Detecting Regions At Risk for Spreading COVID-19 Using Existing Cellular Wireless Network Functionalities
Open Access
- 15 June 2020
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) in IEEE Open Journal of Engineering in Medicine and Biology
- Vol. 1, 187-189
- https://doi.org/10.1109/ojemb.2020.3002447
Abstract
Goal: The purpose of this article is to introduce a new strategy to identify areas with high human density and mobility, which are at risk for spreading COVID-19. Crowded regions with actively moving people (called at-risk regions) are susceptible to spreading the disease, especially if they contain asymptomatic infected people together with healthy people. Methods: Our scheme identifies at-risk regions using existing cellular network functionalities-handover and cell (re)selection-used to maintain seamless coverage for mobile end-user equipment (UE). The frequency of handover and cell (re)selection events is highly reflective of the density of mobile people in the area because virtually everyone carries UEs. Results: These measurements, which are accumulated over very many UEs, allow us to identify the at-risk regions without compromising the privacy and anonymity of individuals. Conclusions: The inferred at-risk regions can then be subjected to further monitoring and risk mitigation.Keywords
Funding Information
- Iraqi Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research (4650/11/16/2014)
- National Science Foundation (CMMI-1638284)
This publication has 7 references indexed in Scilit:
- High Contagiousness and Rapid Spread of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2Emerging Infectious Diseases, 2020
- Aerosol and Surface Stability of SARS-CoV-2 as Compared with SARS-CoV-1The New England Journal of Medicine, 2020
- Presumed Asymptomatic Carrier Transmission of COVID-19JAMA, 2020
- A review of mobility management entity in LTE networks: Power consumption and signaling overheadInternational Journal of Network Management, 2019
- Tracking Area Update and Paging in 5G Networks: a Survey of Problems and SolutionsMobile Networks and Applications, 2018
- Design considerations for a 5G network architectureIEEE Communications Magazine, 2014
- Fast handover in cellular networks with femtocellsPublished by Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) ,2012