Page 221 - ITU KALEIDOSCOPE, ATLANTA 2019

Session 1: ICT infrastructure for healthcare
1
S1.1 5G-enabled health systems: Solutions, challenges and future research trends
Di Zhang and Teng Zhang, Zhengzhou University, China; Yunkai Zhai, Zhengzhou University
and National Engineering Laboratory for Internet Medical Systems and Applications, China;
Joel J.P.C. Rodrigues, Federal University of Piauí, Brazil and Instituto de Telecomunicações,
Portugal; Dalong Zhang, Zhengzhou University, China; Zheng Wen, Keping Yu and Takuro
Sato, Waseda University, Japan
In the literature, Information communication technology (ICT)-assisted health systems have
been intensively discussed. However, it has seldom become a reality. This is mainly due to the
current wireless technologies’ limited transmission rate, few connected devices and high
latency. On the contrary, the fifth generation (5G) wireless communications can connect more
devices, provide faster transmission rates and a lower latency. In this article, we first introduce
the 5G-enabled health systems and our specific implementation in the first affiliated hospital of
Zhengzhou University (FAHZZU). Afterwards, the potential challenges and future research
trends on demonstrating the 5G-enabled health systems are discussed.

S1.2 Community healthcare mesh network engineering in white space frequencies
Hope Mauwa, University of Mpumalanga, South Africa; Antoine Bagula and Emmanuel
Tuyishimire, University of the Western Cape, South Africa; and Tembisa Ngqondi, University
of Mpumalanga, South Africa
The transition from analog to digital television has availed new spectrum called white space,

which can be used to boost the capacity of wireless networks on an opportunistic basis. One
sector in which there is a need to use white space frequencies is the healthcare sector because
of existent protocols which are using it and the white space frequency is not as crowded as Wi-
Fi. However, design simulations of wireless communication networks in white space
frequencies have revealed dense network topology because of better signal propagation and
penetration properties of white space frequencies. Consequently, communication networks
designed in white space frequencies will require topology reduction for better communication
and routing. Therefore, this paper proposes a link-based topology reduction algorithm to reduce
a dense mesh network topology designed in white space frequencies into a sparse mesh
network topology. The paper also proposes a network optimization function to introduce a
hierarchical backbone-based network topology from the sparse network topology for better
scalability. Performance evaluation on the proposed designs show that the designs can guide
network engineers to select the most relevant performance metrics during a network feasibility
study in white space frequencies, aimed at guiding the implementation process.

1 Papers marked with an “*” were nominated for the three best paper awards.

– 201 –