Hybrid Wi-Fi and PLC network for efficient e-health communication in hospitals: a prototype

Khan, Shafi Ullah; Ullah Jan, Sana; Hwang, Taewoong; Koo, In-Soo

Abstract

E-health is being adapted in modern hospitals as a significant addition to the existing healthcare services. To this end, modern hospitals urgently require a mobile, high-capacity, secure, and cost-effective communication infrastructure. In this paper, we explore potential applications of a hybrid broadband power line communication (PLC) and Wi-Fi in an indoor hospital scenario. It utilizes the existing power line cables and Wi-Fi plug-and-play devices for indoor broadband communication. Broadband power line (BPL) adaptors with Wi-Fi outputs are used to build an access network in hospitals, particularly in areas where the wireless router signal is poor. The Tenda PH10 AV1,000 AC Wi-Fi power line adapter is a set of BPL adapters that offer operational bandwidth of up to 1,000 Mbps. These adapters are based on the HomePlug AV2 protocol and can provide a data rate up to 200 Mbps on the physical layer. An experiment using the PLC Wi-Fi kit is carried out to show that a Wi-Fi and PLC hybrid network is the best candidate to provide wide range of practical applications in a hospital including, but not limited to, telemedicine, electronic medical records, early-stage disease diagnosis, health management, real-time monitoring, and remote surgeries.

Citation

Khan, S. U., Ullah Jan, S., Hwang, T., & Koo, I. (2024). Hybrid Wi-Fi and PLC network for efficient e-health communication in hospitals: a prototype. Bulletin of Electrical Engineering and Informatics, 13(2), 1400-1410. https://doi.org/10.11591/eei.v13i2.5309

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Sep 12, 2023
• Online Publication Date: Apr 1, 2024
• Publication Date: 2024-04
• Deposit Date: Mar 13, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: Mar 13, 2024
• Journal: Bulletin of Electrical Engineering and Informatics
• Print ISSN: 2089-3191
• Electronic ISSN: 2302-9285
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 13
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 1400-1410
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.11591/eei.v13i2.5309
• Keywords: Electrical and Electronic Engineering; Control and Optimization; Computer Networks and Communications; Hardware and Architecture; Instrumentation; Information Systems; Control and Systems Engineering; Computer Science (miscellaneous)
• Public URL: http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/Output/3561176