End-to-End Transmission of Physiological Data from Implanted Devices to a Cloud-Enabled Aggregator Using Fat Intra-Body Communication in a Live Porcine Model

This article presents, for the first time, the end-to-end transmission of physiological data from implanted antennas mimicking sensors to a cloud-enabled aggregator device using fat intra-body communication (fat-IBC). The experiment was performed on a live porcine model in full accordance with ethical standards. Measurement data from two different sensors were collected and sent through a fat-IBC network. The fat-IBC network consisted of three nodes, of which two used antennas implanted in the fat tissue of a live porcine model and one used an on-body antenna placed on the skin. The sensor data was forwarded via Bluetooth Low Energy to an Intel Health Application Platform device, which in turn forwarded the encrypted data to a web server. The experimental results demonstrate that the fat channel can be used in an end-to-end communication scheme, which could involve relaying of sensor data from an implanted device to an external web server.