Design and Analyse a Network Protocol for a Highly-Accurate Ranging System Used in Contact Tracing and Viral Load Monitoring for Preserving Social Distancing Post COVID-19 Lockdown

新冠肺炎病毒的传播导致了世界各地前所未有的限制人们行动和活动的措施。在没有疫苗的情况下，社交距离是减缓病毒传播的最有效方式，这意味着减少个人之间的互动。在过去的几周里，许多人在开发工具来监控或加强社交距离方面做出了很多努力。这些解决方案通过使用智能手机应用程序或腕带来实现，允许监控社交联系人，并在2米安全区被突破时发出警报。所有解决方案都使用蓝牙技术来评估用户之间的距离。这种准确性不足以为工人提供安全的环境。此外，简单的接触者追踪不能提供足够的信息来监控个人遇到的风险。为了提供安全的环境，我们需要监测病毒载量，这是距离的平方和停留时间的倒数的函数。 该项目的目标是开发一种适用于星火无线电和接触者追踪环境的网络协议，以便能够准确地监测病毒载量。斯帕克微系统公司开发了一种独特的短程无线收发器集成电路，能够以低效率(1 nJ/比特)提供精确的测距。网络协议应该非常高效，以便最大限度地延长电池寿命。它还应该允许快速发现其他设备，以最大限度地减少延迟。该项目的成果将是一个网络协议，Spark将使用该协议来部署其接触者跟踪和病毒负载监控系统。该项目将使Spark能够推出一种高效而准确的工具来监控一大批加拿大人的安全。

The spread of the COVID-19 virus has resulted in unprecedented measures restricting people's movements and activities over the world. In the absence of vaccines, social distancing, which means reducing interactions between individuals, is the most effective way to slow down the spread of the virus. For the past weeks, many efforts have been surged for developing tools to monitor or reinforce social distancing. These solutions are enabled by the use of smartphone applications or wristbands to allow monitoring social contacts and raise an alert when the 2-meter safety zone is breached. All solutions use Bluetooth technology to evaluate the distance between users. This accuracy is not enough to provide a safe environment for workers. Furthermore, simple contact tracing does not give enough information to monitor the risk encounters by individuals. In order to provide a safe environment, we need to monitor the viral load, which is a function of the inverse of the square of the distance and of the dwell time. The goal of this project is to develop a network protocol adapted to the SPARK radio and the contact tracing environment in order to enable accurate viral load monitoring. SPARK Microsystems has developed a unique short-range wireless transceiver Integrated Circuit that provides accurate ranging at low efficiency (1 nJ/bit). The network protocol should be very efficient in order to maximize battery life. It should also allow to discover other devices rapidly to minimize latency. The outcome of the project will be a network protocol that SPARK will use to deploy its contact tracing and viral load monitoring system. This project will enable SPARK to launch an efficient and accurate tool to monitor the safety of a large group of Canadians.