Bandwidth Requirements For Medical Imaging Systems
Medical imaging systems are requiring higher bandwidth. With the
emphasis on real-time performance and higher resolutions, the
amount of data processing needed may soon reach staggering
levels. Using input sensors to receive large amounts of
information along with digital signal processors (DSPs) to turn
that analog input into digital data, medical systems are leaning
toward backplane-based chassis with high performance.
Traditionally, many systems use standards-based architectures
like CompactPCI bus or VMEbus. But with backplane performance
hitting the limitations of standard architectures, medical
industry system designers are looking to new switched-fabric
technologies that offer high performance and high reliability at
a reasonable cost.
Medical imaging systems--such as magnetic resonance imaging
(MRI), computed tomography (CT) scanning, and positron emission
tomography (PET) scanning--are the most in need of higher
performance. The intrachassis traffic between the processor
boards, communications boards, display, sensor device, and
storage is vast. For real-time information and clearer,
higher-resolution images, the data need to travel at high speeds
without errors. Not only is the data rate important, but the
processing must be reliable. With redundancy and inherent
reliability, the system can be highly available, with up to
99.999% uptime.
In many medical applications, latency and throughput are
important requirements. In an ultrasound system, latency is
critical because the technician uses the real-time image to
properly position the transducer. Latency is less critical in CT
scan equipment, although it is still an important factor. Both
systems require the performance to scale as processing elements
are added to a system. If all of the processing boards are
contending for a common bus, performance could actually degrade
as the number of processing nodes increases.
Bus-based architectures are running out of bandwidth for today's
medical imaging solutions. The migration to switched-fabric
systems is the natural evolution path. It is important that a
switched-fabric architecture already have all of the necessary
hardware and software components. A switched-fabric system
should also be compatible with PCI-based systems, so that much
of a manufacturer's previous investment in the system can be
preserved. Regardless....sufficient bandwidth for operating the
total facility system (all applications) is critical. At a
minimum the system load will require DS3 bandwidth or OC3....in
larger medical facilities even an OC12 or OC48. To assist in
determining exact requirements it's highly recommended to engage
the services of an independent technical consultant such as DS3-Bandwidth.com.