RF telemetry link quality assessment system and method

摘要

A system comprises an implantable medical device (IMD), a external user interface device, and a radio frequency link quality assessment (LQA) device. The external user interface device and the IMD are adapted to potentially use one or more of a plurality of available wireless communication channels to communicate. The LQA device is positioned to receive a radio frequency communication between the IMD and the external user interface device. At least one of the IMD, the external user interface device, and the LQA device is adapted to evaluate signal and noise strength of the available channels to determine respective signal and noise levels for each channel by using the noise level for the target channel and interference potential for corresponding adjacent channels to the target channel as inputs to a function to provide a value for a LQA for the target channel, and select a preferred communication channel based on the LQA value for each of the available wireless communication channels.

主权项

1. A system, comprising:
an implantable medical device (IMD); a external user interface device wirelessly coupled to the IMD; and a radio frequency link quality assessment (LQA) device adapted to receive a radio frequency communication between the implantable medical device and the external user interface device, the radio frequency LQA device including:
an antenna;a communication circuit electrically connected to the antenna, the communication circuit adapted to receive wireless communication between the implantable medical device and the external user interface device;a processor electrically connected to the communication circuit, the processor adapted to execute embedded instructions to evaluate at least one of signal strength and noise strength of available wireless communication channels potentially used to communicate between the IMD and the external user interface device, wherein the evaluation includes, for each channel analyzed as a target channel, using the noise level for the target channel and interference potential for corresponding adjacent channels to the target channel as inputs to a function to provide a value for a LQA for the target channel; anda memory electrically connected to the processor, wherein the memory is adapted to store the embedded instructions, measurements of individual channels, the signal and noise levels and results of evaluation, and wherein the processor is further adapted to:determine an interference potential on channels adjacent to the available channels, andevaluate each of the plurality of channels using noise levels for a target channel and interference potential for at least two channels adjacent the target channel.