3G Mobile Phone Applications in Telemedicine - A Survey

Kazuaki Yamauchi, Wenxi Chen, and Daming Wei

The University of Aizu
Fukushima 965-8580, Japan
voice: [+81](242)37-2538 fax: [+81](242)37-2531
e-mail: {yamauchi,wenxi,dm-wei}@u-aizu.ac.jp

Abstract the 1980s. It was heavy but could carry in any

In this paper, we will review current 3G mobile
phone applications in telemedicine.
Mobile phones are the backbone of mobile
communications and have experienced explosive
growth.
3G mobiles provide a next generation mobile phone
service that aims to offer high-speed 2Mb/s
communication using high transmission efficiency in
the high frequency 2GHz band. This offers a
groundbreaking way to use mobile phones.
Mobile phone service became ubiquitously available
throughout Japan as 3G mobile phone offers major
advantages for interactive video traffic. With the
emergence of mobile phone networks, a number of
systems which use mobile phones to transfer vital signs
such as electrocardiogram (ECG) and heart rate have
increased instead of early mobile medical system using
satellites to establish communications between remote
sites and base hospitals.
Applications of mobile phone have become
diversified and derive many services. It is predicted
that the proportion of 3G mobile phones would
overtake that of 2G mobile phones by 2006.
Keywords: 3G mobile phone, FOMA, CDMA, W-
CDMA, FDMA, TDMA, PDC, telemedicine, medical
applications
1. Introduction
Mobile phones are the backbone of mobile
communications and have experienced explosive
growth. Generations of mobile phone are divided
into three as of today based on communication
system between base stations.
First-generation (1G) mobile phone is the
analogue mobile phone using FDMA (Frequency
Division Multiple Access) system. Originally this
was introduced as a phone for the automobile in
case. The service of first generation mobile phone
was already terminated in Japanese market but
still used in the United States.
In second-generation (2G) mobile phone,
communication was digitalized and TDMA (Time
Division Multiple Access) system was adopted.
Usability of radio wave was dramatically
improved. Light weight and cost effective mobile
phones are rapidly developed, so that the number
of mobile phones is propagated late 1990s. Time
when 2G mobile phones are penetrated into Japan
is the time when the carriers are strongly
promoting sales of mobile phones. They tried to
gain profit by making people use the phones but
not selling the equipment itself. During that
period, so-called one-yen phones were sold. There
are two types of systems for 2G communication
system; one is PDC (Personal Digital Cellular)
adopted by NTT DoCoMo and J-phone, the other
is GSM (Global System for Mobile
Communications) widely used in European
countries. 2G technology is currently matured.
PHS (Personal Handy Phone) also is included in
second-generation communication system.
In 1998, au began to provide cdmaOne service
using CDMA system, which was called 2.5G
service following the 2G mobile phone service.
Also many European mobile phone carriers
started GPRS (General Packet Radio Service)
service which enables them to use high-speed
transmission at about 115 kbps in the network of
GSM system. This service put importance into
data transmission rather than communication.
Third-Generation (3G) mobile phone is a
digital mobile phone based on the ITU
(International Telecommunication Union) IMT-
2000 standard. Basically CDMA (Code Division
Multiple Access) system is used and various kinds

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 of services were also provided by using high- two broadband service providers, Softbank BB
speed data transmission and multimedia. NTT Corp. and eAccess Ltd.. This will stipulate that
started the first experimental 3G service “FOMA new mobile phone carriers be given priority for
(Freedom of Mobile Multimedia Access)” reallocation of mobile phone channels expected
adopting W-CDMA (Wideband Code Division within this year.
Multiple Access) in May, 2001 and real
introduction of FOMA into the market was made Table 1: Market share of mobile phone carriers in Japan
Carrier NTT Au Vodafone Tuka
in October, 2001. DoCoMo
Number of 48,824,900 19,542,400 15,040,700 3,589,600
Since the 3G mobile phone adopts CDMA Subscribers
system, noise and cutoff in communication is Market Share 56.1% 22.2% 17.3% 4.1%

reduced, and high-speed data transmission can be

done at the rate of 384 kbps at the most which Table 2: Market share based on system
Mar. 2005
was not acquired in 2G mobile phones. System Carriers Increase Total
NTT DoCoMo -778,100 37,324,300
In this paper, we will review current 3G mobile TU-KA -2,500 3,589,600
2G PDC Vodafone -249,300 14,123,500
phone applications in various fields especially in Subtotal -1,029,900 55,037,400
the field of telemedicine, and discusses some of cdmaOne au -105,600 1,607,500
W-CDMA NTT DoCoMo 1,258,400 11,500,600
challenges and future implementation issues from 3G Vodafone 241,900 917,200
CDMA2000 1x au 541,600 17,934,900
telemedicine perspective. Total 906,400 86,997,600

2. Number of subscribers by carriers According to JEITA (Japan Electronics and

Since the year 2000, mobile phone growth
within Japan has slowed due to the high level of
market penetration and the limited number of
consumers that do not already own a mobile
phone. Currently, the mobile phone market is
mainly supported by consumers replacing their
old models with newer ones.
The number of subscribers of mobile phone in
Japan now is approximately 87 million which
seems to be already saturated in the market as it
covers more than 60% of Japan’s total population.
There are four major mobile phone carriers in
Japan: NTT DoCoMo, au (KDDI), Vodafone, and
Tuka. NTT DoCoMo has been dominating the
mobile phone market and also has become the top
carrier both in an increase in the number of
subscribers and that in the share of third-
generation (3G) mobile phone subscribers for
March 2005. Table 1 shows the market share of
mobile phone carriers in Japan according to
Telecommunications Carriers Association (TCA).
Table 2 shows the market share by system [1].
According to data released by TCA, Vodafone
K.K. has fallen further behind its two rivals in the
mobile phone market as it had a steep decrease in
subscription growth in fiscal 2004.
In June 3, 2005, it was announced that the
Japanese government would grant new licenses
providing third–generation services nationwide to
Information Technology Association), sales of
mobile phone and PHS are increased by 5.6 %
reaching 3,149,000. Sales of mobile phone are
increased by 5.8 % reaching 3,104,000 but the
sales of PHS are decreased by 6.3% reaching 45,
000 [2].
The reason for this increase was due to
replacement to 3G mobile phone. JEITA pointed
out that January, 2005 became the turning point to
real propagation of 3G phones. Higher demand of
3G will be expected because new services such as
electronic money and music play will be realized
[2].
Production of mobile phones has been down
slightly in 2004 and is forecasted to remain the
same level in 2005, owing to a turnaround from
the strong sales in 2003 and the shift to third-
generation (3G) models. Mobile phones, which
grew strongly in 2003 thanks to the popularity of
camera-equipped handsets, are now shifting to the
3G system [3].
The number of mobile phones capable of
Internet service is increasing. 333,300 sets are
subscribed in January, 2005 which made total
number of subscribers to 73,887,900. 86.1% of
mobile phones are capable for internet service as
of January, 2005 [2]. Most of the subscribers are
using e-mail on mobile phone as well as browsing
Webs. Since the mobile Internet service by NTT

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 DoCoMo [4] proved to be successful, all the other
carriers including “au”(KDDI), and “Vodafone”
follow [5, 6].
3. Current applications in various fields
Third-generation mobile phones are expected to
be extremely popular and fuel further replacement
demand. Telecommunication firms all over the
world are preparing to deploy third-generation
networks. 3G mobiles provide a next generation
mobile phone service that aims to offer high-
speed 2Mb/s communication using high
transmission efficiency in the high frequency
2GHz band. This will allow multimedia
communication (such as animated images), a
typical example of which is viewing TV on a
mobile phone. This offers a groundbreaking way
to use mobile phones [7]. Major mobile phone
manufacturers such as Nokia, Motorola, etc. begin
to introduce W-CDMA/GSM dual mode phone
into the market as a UMTS (Universal Mobile
Telecommunications System) standard. In Japan,
Vodafone introduced dual mode UMTS phones
made by Nokia, Motorola, and SEMC. This is the
first time in the history that of the phone targeted
for global business is introduced into the domestic
market since its digitalization. It is predicted that
entry of overseas mobile phone manufacturers
will change the domestic market share in Japan.
3G in overseas were only seen in the specific
area such as South Korea and Hong Kong and the
service began in Europe at the beginning of 2004.
Licensing of 3G in China is expected by the end
of 2005. In October 2000, South Korea’s SK
Telecom launched the world’s first commercial
IMT-2000 3G service using CDMA2000 1X.
NTT DoCoMo of Japan launched one year later,
based on W-CDMA. SK Telecom was the first
again with CDMA2000 1xEV-DO in January
2002, offering wireless access to multimedia
content at broadband speeds [8]. In addition to
increasing capacity for more users, 3G services
deliver fast and secure wireless connections to the
Internet and exciting new data applications for
mobile devices. These applications and services
include position location and mapping, audio and
video content, application downloading over the
airwaves-multimedia messaging, video
conferencing, multi-user games and more.
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Many firms are trying to place smart card
functions in phones so that they can be used as
ticket and money, etc. Last summer, using
noncontact IC function, NTT DoCoMo began to
provide various services including electronic
money, credit card, electronic ticket, and in/out
management of offices. By using noncontact IC
function, mobile phone becomes “electric wallet”.
NTT DoCoMo now uses Sony’s Felica which
could be a defacto standard of noncontact IC in
the world. Fig. 1 shows the Felica mounted
mobile phone used for electronic ticket at JR
ticket gate.
Fig. 1. Mobile Suica (Sony’s Felica) used for electronic ticket.
Also, home security and remote monitoring
system is another example of 3G mobile phone
applications. You can monitor your home from a
remote location, not just view images of what is
happening around the premises via a video
camera, but also monitor the thermostat of your
house. There is a central box to link all of the
monitoring devices and a portal you can access
anywhere via a web browser or mobile phone to
see what's happening in your home.
3G technology is also applied for location-
based services (LBS). People are expected to use
the location capabilities of phones to find nearby
restaurants, shops, stations, hotels, etc. GPS-
equipped mobile phones can precisely indicate the
position of wandering elderly persons or small
lost children. Fig 2 shows an image of typical
location-based service.

Fig. 2. Image of typical location-based service.
4. Current applications in telemedicine
Japan is faced with a rapidly aging society.
Currently, about 3 million people need daily
personal assistance, and about 15 million have
chronic disabilities [9]. Mobile phone service
became ubiquitously available throughout Japan.
When it becomes 3G, relatively high volumes of
digital information can be carried. 3G mobile
phone offers major advantages for interactive
video traffic. With the emergence of mobile
phone networks, a number of systems which use
mobile phones to transfer vital signs such as
electrocardiogram (ECG) and heart rate have
increased instead of early mobile medical system
using satellites to establish communications
between remote sites and base hospitals.
5. Our challenge and implementation
In our project subsidized by the Ministry of
Education, Culture, Sports, Science and
Technology under the University Start-Ups
Creation System started in 2002 with a three-year
charter; 3G mobile phones will be utilized that
provides high speed transmission of data
originally built in 2G platform. The goal of our
project is to develop a health management system
in which several vital signs are monitored using a
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sensor without constraints or discomfort, and
without disturbing daily activities. This system
aims to provide automated health management
service, anytime and anywhere on the mobile
phone network. Our health care system
automatically measures a person’s health status
via special sensor integrated with a mobile phone
[10].
To monitor human health constantly without
disturbing user’s normal daily activities, the
wearable sensors and devices for physiological
data collection should be designed to be so small
that they will not affect the appearance and
function of the user. The figure 1 shows the
prototype implementation of the entire system
including sensor devised specially for this
purpose.
Fig. 3. Implementation of the prototype and data/command
flow diagram.
Applications of mobile phone have become
diversified and derive many services. For
example, Chu and Ganz reports use of 3G
networks for simultaneous transmission of video,
medical images, and ECG signals. They describe
a portable teletrauma system that assists health-
care centers by providing simultaneous
transmission of a patient’s video, medical images
and ECG signals, required throughout the
prehospital procedure in Fig 4. The performance
of the system is evaluated over commercially
available 3G wireless cellular data service and
real network conditions. With the commercially
available 3G wireless links, their system can
simultaneously transmit video, still-ultrasound
images, and vital signs [11].

Fig. 4. Experimental testbed [11].
6. Discussion and Conclusion
The evolution of current 3G wireless
communication and mobile network technologies
will be the main driving force for the future
developments in telemedicine. 3G wireless
technology represents the convergence of various
second-generation wireless systems. One of the
most important aspects of 3G technology is its
ability to unify existing mobile standards, such as
CDMA, GMS, and TDMA under one umbrella
[12].
It is predicted that the proportion of 3G mobile
phones would overtake that of 2G mobile phones
by 2006. The carrier who can carry on the
generation change from 2G to 3G well would take
a lead in mobile phone market in Japan.
3G mobile phone applications are found in
various fields in the market but the possibilities
for telemedicine are much higher than that of
other areas. In the near future, the increasing
medical data traffic and demand from different
clinical applications and mobile medical sensors
will be compatible with the data rates of current
3G systems. Specifically, in a society penetrated
by 3G systems, home medical care and remote
diagnosis will become common. Check-up by
specialists and prescription of drugs will enable at
home. In under-populated areas, virtual hospitals
with no resident doctors will be realized based on
high resolution transmission technologies and
remote surgery. Also preventive medical care will
be emphasized for individual health management.
Medical data will be constantly transmitted to the
hospital through built-in sensor and monitoring
system and result will be fed back to the patients
[12].
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Acknowledgement
This study is supported by the Ministry of
Education, Culture, Sports, Science and
Technology under the University Start-Ups
Creation System started in 2002 with a three-year
charter.
References
[1] Telecommunications Carriers Association:
http://www.tca.or.jp/index.html
[2] Japan Electronics and Information Technology Industries
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[3] 2005 Domestic Production Forecasts for the Japanese
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[4] Vodafone: http://www.vodafone.com
[5] NTT DoCoMo: http://www.nttdocomo.com
[6] au (KDDI): http://www.au.kddi.com
[7] NEC Electronics: http://www.necel.com/en/solutions/
applications/mobile/3g/01.html
[8] 3G Today – 3G Applications and Services:
http://www.3gtoday.com
[9] Healthy Japan:http://www.kenkounippon21.gr.jp
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