Delay-Aware Accident Detection and Response System Using Fog Computing

Emergencies, by definition, are unpredictable and rapid response is a key requirement in emergency management. Globally, a significant number of deaths occur each year, caused by excessive delays in rescue activities. Vehicles embedded with sophisticated technologies, along with roads equipped with advanced infrastructure, can play a vital role in the timely identification and notification of roadside incidents. However, such infrastructure and technologically-rich vehicles are rarely available in less developed countries. Hence, in such countries, low-cost solutions are required to address the issue. Systems based on the Internet of Things (IoT) have begun to be used to detect and report roadside incidents. The majority of the systems designed for this purpose involve the use of the cloud to compute, manage, and store information. However, the centralization and remoteness of cloud resources can result in an increased delay that raises serious concerns about its feasibility in emergency situations; in life-threatening situations, all delays should be minimized where feasible. To address the problem of latency, fog computing has emerged as a middleware paradigm that brings the cloud-like resources closer to end devices. In light of this, the research proposed here leverages the advantages of sophisticated features of smartphones and fog computing to propose and develop a low-cost and delay-aware accident detection and response system, which we term Emergency Response and Disaster Management System (ERDMS). An Android application is developed that utilizes smartphone sensors for the detection of incidents. When an accident is detected, a plan of action is devised. Initially, a nearby hospital is located using the Global Positioning System (GPS). The emergency department of the hospital is notified about the accident that directs an ambulance to the accident site. In addition, the family contacts of the victim are also informed about the accident. All the required computation is performed on the nearby available fog nodes. Moreover, the proposed scheme is simulated using iFogSim to evaluate and compare the performance using fog nodes and cloud data centers.