Bit-rate selection in wireless functional electrical stimulation system

This paper presents a research of impact of bitrate selection on reliability of bidirectional wireless communication used in distributed functional electrical stimulation system. The system contains set of a battery powered, small dimensions wireless stimulator nodes which wirelessly communicate with one coordinator node. The coordinator is connected to host computer with intuitive graphical user interface which runs control algorithm and enables logging and on-line monitoring and adaptation of the algorithm. The main advantage of the system is ability of implementation of advanced control methods and stimulation profiles using advanced programming techniques. As modern control algorithms use feedback, round trip delay time minimization is essential for reliable operation of such system. It will be shown how bit-rate selection influences packet delay.