Using Complex Event Processing for implementing a geofencing service

Geofencing is one of the components in the wider spectra of Ambient Assisted Living related applications. Such applications are meant to provide support to persons with disabilities or to those impaired, as well as to their caretakers. Within this context, geofencing targets the safe mobility of such persons. As mobility related data can be translated into events with a temporal dimension, we have developed a geofencing service based on the Complex Event Processing paradigm. This decision was supported also by the fact that Ambient Assisted Living applications, in general, are often considered for integration into event rich environments, such as those resulting from smart cities infrastructure. The ability of Complex Event Processing to handle vast amounts of time correlated events from multiple sources meets the requirements imposed by the geofencing service. This paper presents the architecture of a Complex Event Processing based geofencing service along with the results obtained during the evaluation phase of the first prototype.