all of the UK GSM networks
  and thus gives best possible coverage and
  availability.
• For any further questions please contact
  me.MartinHills email
  martin.hills_at_etl.ericsson.se Tel [phone]
  800 Mob [phone]

21
Conclusions

• Data system should be preferred to Fax
• Procurement of data hub in ambulance should be
  priority.
• Ambulance service will use a variety of the
  systems described due to differences in current
  equipment and specific geography
• High speed packet based transmission systems will
  be available this year giving the basis for
  extensive data oriented systems