Compression and Encryption of Vital Signals Using an SoC-FPGA

Abstract

This article presents the implementation of a remote monitoring system of biomedical signals with cybersecurity support and compression of vital sign signals and data of the patient. This system uses a low-cost microsystem for encrypting and compressing the information using the Lempel–Ziv–Welch (LZW) lossless compression algorithm and the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES). In this case, WolfSSL library is used for the implementation of the Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocol, whose encryption function is accelerated by the AES processor designed on a System on Chip - Field Programmable Gate Array (SoC-FPGA) device. A multiparameter board and an SoC-FPGA development board make up the vital signs measurement system, which was calibrated and verified by a commercial patient simulator. Data transmission tests were carried out from the measurement system to the monitoring application developed in LabVIEW and implemented on a personal computer (PC), where vital signs and data of the patient are decrypted and decompressed. Also, it was possible to verify a significant improvement in the performance of the TLS connection. From the results obtained, it can be concluded that the designed microsystem allows to compress, encrypt, and transmit biomedical data in real-time and without loss of information. The microsystem is very suitable for e-health platforms and/or e-health devices that use unsecured communication networks with limited bandwidth.