A Q-Learning Approach for Real-Time NOMA Scheduling of Medical Data in UAV-Aided WBANs

Abstract

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) have emerged as a flexible and cost-effective solution for remote monitoring of the vital signs of patients in large-scale Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) Wireless Body Area Networks (WBANs). This paper deals with the problem of using UAVs for real-time scheduling of the transmission of vital signs in delay-sensitive IoMT WBANs. The main challenge for such a network is to timely and reliably transmit the vital signs of patients to the remote monitoring center without interrupting their daily lifestyles. To achieve this goal, we propose a Q-learning-based algorithm to optimize the trajectory of each UAV, as the mobile Base Station (BS), to harvest vital signs of patients in outdoor applications, especially in unreachable areas. In this algorithm, UAVs learn to reach the best 3D position by discovering the network environment step-by-step. It stands for the position in which the covered patients by each UAV have the highest transmission rate, the least delay and energy consumption. Moreover, we employ the Non-Orthogonal Multiple Access (NOMA) technique to simultaneously schedule multiple transmissions by accepting a degree of interference between them in order to enhance the spectrum efficiency of the network. Eventually, the performance of our proposed scheme is evaluated via extensive simulations in terms of throughput, energy consumption, and delay. The simulation results show that our proposed scheme iteratively converges to the benchmark value of the mentioned factors by increasing the information of cluster environment through episodes.

Challenges for the Routine Application of Drones in Healthcare: A Scoping Review

“…Drones are being explored for various other medical applications, including assessing patient conditions [78,81] and telemedicine support [79,82]. These applications offer innovative solutions for remote healthcare, but further research and development are required to address technical and regulatory challenges.…”

“…Moreover, UAVs are also suggested for telemedicine purposes, as in one experimental study [79], wherein drones enabled the medical professional to guide a subject to conduct a remotely mentored lung examination on himself, or in the theoretical model proposed in [82], in which UAVs resulted in being a flexible and cost-effective solution for the remote monitoring of the vital signs of patients and real-time scheduling of the transmission of vital signs.…”

Joint optimization of UAV position and user grouping for UAV‐assisted hybrid NOMA systems

“…In Reference 1, not only the standard convex optimization technique is used to optimize the 3D position of the UAV, but also the decomposition based multi‐objective evolutionary algorithm is proposed to synthesize the shaped beam pattern of the antenna array, so as to maximize the downlink rate. Moreover, deep learning is introduced into UAV trajectory optimization 19 . uses Q learning for trajectory optimization, and 20 extend this by incorporating quality of service constraints.…”

“…Moreover, deep learning is introduced into UAV trajectory optimization. 19 uses Q learning for trajectory optimization, and 20 extend this by incorporating quality of service constraints. However, the optimization problems of the existing works only focus on the location of the UAV, and use PSO or convex optimization method to solve them, without paying attention to the user group, or joint optimization of UAV's position and user grouping.…”

Pattern Engineered Bi-Directional Leaky-Wave Antennas with Independent Beam-Scanning Laws

“…The examples of flexible microstrip LWAs in the literature have focused on conformal and wearable applications, using LWA designs such as line source antennas to achieve high gain and high directivity as well as full-space beam-scanning capability over two phase quadrants [75,76]. One design seen in the literature is capable of omnidirectional radiation, but its gain is limited to 2.5 dBi [77]. To date, no flexible LWAs with symmetric high-gain beam control in opposite phase quadrants have been reported, to the best of our This chapter is separated into sections.…”