BEST-Blockchain-Enabled Secure and Trusted Public Emergency Services for Smart Cities Environment

Area of Science:

• Computer Science
• Internet of Things (IoT)
• Blockchain Technology
• Smart City Applications
• Public Emergency Services (PES)

Background:

• Existing smart city applications often prioritize healthcare, neglecting distributed fire brigade systems as public emergency services (PES).
• Traditional centralized PES suffer from high computation demands, lack of trust, transparency, data integrity, and single points of failure.
• There is a critical need for a secure, transparent, and efficient PES for fire response in smart homes.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose a novel Blockchain-Enabled Secure and Trusted (BEST) framework for public emergency services (PES) in smart cities.
• To specifically enhance fire brigade response systems for smart homes using IoT and blockchain.
• To address the limitations of traditional centralized PES by introducing a distributed and trustworthy system.

Main Methods:

• Development of the Blockchain-Enabled Secure and Trusted (BEST) framework utilizing IoT devices and edge computing.
• Implementation of an IoT controller for access control and a service controller employing a queue model for efficient request handling.
• Design and deployment of smart contracts on the Hyperledger Fabric platform for automated PES activation under uncertain conditions.

Main Results:

• The BEST framework demonstrates the advantages of a distributed environment and smart contract logic for PES.
• Performance evaluation shows improvements in service queue length, utilization, and reduced end-to-end delay.
• Simulation results confirm the effectiveness and feasibility of the proposed framework for smart home fire emergencies.

Conclusions:

• The proposed BEST framework offers a secure, transparent, and efficient solution for distributed smart fire brigade systems.
• Blockchain technology and edge computing significantly enhance the reliability and performance of public emergency services (PES).
• The framework effectively addresses critical issues in traditional PES, paving the way for safer smart cities.