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

COVID-19病毒的传播导致世界各地采取了前所未有的限制人员流动和活动的措施。在没有疫苗的情况下，保持社会距离，即减少个人之间的互动，是减缓病毒传播的最有效方法。在过去的几周里，人们为开发监测或加强社交距离的工具做出了许多努力。这些解决方案通过使用智能手机应用程序或腕带来监控社交联系，并在违反2米安全区时发出警报。所有解决方案都使用蓝牙技术来评估用户之间的距离。这种精度不足以为工人提供安全的工作环境。此外，简单的接触者追踪并不能提供足够的信息来监测个人遭遇的风险。为了提供一个安全的环境，我们需要监测病毒载量，它是距离平方和停留时间的反比函数。

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.