Table 4.
Summary of QoS requirements for e-Health services.
| Types of e-Health services | Example e-Health application | Commonly used media types | General QoS requirements | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delay | Loss | |||
| Real-time conversational tele- consultation | Audio conferencing between patient/doctor or doctor/doctor | Audio | <150 ms E2E one-way | <1% packet loss ratio (PLR) preferred <3% limit |
|
| ||||
| Real-time conversational video- based tele-consultation | Video conferencing between patient/doctor or doctor/doctor | Video | <250 ms E2E one-way (upper bounds reported as 400 ms) | 1% PLR |
|
| ||||
| Real-time robotic services | Tele-surgery Tele-ultrasonography |
Robotic control data, audio, video | <300 ms round-trip-time | Zero (may tolerate minimal PLR of 0.5%) |
|
| ||||
| Real-time tele- monitoring | Transmission of patient vital signs and streaming video in emergency situations | Biomedical data collected by sensors | Depends on sensors and applications <300 ms E2E one-way for hard real-time ECG (certain applications may tolerate <1 s E2E for ECG) | Zero |
|
| ||||
| Non-real-time tele-monitoring | Transmission of patient vital signs for post- hospital home care | Biomedical data collected by sensors, context data (e.g., collected by environmental sensors) | Not Available (N.A.) | Zero |
|
| ||||
| Real-time tele- diagnosis | Transfer of medical images to remote location in emergency situations | Images, text, data | N.A. (Depends on image size. Smaller images should be transferred within a few seconds.) | Zero |
|
| ||||
| Non-real-time tele- diagnosis | Non-emergency remote diagnosis: transfer of medical images to a remote location where specialists analyze data and return a diagnostic report. | Images, text, data | N.A. | Zero |
|
| ||||
| Real-time EHR data access | Emergency medical personnel at accident/disaster site accessing a patient's EHR | Data, text, graphics, images | N.A. | Zero |
|
| ||||
| Non-real time EHR data access/storage | Web-based end user (patient, doctor, additional health personnel) application for access to EHR during patient check up | Data, text. graphics, images | N.A. | Zero |
|
| ||||
| Real-time messaging | Alarms sent to care givers indicating patient emergency | Text, small images, data | N.A. | Zero |
|
| ||||
| Non-real time messaging | Automated patient alerts (e.g., reminder for check up, reminder to take medication) | Text, small images, data | ~10 s [26] | Zero |
|
| ||||
| Conversational research and education | Collaborative research/education tools involving conversational audio/video | Audio, video | <150 ms E2E one-way for audio | <3% PLR audio <1% PLR video |
| <250 ms E2E one-way for video (upper bounds reported as 400 ms) | ||||
|
| ||||
| Interactive research and education | Interactive surgical simulations: remote control of instruments | Data, images | <300 ms round-trip-time | 1% PLR |
|
| ||||
| Streaming research and education | Education tools involving streaming media | Audio, video, data | <10 s start up delay for audio and video | <1% PLR audio |
| <2% PLR audio | ||||
|
| ||||
| Interactive health information data exchange | Health portals: Web sites offering health related data | All | ~2 s/page for Web-browsing [26] | Zero |
|
| ||||
| Non-interactive health information data retrieval | Distribution or diagnostic imaging textbooks | All | N.A. | Zero |
|
| ||||
| Administrative and financial transactions | Patient referrals: appointment scheduling; charging and billing applications | Text | N.A. | Zero |