A reliable and highly scalable Internet of Things 1 (IoT) end-to-end data infrastructure has been developed for 2 environmental radiation monitoring at CERN based on a Low-3 Power Wide-Area Network (LPWAN). The proposed system, 4 called W-MON (Waste radiation MONitoring), consists of an in-5 terconnected network of thousands of highly sensitive and ultra-6 low power gamma radiation sensors acting as LoRa transceivers.

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In this work, a methodology for the design and validation of a radiation monitoring system for electronic systems in particle accelerators is presented. The methodology expands the common Radiation Hardness Assurance (RHA) procedure implemented at CERN, including new steps dedicated to both system-level testing, focused on a wireless device, and sensors characterization and readout validation. A case study demonstrating the validity of this methodology is proposed with the qualification of a novel battery-powered wireless radiation monitoring system. This system not only represents the validation vehicle of the methodology but also an innovation in terms of monitoring platform due to its flexibility and improved capabilities. The application of this methodology allowed its full qualification, providing useful data in terms of resistance to radiation, lifetime, and failure rate in operation, demonstrating the validity of the testing strategy proposed in the paper.

he SARS COV 2 virus, the cause of the better known COVID-19 disease, has greatly altered our personal and professional lives. Many people are now expected to work from home but this is not always possible and, in such cases, it is the responsibility of the employer to implement protective measures. One simple such measure is to require that people maintain a distance of 2 metres but this places responsibility on employees and leads to two problems. Firstly, the likelihood that safety distances are not maintained and secondly that someone who becomes infected does not remember with whom they may have been in contact. To address both problems, CERN has developed the “proximeter”, a device that, when worn by employees, detects when they are in close proximity to others. Information about any such close contacts is sent securely over a Low Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN) and stored in a manner that respects confidentiality and privacy requirements. In the event that an employee becomes infected with COVID-19 CERN can thus identify all the possible contacts and so prevent the spread of the virus. We describe here the details of the proximeter device, the LPWAN infrastructure deployed at CERN, the communication mechanisms and the protocols used to respect the confidentiality of personal data.