BLE Beacon System for Smartphone Secure Tracking

Abstract

Applications with mobile devices are growing exponentially, as their communication capabilities improve. Therefore, it is necessary to guarantee their reliability and security. This contribution presents an aerial tracking application for these devices, with the aim of providing a tool for tracking and tracing in certain situations. To ensure the reliability of the application, information protection mechanisms to guarantee confidentiality and integrity are included. Three main parts have been considered for the application design: a Web application, an Android application and the backend. The system follows a microservice structure over containers, allowing simple management and distribution. Two modes of operation are supported on the Android application, a Tracker Mode, which will be executed on a smartphone on board a drone (RPA), and a Client Mode executed by mobile devices on the ground. Users in Client Mode employ the Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) beacon mode to transmit information related to their positioning and trajectory. The user obtains this data via BLE and relays it using the 4G/5G network to a web server. The server allows the graphical representation of the data and its exploitation. Deployment is proposed in different scenarios, such as the supervision and control of public areas with capacity control or the tracking and localization of people in isolated environments.