Characterizing the 2.4 GHz Spectrum in a Hospital Environment: Modeling and Applicability to Coexistence Testing of Medical Devices

The increasing use of shared, unlicensed spectrum bands by medical devices and nonmedical products highlights the need to address wireless coexistence to ensure medical device safety and effectiveness. This paper provides the first step to approximate the probability of a device coexisting in its intended environment by providing a generalized framework for modeling the environment. The application of this framework is shown through an 84-day spectrum survey of the 2.4-2.48 GHz industrial, scientific, and medical band in a hospital environment in the United States. A custom platform was used to monitor power flux spectral density and record received power. Channel utilization of three non-overlapping channels of 20 MHz bandwidth-relative to IEEE 802.11 channels 1, 6, and 11-were calculated and fitted to a generalized extreme value distribution. Low channel utilization was observed (<10%) in the surveyed environment with sporadic occurrences of higher channel utilization (>50%). Reported findings can be complementary to wireless coexistence testing. This paper can provide input to the development of a consensus standard for wireless device coexistence test methods and a consensus document focused on wireless medical device coexistence risk management.