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Methods Inf Med 2012; 51(03): 221-228
DOI: 10.3414/ME10-01-0002
Original Articles
Schattauer GmbH

Wireless LAN Security Management with Location Detection Capability in Hospitals

K. Tanaka
1   Department of Planning, Information and Management, The University of Tokyo Hospital, Tokyo, Japan
,
H. Atarashi
1   Department of Planning, Information and Management, The University of Tokyo Hospital, Tokyo, Japan
,
I. Yamaguchi
1   Department of Planning, Information and Management, The University of Tokyo Hospital, Tokyo, Japan
,
H. Watanabe
1   Department of Planning, Information and Management, The University of Tokyo Hospital, Tokyo, Japan
,
R. Yamamoto
2   Interfaculty Initiative in Information Studies, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
,
K. Ohe
3   Graduate School of Medicine and Faculty of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
› Author Affiliations
Further Information

Publication History

received:12 January 2011

accepted:15 February 2011

Publication Date:
20 January 2018 (online)

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Summary

Objectives: In medical institutions, unauthorized access points and terminals obstruct the stable operation of a large-scale wireless local area network (LAN) system. By establishing a real-time monitoring method to detect such unauthorized wireless devices, we can improve the efficiency of security management.

Methods: We detected unauthorized wireless devices by using a centralized wireless LAN system and a location detection system at 370 access points at the University of Tokyo Hospital. By storing the detected radio signal strength and location information in a database, we evaluated the risk level from the detection history. We also evaluated the location detection performance in our hospital ward using Wi-Fi tags.

Results: The presence of electric waves outside the hospital and those emitted from portable game machines with wireless communication capability was confirmed from the detection result. The location detection performance showed an error margin of approximately 4 m in detection accuracy and approximately 5% in false detection. Therefore, it was effective to consider the radio signal strength as both an index of likelihood at the detection location and an index for the level of risk.

Conclusions: We determined the location of wireless devices with high accuracy by filtering the detection results on the basis of radio signal strength and detection history. Results of this study showed that it would be effective to use the developed location database containing radio signal strength and detection history for security management of wireless LAN systems and more general-purpose location detection applications.

Keywords

Wireless LAN - security management - location detection
 

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