Ambulance Data Transmission

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Requirements

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Overall considerations: FAX,Circuit,Packet.

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Systems available

– –

Mobitex GSM & GPRS

– – – – –

3G(UMTS) TETRA Satellite Mixed Systems In Hospital systems

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Sussex example

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Conclusions

ETL/Y/G-001:011 /1 R1

Business Development Strategy

Requirements

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Country-wide coverage

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Security

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Availability

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Data volumes - 10Kb for ECG

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Expandability

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Integration

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Data transfer at hospital

ETL/Y/G-001:011 /2 R1

Business Development Strategy

Fax versus Data

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FAX Advantages Easy communication with Fax in hospital .

- transmission supported by several current radio systems

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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 Business Development Strategy

ETL/Y/G-001:011 /3 R1

Data Transmission: Circuit vs Packet

Circuit Switched Packet Switched

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- Continuous path - Typically pay for connection time - Continuous holding leads to greater congestion - Continuous path leads to better performance for voice and video - 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 Business Development Strategy

Mobitex

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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 Business Development Strategy

ETL/Y/G-001:011 /5 R1

GSM

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Good coverage - some rural gaps

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In-built security encoding

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High availability and good resilience

–

some tendency to local flooding when major movements of people

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Data Rate

–

GSM Circuit Switched Data 9.6 Kb/s High Speed Circuit Switched Data (HSCSD) 19.2-28.8 Kb/s

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Widespread roaming Business Development Strategy

ETL/Y/G-001:011 /6 R1

Data connection in car for Ericsson R320

External vehicle antenna Car kit control box D ata Cable HCD -10 ETL/Y/G-001:011 /7 R1 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 RS232 Cable DRS -10

Business Development Strategy

What is GPRS?



G

eneral

P

acket

R

adio

S

ervice bringing higher bit speeds

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GPRS is a GSM service for

end-to-end packet switching

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Reuse

of existing infrastructure

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Interworks with existing circuit-switched services



Based on

standardised open interfaces

ETL/Y/G-001:011 /8 R1

Business Development Strategy

Radio Network Characteristics

•

On demand or dedicated GPRS channels

ETL/Y/G-001:011 /9 R1

Business Development Strategy

GPRS

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Packet Based system using the same radio bearer as GSM

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In-built security

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Good coverage - works across whole GSM network with no adaptation of radio and relatively small additions to central network

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Availability - more resilient due to channel sharing characteristics of packet

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Data rate up to 50Kb/s in practice (Headline rate 115Kb/s)

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System just coming on-stream this year

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Specification includes simultaneous voice and data but most terminals will only do one at a time(Class B terminal) Business Development Strategy

ETL/Y/G-001:011 /10 R1

3rd Generation Network Capabilities

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High bit-rate services

– 384 kbps in the wide area – up to 2Mbps in indoor environments 

Optimized for packet data transfer

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Multimedia support

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Simultaneous sessions

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Dynamic user bandwidth

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IP connectivity from end to end

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Data and voice

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Seamless roaming

ETL/Y/G-001:011 /11 R1

Business Development Strategy

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

Access to the “Mobile Internet”

•

A wealth of information, always available

New ways to communicate and be entertained

•

Image-based communication

• •

Advanced messaging High-quality audio and video

Personalisation

•

My own set of differentiated services

Service convergence

•

Across networks, usage and countries

ETL/Y/G-001:011 /12 R1

Business Development Strategy

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

Business Development Strategy

ETL/Y/G-001:011 /13 R1

3G(UMTS)

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System designed for Mobile Multi Media (“Mobile Internet”)

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New spectrum round 2GHz

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Simultaneous voice and data

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Data : both Circuit switched and Packet switched

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Data rates:

– –

Circuit: Packet: up to 386 Kb/s up to 386 Kb/s

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Systems will come on-stream in 2002

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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.

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Increased capacity and data rates will lead to higher availability

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Business Development Strategy

TETRA

Phase1: Phase 2:

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Coverage Dolphin 90% PSRCS ?

Voice Data - up to 28 Kb/s (interface spec not currently available) Priority and security systems “3G compatible” Higher data rates Commonality of SIM with UMTS Tends to become 3G access type Date not known Business Development Strategy

Satellite Systems

Type Equipment Inmarsat 2.4Kb/s £2000 Inmarsat 64Kb/s Iridium 2.4Kb/s £6000 £670 Globalstar 9.6Kb/s Thurya 9.6Kb/s £750 Per min £1.3

£4.5

£0.97

£0.9

note Thurya has dual GSM /satellite mode Aerials Inmarsat 10cm globe others similar to GSM car kit Subscription £10 per month £10 £10 £10

Business Development Strategy

ETL/Y/G-001:011 /16 R1

Joint Systems

Scenario with a parallel low-speed and high-speed data channel eg Mobitex Tetra + + UMTS UMTS Business Development Strategy

ETL/Y/G-001:011 /17 R1

Data transfer at hospital

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The wide area transmission techniques may not give sufficient bandwidth for rapid in hospital data transfer.

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Systems designed for wide area use have relatively high output power and should not be used near medical equipment.

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Use of Wireless LAN or Bluetooth systems would solve this.

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System choice should be on the basis of wider in hospital requirements. Either would provide adequate transfer rates.

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Wireless LAN is widely available now and would be the system for current installation.

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Bluetooth will be widely fitted as standard to data systems in one to 2 years and could meet the need at that point.

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Wireless LAN has higher data rates and longer reach. Business Development Strategy

ETL/Y/G-001:011 /18 R1

Sussex Situation

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Using MRL PIC

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Currently has Fax port

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Initial trials with Fax using GSM look promising as a short term measure

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Data port being developed for MRL PIC.

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Mobitex has been adopted with Terrafix for maps etc.

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Data solution based on Mobitex looks the best way forward.

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Use of data system will allow separate applications to share the same transmission mechanism.

Business Development Strategy

ETL/Y/G-001:011 /19 R1

Afterthoughts

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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.

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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.

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For any further questions please contact me.MartinHills email [email protected]

Tel 01444 234 800 Mob 07831 146 064 Business Development Strategy

ETL/Y/G-001:011 /20 R1

Conclusions



Data system should be preferred to Fax



Procurement of data hub in ambulance should be priority.

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Ambulance service will use a variety of the systems described due to differences in current equipment and specific geography

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High speed packet based transmission systems will be available this year giving the basis for extensive data oriented systems Business Development Strategy

ETL/Y/G-001:011 /21 R1