ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the small-cell concept and outlines the benefits of leveraging small cells within connected personal health implementations, with a particular focus on personal health systems in the home environment. It provides a more detailed background on personal health system solutions and their current developments in various standardization bodies. The chapter discusses an overview of small cells and their architectural features and describes how small cells could be used as a gateway for personal health systems and the benefits that could be attained from that configuration. The accessibility to mobile services provided over small cells varies according to small-cell ownership, intended coverage area for the small cell, and mobile operator’s business model. Small cells enable relatively improved indoor coverage compared to conventional macrocell coverage mostly by avoiding the wall attenuation encountered in outdoor-to-indoor propagation. The benefits of small cells in terms of hot spot capacity and coverage enhancements are widely known.
