Contact Tracing

Intelligent Movement with Digi

From enterprise offices to college campuses to city centers, contact tracing technology can support rapid insights and communications to help thwart the spread of infection. Here’s how it works.

Data Collection

To perform accurate contact tracing in an area, such as an office building, college campus or city center, the first step is MAC address capture. Those who opt into the system have their mobile phone registered into a database, enabling them to report if they receive a positive diagnosis, and receive notifications if they have come into contact with anyone else in the database who becomes infected.

Proximity Reporting

An individual can report a positive diagnosis to the registry. A system manager can then quickly run a report to identify other individuals in the database whose mobile devices show proximity with the reporting individual. The next step is to send notifications of the exposure to the owners of each of those devices, so those individuals can be tested and report their results. Administrators can then monitor the spread.

Speed and Scalability

Using existing Wi-Fi access points and Digi high-speed cellular routers, contact tracing systems can not only provide rapid and immediate reporting, but can scale to organizations, universities and cities of any size. Individuals do not need to rely on memory of who they encountered in recent days, or take time away from addressing their own health. The system expedites all aspects of reporting, tracing and notification.

Digi EX15

Enterprise solution

LTE Cat 4
Upgradable to LTE-A Cat 6 or LTE-A Cat 11 with Digi CORE plug-in modem
Ethernet, Wi-Fi and serial, with out-of-band management
Integrated with Digi Remote Manager® for remote device management
Ideal for:
- Enterprise environments
- Dual-connectivity/failover
- High-availability requirements

Digi IX20

Industrial solution

LTE Cat 4
Dual SIM, dual Ethernet, single serial
Integrated with Digi Remote Manager® for remote device management
Ideal for:
- Industrial environments
- Single access points
- Low-power connections
- Variable message signs
- Cellular backup (failover)

Digi TX54

Transportation solution

LTE Cat 12 (one or two modules)
Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, serial, 4 Ethernet
GNSS: Supports any 3 simultaneously (GPS, Galileo, GLONASS, BeiDou)
Integrated with Digi Remote Manager® for remote device management
Ideal for:
- First responder communications
- GPS location services
- Automated MAC address reader
- Cellular backup (failover)

Digi Remote Manager

Drop-in deployment with simple,
secure remote control

Best-in-class monitoring and management ensures you can scale your deployment to a fleet of any size. Digi Remote Manager® gives you a single, secure platform to access data and manage devices from anywhere. Simple, secure control keeps your deployments on track — edit configurations, update firmware, monitor, schedule and automate tasks — all from your desktop or tablet.

Learn More 90 Day Free Trial

Speed and Accuracy: The Keys to Stopping Viral Spread in Its Tracks

With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, there was enormous confusion, and conflicting reports on how to deal with the spread of the infection.

Over the months that followed the initial trajectory of the virus across the globe, it became clear that technology solutions were desperately needed to assist in stopping the spread of the virus. Accurate contact tracing – using tools that can track, trace, record and communicate data in real time – can achieve this outcome. It’s the perfect job for the Internet of Things (IoT).

The “Why” of Contact Tracing

The ability to ethically and quickly identify infection, track and trace its spread, notify those who have been exposed, and monitor spread via contact tracing can help halt the process and save lives. Authorities can monitor and manage pockets of infection. Most importantly, organizations and campuses can protect their workers and students, and people can get back to work.

The Importance of Opt-Ins

Public health must be balanced against privacy laws and individual’s rights to choose whether to share their data. As contact tracing solutions are deployed, stakeholders include public health administrators, employers and the individuals who choose to enable the system. Opt-ins ensure individuals agree to data capture, while cryptographic encryption strictly maintains the privacy of personal data.

The Technology at Work

Technology-based contact tracing uses high-speed cellular routers, as well as existing Wi-Fi access points and cellular networks for rapid communications. The system collects MAC addresses from mobile devices in an area, utilizes sensors, data analytics tools, and remote monitoring software such as Digi Remote Manager, and can also integrate cloud applications such as Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud.

Partnering with Digi

Digi International provides the enabling technologies for contact tracing, from high-performance cellular routers to remote management software to engineering resources. We are actively partnering with technology providers and systems integrators to build solutions that enable government agencies, health officials, universities and cities to respond to the current pandemic and prepare for the future. Contact us to learn more.

Putting Existing Technology to Work to Stop Viral Spread

The COVID-19 pandemic brought into sharp focus the need for solutions such as contact tracing, which is the ability to rapidly identify and notify those who have had contact with an infected individual. Based on technology currently being deployed across many cities worldwide for the purpose of next-generation traffic management, one methodology uses the most pervasively deployed IoT device today: the mobile phone. Each of these devices is equipped with a unique address. By opting into a contact tracing registry, mobile users support the ability to immediately determine who has been in contact with infected persons, and notify them. Digi is partnering with a range of technology providers to integrate high-speed Digi cellular routers with data analytics tools and cloud-based systems to enable organizations and cities to deploy these solutions for a safer world.