Advances in wireless communications technologies and their potential biomedical applications

Over the past decade, paging, cellular and personal communications have become the fastest growing segments of the telecommunications services. The demand for wireless technologies has been absolutely exploding. In the 1980s, many analog cellular networks were implemented. These networks are already reaching capacity limits in some service areas. Several digital technologies were introduced to increase spectral efficiency and enhance wireless communications by adding features and services such as facsimile and data transmission and new call handling features. In other words, wireless communication technology has evolved from first generation analog systems for business applications to second generation digital systems with rich features and services for residential and business applications. As the turning of the century approaches, a new vision of ubiquitous personal communication systems starts to emerge. For the new century, many new wireless communication services and capabilities using the wideband CDMA technology are being defined by the industry worldwide. Specifically, the specifications for the future global wireless access system, the International Mobile Telecommunications-2000 (IMT-2000) are currently being developed within the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) [1,2,3,4]. This is also known as the third generation (3G) wireless system. With the higher data transmission speed and the new services such as simultaneous voice and data, multimedia and location services, applications of the new wireless technologies to the biomedical field become practical in the near future. This paper describes several such potential applications.