Blockchain and Fog Access Point Integrated Healthcare System for Contact Tracing and Infection Probability Evaluation

Abstract

Contact tracing has become a widely adopted strategy to curb the spread of COVID-19, enabling identification, evaluation, and management of individuals exposed to the virus. However, many contact tracing approaches focus solely on either contact tracing or health data, often neglecting the integration of both, with only some incorporating blockchain technology. This work introduces a blockchain-based contact tracing framework integrated with Fog Access Points (FAPs). Additionally, we formulate an infection probability evaluation problem that considers both health infection and contact tracing probabilities. The health infection probability evaluation considers various factors, including symptoms, diseases, age, gender, and vaccination status. In contrast, contact tracing probability involves time, signal strength, and infection probability of the interacted user. Extensive simulations on real-world data demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed framework. © 2024 ACM.