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Healthcare is a critical field of research and equally important for all nations. Providing secure healthcare facilities to citizens is the primary concern of each nation. However, people living in remote areas do not get timely and sufficient healthcare facilities, even in developed countries. During the recent COVID-19 pandemic, many fatalities occurred due to the inaccessibility of healthcare facilities on time. Therefore, there is a need to propose a solution that may help citizens living in remote areas with proper and secure healthcare facilities without moving to other places. The revolution in ICT technologies, especially IoT, 5G, and cloud computing, has made access to healthcare facilities easy and approachable. There is a need to benefit from these technologies so that everyone can get secure healthcare facilities from anywhere. This research proposes a framework that will ensure 24/7 accessibility of healthcare facilities by anyone from anywhere, especially in rural areas with fewer healthcare facilities. In the proposed approach, the patients will receive doorstep treatment from the remote doctor in rural areas or the nearby local clinic. Healthcare resources (doctor, treatment, patient counseling, diagnosis, etc.) will be shared remotely with people far from these facilities. The proposed approach is tested using mathematical modeling and a case study, and the findings confirm that the proposed approach helps improve healthcare facilities for remote patients.
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Since the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) began in 2020, it has changed the way people live such as social life and healthcare. One of the simplest ways to avoid wide spread of the virus is to minimize physical contact and avoid going to a crowded place. Besides that, it also has prompted countries across the world to employ digital technologies such as wireless communication systems to combat this global crisis. Digital healthcare is one of the solutions that play a crucial role to support the healthcare sector in order to prevent and minimize physical contact through telehealth and telemedicine such as monitoring, diagnosis and patient care. 5G network has the potential to advance digital healthcare along with its key technology such as enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB), Ultra Reliable and Low Latency Communication (URLLC), and massive Machine Type Communication (mMTC). Despite the benefits of digital healthcare by leveraging the 5G technology, there are still challenges to be overcome such as privacy protection issues, 5G deployment and limited connectivity. In this review, it highlights the relevance and challenges of 5G wireless cellular networks for digital healthcare during the COVID-19 pandemic. It also provides potential solutions and future research areas for researchers on 5G to reduce COVID-19 related health risks.
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COVID-19 has influenced the way we utilise the radio spectrum in terms of increasing data rates, the localisation of usage, and the transfer of traffic from urban to rural areas. Most regulators have shown sympathy towards operator requirements, stipulating a range of mitigation actions including allowing technology neutrality and temporary assignments. Internationally, the ITU-R suspended all physical meetings and launched a new global network resiliency platform named 'REG4COVID' to share experiences including those related to spectrum management. It is argued in this chapter that the pandemic has supported the calls for additional unlicensed spectrum for Wi-Fi in the 6 GHz and accelerated the rollout of 5G. Moreover, despite of increasing use of streaming, it is quite difficult to assume that traditional linear TV will be replaced, at least in the near future for a variety of reasons. The pandemic has also raised the question as to whether an innovative assignment model could be used to assign the spectrum instead of auctions, and whether, in some countries where temporary assignments were made, frequencies are kept unutilised or reserved. Concerning international spectrum management, it is expected that WRC-23 will be held on time though there will be some implications for issues such as the regulatory time-limits for bringing into use satellite networks frequency assignments. Finally, it is argued that the pandemic has also demonstrated the importance of flexibility and agility in national spectrum management, and placed spectrum managers in a new position where they were forced to be proactive instead of their traditional reactive role. © 2023 the authors.
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This book explores how digital technologies have proved to be a useful and necessary tool to help ensure that local and regional governments on the frontline of the emergency can continue to provide essential public services during the COVID-19 crisis. Indeed, as the demand for digital technologies grows, local and regional governments are increasingly committed to improving the lives of their citizens under the principles of privacy, freedom of expression and democracy. The Digital Revolution began between the late 1950s and 1970s and represents the evolution of technology from the mechanical and analog to the digital. The advent of digital technology has also changed how humans communicate today using computers, smartphones and the internet. Further, the digital revolution has made a tremendous wealth of information accessible to virtually everyone. In turn, the book focuses on key challenges for local and regional governments concerning digital technologies during this crisis, e.g. the balance between privacy and security, the digital divide, and accessibility. Privacy is a challenge in the mitigation of COVID-19, as governments rely on digital technologies like contact-tracking apps and big data to help trace peoples patterns and movements. While these methods are controversial and may infringe on rights to privacy, they also appear to be effective measures for rapidly controlling and limiting the spread of the virus. Next, the book discusses the 10 technology trends that can help build a resilient society, as well as their effects on how we do business, how we work, how we produce goods, how we learn, how we seek medical services and how we entertain ourselves. Lastly, the book addresses a range of diversified technologies, e.g. Online Shopping and Robot Deliveries, Digital and Contactless Payments, Remote Work, Distance Learning, Telehealth, Online Entertainment, Supply Chain 4.0, 3D Printing, Robotics and Drones, 5G, and Information and Communications Technology (ICT). © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022.
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Patients with deaths from COVID-19 often have co-morbid cardiovascular disease. Real-time cardiovascular disease monitoring based on wearable medical devices may effectively reduce COVID-19 mortality rates. However, due to technical limitations, there are three main issues. First, the traditional wireless communication technology for wearable medical devices is difficult to satisfy the real-time requirements fully. Second, current monitoring platforms lack efficient streaming data processing mechanisms to cope with the large amount of cardiovascular data generated in real time. Third, the diagnosis of the monitoring platform is usually manual, which is challenging to ensure that enough doctors online to provide a timely, efficient, and accurate diagnosis. To address these issues, this paper proposes a 5G-enabled real-time cardiovascular monitoring system for COVID-19 patients using deep learning. Firstly, we employ 5G to send and receive data from wearable medical devices. Secondly, Flink streaming data processing framework is applied to access electrocardiogram data. Finally, we use convolutional neural networks and long short-term memory networks model to obtain automatically predict the COVID-19 patient's cardiovascular health. Theoretical analysis and experimental results show that our proposal can well solve the above issues and improve the prediction accuracy of cardiovascular disease to 99.29%.
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Fifth-generation (5G) networks offer high-speed data transmission with low latency, increased base station volume, improved quality of service (QoS), and massive multiple-input-multiple-output (M-MIMO) channels compared to 4G long-term evolution (LTE) networks. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the achievement of mobility and handover (HO) in 5G networks due to significant changes in intelligent devices and high-definition (HD) multimedia applications. Consequently, the current cellular network faces challenges in propagating high-capacity data with improved speed, QoS, latency, and efficient HO and mobility management. This comprehensive survey paper specifically focuses on HO and mobility management issues within 5G heterogeneous networks (HetNets). The paper thoroughly examines the existing literature and investigates key performance indicators (KPIs) and solutions for HO and mobility-related challenges while considering applied standards. Additionally, it evaluates the performance of current models in addressing HO and mobility management issues, taking into account factors such as energy efficiency, reliability, latency, and scalability. Finally, this paper identifies significant challenges associated with HO and mobility management in existing research models and provides detailed evaluations of their solutions along with recommendations for future research.
Subject(s)
COVID-19 , Humans , Pandemics , Reproducibility of Results , Intelligence , MultimediaABSTRACT
Touch-enabled sensation and actuation are expected to be the most promising, straightforward, and important uses of the B5G/6G communication networks. In light of the next generation (6G) systems' prerequisite for low latency, the infrastructure should be reconfigurable, intelligent, and interoperable in the real-time existing wireless network. It has a drastic impact on society due to its high precision, accuracy, reliability, and efficiency, combined with the ability to connect a user from remote areas. Hence, the touch-enabled interaction is primarily concerned with the real-time transmission of tactile-based haptic information over the internet, in addition to the usual audio, visual, and data traffic, thus enabling a paradigm shift towards a real-time control and steering communication system. The existing system latency and overhead often have delays and limitations on the application's usability. In light of the aforementioned concerns, the study proposes an intelligent touch-enabled system for B5G/6G and an IoT-based wireless communication network, incorporating AR/VR technologies. The tactile internet and network-slicing serve as the backbone of touch technology and incorporates intelligence from techniques such as artificial intelligence and machine/deep learning. The survey also introduces a layered and interfacing architecture with its E2E solution for the intelligent touch-based wireless communication system. It is anticipated for the upcoming 6G system to provide numerous opportunities for various sectors to utilize AR/VR technology in robotics and healthcare facilities to help in addressing several problems faced by society. Conclusively the article presents a few use cases concerning the deployment of touch infrastructure in automation, robotics, and intelligent healthcare systems, assisting in the diagnosis and treatment of the prevailing Covid-19 cases. The paper concludes with some considerable future research aspects of the proposed system with a few ongoing projects concerning the development and incorporation of the 6G wireless communication system.
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Following the COVID-19 outbreak, the health sector is undergoing a deep transformation that is increasingly pushing it towards the exploitation of technology, thus fostering the growth of digital health (eHealth). Cellular networks play a pivotal role in promoting the digitalization of healthcare, and researchers are banking on beyond fifth-generation (B5G) and sixth-generation (6G) technologies to reach the turning point, given that, according to forecasts, 5G will not be able to meet future expectations. Security is an aspect that definitely should not be overlooked for the success of eHealth to occur. This work aims to address the security issue from a poorly explored viewpoint, namely that of economics. In this paper, we first describe the main eHealth services, highlighting the key stakeholders involved. Then, we discuss how next-generation technologies could support these services to identify possible business relationships and, therefore, to realize an innovative business-oriented security analysis. A qualitative assessment of the impact of specific security breaches in diverse business conditions is provided. Moreover, we examine a case study in order to show the effects of security attacks in a definite scenario and discuss their impact on business dynamics.
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The world witnessed a pandemic that needs to be limited. COVID-19 is a disease that spreads among people when an infected person is in close contact with another. To decrease the virus spreading, World Health Organization (WHO) imposed precautionary measures and suggested some rules to be followed such as social distancing and quarantining the infected people. We propose a model, using D2D and IoT technology, for tracking infected persons with COVID-19 and its proximity. If a person (mobile device) gets close to an infected person, he will also get infected, so by continuous moving, the infection will be transmitted. Thus, identifying the infected persons and their contacts will limit the spread of the disease. In each scenario, it is possible to distinguish the number of infected people and know from whom they are infected, and the location of the infection. The simulation shows the tracking of a mobile device when proximate infected person at a distance of 3 meters. As a result, our proposed D2D model is effective, especially in the scenario which found the infected person with COVID-19, tracks them, determines minimum distances, and recognizes the source of the infection. Thus, the model can limit the rapid spread of COVID-19 as it determines the 3meters distance from infected person and send precaution messages to the network.
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The application of telerehabilitation system has gained popularity and acceptance recently due to the restrictions in controlling the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper described the development of an elbow-wrist telerehabilitation system that complement the disrupted routine rehabilitation session. The developed system consists of a wearable exoskeleton system that assist in rehabilitation of the elbow and wrist joints for individuals with neurological conditions such as Parkinson's and Spinal Cord Injuries that affects movements of the upper extremities. The two modes of operation available enables the adoption of the 5G technology in the near future. This system also potentially fulfills the requirement of Accessibility, Availability, Affordability, and Acceptability (4As) of Telerehabilitation System in Malaysia. Overall development cost of the system is approximately MYR 500. The system enable rehabilitation to be performed at home-setting with a cloud-based monitoring system that will provide long-term monitoring for clinician's assessment. The project provides a proof-of-concept of such system in the Malaysian context.Clinical Relevance - This work demonstrated the proof-of concept of a 4A system is applicable in the Malaysian context. © 2022 IEEE.
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Microwave engineering is regaining importance as the world is witnessing the emergence of a new industrial revolution spearheaded by the internet of things and 5G communications and wireless networks. Preparing α-generation microwave engineering students for the future, especially in post-COVID era, represents a considerable challenge to universities worldwide that seldom offer a full autonomous course at the undergraduate level. Engineering curriculum should be revisited in order to incorporate skills suitable for work-based learning with emphasis on developing human-centred ICT competencies. Flipped classrooms are specifically attractive in engineering education to ensure deep comprehension of course material. A flipped microwave-engineering course with focus on amplifier design has therefore been re-designed with course learning outcomes aligned with Bloom's taxonomy and ABET program outcomes. The new learning cycle in the flipped mode, allow reaching the top cognitive pyramid where student exercised decision-making and practiced meta-cognitive knowledge and skills. The stretched flipped classroom represents a paradigm shift in instructional methodology and offers several advantages to the learning process at high cognitive levels as learning occurs in a comfortable pace where students collaborate with instructors in course design, curricula and delivery. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
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This study presents internet of things (IOT) and artificial intelligence technologies that are critical in reducing the harmful effects of this illness and assisting its recovery. It explores COVID-19's economic impacts before learning about new technologies and potential solutions. The research objective was to propose a solution for self-diagnosis, self-monitoring, and self-management of COVID-19 with personal mobiles and personal data using cloud solutions and mobile applications with the help of an intelligent IoT system, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and 5G technologies. The proposed solution based on self-diagnosis without any security risk for users' data with low cost of cloud-based data analytics by using handsets only is an innovative approach. Since the COVID-19 outbreak, the global social, economic, religious, and cultural frameworks and schedules have been affected adversely. The fear and panic associated with the new disease, which the world barely knew anything about, amplified the situation. Scientists and epidemiologists have traced the first outbreak of COVID-19 at Wuhan, China. A close examination of the genetic makeup of the virus showed that the virus is zoonotic, meaning that the virus changed hosts from animals to humans. The uncertainty associated with the above features and characteristics of the virus, as well as the high mortality rates witnessed in many parts of the globe, significantly contributed to the widespread global panic that brought the world to a standstill. Different authorities and agencies associated with securing the public have implemented different means and methods to try and mitigate the transmission of the infection as scientists and medical practitioners work on remedies to curb the spread of COVID-19. Owing to different demographics, different parts of the globe have attempted to effectively implement locally available resources to efficiently fight and mitigate the adverse effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. The general framework provided by the World Health Organization (WHO) has been implemented or enhanced in different parts of the globe by locally available resources and expertise to effectively mitigate the impact of COVID-19. There is currently no effective vaccine for COVID-19, but new technology can be available within weeks to reduce the spread of the disease;current approaches such as contact tracing and testing are not secure, and the cost of testing is high for end users. The proposed solution based on self-diagnosis without any security risk for users' data with low cost of cloud-based data analytics functions by using an intelligent internet of things (IOT) system for collecting sensors data and processing them with artificial intelligence to improve efficiency and reduce the spread of COVID-19.
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In the recent past, wireless network simulations involving pedestrians are getting increasing attention within the research community. Examples are crowd networking, pedestrian communication via Sidelink/D2D, wireless contact tracing to fight the Covid-19 pandemic or the evaluation of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) for the protection of Vulnerable Road Users (VRUs). Since in general the mobile communication depends on the position of the pedestrians, their mobility needs to be modeled. Often simplified mobility models such as the random-waypoint or cellular automata based models are used. However, for ad hoc networks and Inter-Vehicular Communication (IVC), it is well-known that a detailed model for the microscopic mobility has a strong influence – which is why state-of-the-art simulation frameworks for IVC often combine vehicular mobility and network simulators. Therefore, this paper investigates to what extent a detailed modelling of the pedestrian mobility on an operational level influences the results of Pedestrian-to-X Communication (P2X) and its applications. We model P2X scenarios within the open-source coupled simulation environment CrowNet. It enables us to simulate the identical P2X scenario while varying the pedestrian mobility simulator as well as the used model. Two communication scenarios (pedestrian to server via 5G New Radio, pedestrian to pedestrian via PC5 Sidelink) are investigated in different mobility scenarios. Initial results demonstrate that time- and location-dependent factors represented by detailed microscopic mobility models can have a significant influence on the results of wireless communication simulations, indicating a need for more detailed pedestrian mobility models in particular for scenarios with pedestrian crowds. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
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With the development of 5G and AI technology, the infectious virus detection framework system based on the combination of 5G MEC and medical sensors can effectively assist in the intelligent detection and control of influenza viruses such as COVID-19. Employing the edge computing and 5G+MEC model, the virus AI model is trained for the collected influenza virus data. Then the virus AI model can be used to evaluate the virus patients on the local edge computing service platform. Therefore, this paper introduces an algorithm and resource allocation, which uses 5G functions (especially, low latency, high bandwidth, wide connectivity, and other functions) to achieve local chest X-ray or CT scan images to detect COVID-19. Meanwhile, this paper also compares the computational efficiency of different algorithms in the 5G edge AI-based infectious virus detection framework, in this way to select the best algorithm and resource allocation. © 2022 IEEE.
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A lesson learned during the pandemic is that social distancing saves lives. As it was shown recently, the healthcare industry is structured in a way that cannot protect medical staff from possible infectious diseases, such as COVID-19. Today's healthcare services seem anachronistic and not convenient for both doctors and patients. Although there have been several advances in recent years, especially in developed countries, the need for a holistic change is imperative. Evidently, future technologies should be introduced in the health sector, where Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Artificial Intelligence, and Tactile Internet can have vast applications. Thus, the healthcare industry could take advantage of the great evolution of pervasive computing. In this paper, we point out the challenges from the current visualization techniques and present a novel visualization technique assisted with haptics which is enhanced with artificial intelligent algorithms in order to offer remote patient examination and treatment through robotics. Such an approach provides a more detailed method of medical image data visualization and eliminates the possibility of diseases spreading, while reducing the workload of the medical staff. © 2023 by the authors.
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Smart healthcare is fast transitioning from a specialized and hospital-centric approach to a dispersed, patient-centered model. A lot of technological developments have contributed to the healthcare industry's rapid transition. Telemedicine requires a network that can offer real-time, high-resolution video without decelerating the facility's infrastructure. Current communication technologies will struggle to keep up with the needs of future healthcare applications, which will be highly dynamic and time-sensitive. By combining current architectures with a high-speed 5G network, near real-time video for video-based medical consultations can be enabled, hence boosting access and quality of care. As a result, 5G networks are now being successfully deployed to meet the specific communication needs of IoT-based healthcare applications. Telemedicine and patient monitoring from afar work hand in hand. It entails dispensing and modifying medications based on near-real-time data collection and analysis. IoT devices can be used by healthcare practitioners to remotely monitor vital signs, track prescriptions, and upload current data, allowing staff to make quicker choices. More bandwidth and faster speeds are available with 5G. By enhancing the data rate, it aids in the speedier networking of mobile devices. It will pave the way for the use virtual and augmented reality in medical care and teaching in the future. It enables speedier remote access to electronic health records and improves the quality of online and live remote consultations. This chapter examines how to proficiently use 5G for e-health and how it can aid in the development of e-health services. It offers a thorough examination of the implementation obstacles, prospective solutions, and future research capabilities that 5G offers to solve the current pandemic's COVID-19-related health challenges. © 2022 Nova Science Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved.
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The world is continuously moving at a fast pace and so is the technological advancements in it. It is a rule of the planet that there should be continuous improvements and advancements in all realms for the welfare of the mankind. In the recent times due to the pandemic and the Covid-19 virus, the style of living and completing one's work has changes drastically. The world has become highly virtual in nature. For each work that needs to be completed there are devices all around us and all of us are connected virtually, be it studies, office work, gaming or loads of other errands. There are various components that are crucial to the efficient operation of the virtual world. One important factor among these components is the network that helps us in connecting with one another. The whole system of the virtual world is highly reliable on the speed, bandwidth, and many other factors of the network that the users are using. The mobile network era started with One-G or just the G and currently is moving towards a 5G network. In this paper we will discuss about the 5G network, the technology it uses, the challenges that it is facing and the huge difference that it will bring about in the virtual and technological world. © 2022 IEEE.
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Internet of Medical Things is one of the fastest growing fields in technology, and it is predicted to bring about the largest technological delivery ever. Medical systems have been pushed to improve online services across the board by the COVID-19 pandemic, as the edge-enabled Online learning system in the healthcare system offers incredible opportunities. With the introduction of cutting-edge digital health technologies, patients will be able to avoid unneeded, preventative hospitalizations. Furthermore, the utilization of adaptable and readily available media by both patients and medical professionals would allow telehealth-based medical platforms to make healthcare more efficient and economical. © 2022 IEEE.
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Provisioning of health services such as care, monitoring, and remote surgery is being improved thanks to fifth-generation cellular technology (5G). As 5G expands globally, more smart healthcare applications have been developed due to its extensive eMBB (Enhanced Mobile Broadband) and URLLC (Ultra-Reliable Low Latency Communications) features that can be used to generate healthcare systems that allow minimizing the face-to-face assistance of patients at hospital centers. This powerful network provides high transmission speeds, ultra-low latency, and a network capacity greater than that of 4G. Fifth-generation cellular technology is expected to be a means to provide excellent quality of medical care, through its technological provision to the use of IoMT (Internet of Medical Things) devices. Due to the numerous contributions in research on this topic, it is necessary to develop a review that provides an orderly perspective on research trends and niches for researchers to use as a starting point for their work. In this context, this article presents a systematic review based on PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses), with article selection based on inclusion and exclusion criteria that avoid bias. This research was based on research questions that were answered from the included works. These questions focus on technical characteristics, health benefits, and security protocols necessary for the development of smart healthcare applications. We have identified that a high percentage of existing works in the literature are proposals (56.81%, n = 25) and theoretical studies (22.73%, n = 10);few implementations (15.91%, n = 7) and prototypes (4.55%, n = 2) exist, due to the limited global deployment of 5G. However, the panorama looks promising based on proposals and future work that these technological systems allow, all based on improving healthcare for people.
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The massification of technologies, the implementation of 5G and the Internet of Things (IoT), allow implementing systems that contain virtual or augmented reality or implementation of both. In this sense, the covid 19 pandemic in the last years, has also affected people's behavior and leaned to shop without leaving their homes. VR, RA, and/or MR techniques are currently widely used for medicine, education, and entertainment, among others. In this study, we combine both elements to analyze the literature on e-commerce and the use of VR, AR, and/or RM. Searching and analyzing recent scientific articles were defined, and virtual reality is the most used, followed by the mixture of RV and RA, the above to improve the shopping experience, providing the customer with a more authentic and immersive environment. In future works, we will expect to expand this study, including how to evaluate the shopping experience and relate it to the customer experience. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.