Embedded Contact Tracing using Mobile Devices, Cloud, and iBeacons

Mian Hamza

1 Integrated Microsystems Laboratory

Dept. Electrical & Computer Engineering, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada

*Corresponding author

Covid-19 is a modern pandemic that has ripped through the fabric of our daily lives. We are required to limit our exposure to other people to help safeguard each other’s health. Contact-tracing/early detection serves as an effective solution for the management of Covid-19 and other similar pandemic diseases. The current popular IoT contact tracing implementations rely on a mobile-centric approach where cellular phones broadcast as beacons and nearby embedded devices log beacon interaction data locally. The proposed approach is a hybrid method that utilizes decentralized iBeacons to track individuals and a centralized cloud infrastructure to communicate/store user exposure data with BLE and Cloud access. The solution addresses potential privacy concerns and offers a simple low-cost contact tracing infrastructure set-up for offices, schools, and other similar public spaces.

IoT, Cloud, iBeacon, Firebase, Contact-tracing, BLE, Smart Cities

Mian Hamza and Jingxu Hu (2021). Embedded Contact Tracing using Mobile Devices, Cloud, and iBeacons. Journal of Networking and Network Applications, Volume 1, Issue 3, pp. 112–118. https://doi.org/10.33969/J-NaNA.2021.010304.

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