Research and development in the field of 6G, one of the key technologies for applications and infrastructure in the healthcare sector of the coming decade, is the focus of the 6GHealth project. In the vision of a 6G medical technology infrastructure, new perspectives are opening up through the efficient and secure acquisition, processing, transmission and use of data. This sub-project is dedicated to the research and development of energy-efficient, cost-effective communication technologies for medical sensor networks such as body-area networks. The goal is to adapt messaging techniques for highly efficient data transmission of medical sensor data based on event-based signal acquisition and communication concepts. This should enable continuous monitoring of patient data, their environment or other parameters with low-cost sensors, while realizing significantly longer battery runtimes than possible today with complex communication standards. The three main challenges of this sub-project are as follows: First, novel, flexible methods for event-based signal acquisition of medical data must be developed. Secondly, the conversion of the acquired signals to efficient communication methods must be designed. Thirdly, the complex signal processing at the receiver for event-based communication signals must be researched and implemented. 

The object of the subproject is to research innovative concepts for medical sensor networks such as body-area networks. First, the relevant medical use cases will be identified and analyzed with regard to the requirements of sensor communication. Based on this, the fundamental research of flexible event-based signal acquisition methods for different medical sensor signals will follow. For a selection of medical data such as ECG signals, methods for efficient signal acquisition will be designed and investigated with respect to their energy efficiency and display quality. Based on these signal acquisition methods, work is then done on the design and implementation of event-based transmission methods for energy-efficient, low-cost, and bandwidth-efficient sensor communication. First, the basic methods for mapping and compressing events onto communication signals are investigated. This is followed by the design of the communication methods for the selected signal acquisition and mapping. Based on this, intelligent reception and reconstruction procedures are then developed at the base station using machine learning techniques. This involves, on the one hand, the detection and recovery of the sensor events from the received data and, on the other hand, the reconstruction of the underlying medical data. Finally, the methods developed will be combined into a sensor network design that includes the processing at the sensor and the algorithms at the base station.

The development of new radio technologies and concepts for 6G is the subject of research worldwide. On the one hand, the project will produce new findings in the field of basic research and, on the other hand, practical methods and models in the form of concrete solution approaches. Thus, the results obtained can be taken up by further research institutions as well as by industrial research and standardization for the definition of 6G communication systems. 6G-Health aims to advance the holistic development of 6G concepts for medical technology, with this subproject contributing with a focus on medical sensor networks. The subproject will contribute to prepare the achieved solution approaches and findings for scientific and economic exploitation. The findings and results obtained will be presented at international scientific conferences and workshops and published in internationally renowned journals. Thus, this subproject serves both the development of basic principles and their transfer for use in industry and other research branches. Exploitation in the form of spin-offs (start-ups) or licensing to third parties is possible. In addition, research projects at a university serve to train qualified engineers. For the promotion of young talent, the project is included in lectures and student projects. Employees of the project can bring the acquired knowledge into the industry after their education. They are available to the labor market as highly qualified employees and sustainably strengthen Germany as a business location. 

Further information:

https://www.forschung-it-sicherheit-kommunikationssysteme.de/projekte/6g-health

Details