IoT News – LoRaWAN-based air quality monitoring and contact tracing in public buildings shows promise for controlling virus spread

By Willie S. Morrissey Last updated Sep 16, 2022

Kerlink and its partners are rolling out an Internet of Things project that shows how building owners can help Limit the transmission of Covid-19 & Future virus outbreaks.

Combining ready-to-use IoT technologies and equipment with new mathematical models simulating the spread of Covid-19, a pilot solution from a large Parisian university hospital has demonstrated how building managers of the future can limit the spread viruses such as Covid-19.

The eight-month trial in 2021 included nearly 200 students and about 20 staff volunteers who wore Bluetooth-enabled badges during their classes, labs and shifts at the Faculty of Medicine (Faculty of Medicine) at the Kremlin-Bicêtre AP -HP (Assistance Publique-Hospitals of Paris).

In addition to continuous monitoring of building air quality, the system monitored the movements and comings and goings of the occupants using dedicated mathematical models developed by two scientists from the University of Paris-Saclay. These models simulated the spread of Covid-19 in the student population, using contact-tracing matrices.

“This made it possible to study the importance of real contacts between individuals in the transmission process, and more generally to estimate the role of actions of the population, such as gathering in poorly ventilated rooms and the duration and type of communication – informal short conversation or longer collaboration – between individuals in the global spread of the epidemic”, said Bertrand Maury, who along with colleague Sylvain Faure created the algorithms.

“This evaluation has clearly shown that this IoT-based solution can help building managers in the future to limit the spread of viruses such as Covid-19.”

The building contact tracing app was combined with air quality monitoring including:

CO2 levels in premises based on occupancy rates and times, and ventilation adjustments,
Ventilation malfunctions or required maintenance of ventilation equipment, and
Hourly change rate (HRR), or complete room air change, which is a key performance indicator (KPI) tracked by building managers in their day-to-day operations.

The contact tracing The matrices were inspired by an algorithm developed by the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) and the University of Paris-Saclay which defines epidemiological models of transmission of the virus. It also provides a first assessment of the influence of CO2 concentration as an indicator of poor air quality that can accelerate viral transmission, for example a CO2 level indicating insufficient indoor air renewal.

The pilot project of the AP-HP of Kremlin-Bicêtre was validated by the clinical research unit of the Faculty of Medicine Paris-Saclay, while the protection of private data and the identity of the participants in the pilot project was fully compliant with GDPR law.

Example contact matrix: Everyone is identified by a bubble with an ID (granting privacy and GDPR compliance). The lines illustrate the direct contacts of each with other individuals (time spent in the same room). The thicker the line, the more contact (frequency and/or time spent) there was between the two individuals.
Source B. Maury, S. Faure – Paris-Saclay University – ©2022

Prof Olivier Lambotte, vice-dean of the Faculty of Medicine of Kremlin-Bicêtre AP-HP, said that the transmission of the Covid-19 virus and the desire to develop an “enhanced alert” tool based on epidemiological models have were the first triggers for this demonstrator project. and they have been successfully complemented by air quality monitoring by CO2 level analysis.

“After these initial results, the Faculty of Medicine will be able to refine its systems for combating the spread of epidemics thanks to a better knowledge of the interactions between students and thanks to a control of air quality. he said. “Mathematical modeling of air renewal in a classroom or an amphitheater makes it possible to estimate in advance the maximum number of people who can be present to maintain a CO2 level below a set threshold.”

The system used technology jointly developed by Kerlink, an Internet of Things (IoT) dedicated solutions specialist, Microshare, a leading data management solution provider for the IoT era, and Enless Wireless. , a leading manufacturer of smart stand-alone devices. powered sensors, communicating in radio mode and dedicated to energy performance & comfort applications in buildings.

The LoRaWAN-based system used Kerlink Wanesy™ Wave, a versatile electric anchor – combining Wi-Fi, BLE and LoRaWAN®, for collecting contact tracing data from Bluetooth badges – and a Kerlink Wirnet™ iFemtoCell indoor gateway to transmit data to Microshare’s Universal Contact Tracing® application, which provides end-to-end security, privacy and reliability for delivering critical information where it’s needed. The data it produces is GDPR compliant and provided via patent-pending rules and Microshare’s sharing engine only to the appropriate and designated people in the organization at the right time. Enless Wireless provided the pilot project with an indoor system that was easy to install and connect. air quality transmitters with integrated CO2 sensors and high-performance D-type batteries.