Evaluation of WAMP protocol in real-time remote ECG monitoring

Feasibility of using Web Application Messaging Protocol (WAMP) to implement a real-time, distributed software component architecture for remote ECG monitoring was evaluated. A prototype distributed system consisting of software components organized into several real-time signal processing pipelines was constructed. WAMP and a Crossbar router were used to interconnect the components, and the signal processing and connection latencies were measured during real-time simulations of three different scenarios. In all the scenarios, the mean latency from a device to a remote interface was less than 40 ms in real-time streaming of two-lead ECG with compression; less than 50 ms in PVC event notification; less than 50 ms in real-time tachogram updates; and less than 400 ms in heart rate variability (HRV) statistics updates. According to the results, WAMP protocol can support real-time ECG streaming with a 250 Hz sampling rate, real-time HRV analyses, and real-time alarm notifications. Especially life critical alarm notification delays can be reduced into millisecond range. Although network congestion can increase the latencies, WAMP has potential to be used in developing scalable real-time remote ECG monitoring platforms.