Aggregation scheme implementation for vital signs data over the network

In this paper, the aggregation and transmission scheme for vital signs data in MEDTOC (medical data transmission over cellular network) is presented. MEDTOC has been designed for dealing with emergency medical data from disaster sites. Since some of the patients may be in critical condition, it is imperative to keep the physicians aware of the vital signs of multiple patients in transit to the hospital. Simulation studies have shown that aggregate uncompressed data of 4-16 patients can be transmitted reliably using 3G cellular network from a large moving ambulance. We have specified the aggregation headers and optional data reduction in MEDTOC before converting the vital signs data to suitable format for cellular network transmission. In this paper, the aggregation scheme to efficiently transmit the vital signs of 4 patients is outlined. This scheme, being a part of MEDTOC, has been implemented using data transmission between client and server in C language on Linux hosts. The algorithm and C program details are discussed and successful transmission and reception of data are presented. The OPNET simulation results are also presented that show transfer of data using 3G cellular network. Next steps include implementation of complete data transformation cycle from individual vital signs data into aggregate and optionally reduced data embedding the packets in conversational class IP traffic in 3G UMTS cellular network and conducting physical tests of the scheme with loaded cellular network and moving ambulances.