A Comprehensive Survey of Enabling and Emerging Technologies for Social Distancing-Part I: Fundamentals and Enabling Technologies

Social distancing plays a pivotal role in preventing the spread of viral diseases illnesses such as
COVID-19. By minimizing the close physical contact among people, we can reduce the chances of catching
the virus and spreading it across the community. This two-part paper aims to provide a comprehensive
survey on how emerging technologies, e.g., wireless and networking, arti�cial intelligence (AI) can enable,
encourage, and even enforce social distancing practice. In this Part I, we provide a comprehensive background
of social distancing including basic concepts, measurements, models, and propose various practical
social distancing scenarios. We then discuss enabling wireless technologies which are especially effectin
social distancing, e.g., symptom prediction, detection and monitoring quarantined people, and contact
tracing. The companion paper Part II surveys other emerging and related technologies, such as machine
learning, computer vision, thermal, ultrasound, etc., and discusses open issues and challenges (e.g., privacypreserving,
scheduling, and incentive mechanisms) in implementing social distancing in practice.