Concept & Approach

SMILE proposes a novel mobility concept, using privacy by design principles, that will enable low cost secure exchange and processing of biometric data, addressing in parallel the aforementioned challenges by designing, implementing and evaluating in relevant environments (TRL6) prototype management architecture, for the accurate verification, automated control, monitoring and optimization of people’ flows at Land Border Infrastructures. It leverages the capabilities of the smart mobile devices in biometric control for secure and trusted authentication, and elaborates on their exploitation as part of a multimodal biometric verification process that supplements / complements existing approaches. Furthermore, SMILE’s mobility concept builds upon Private Cloud Infrastructure technologies which communicate with remote SMILE handhelds through a secure gateway.

SMILE project will focus on the research of several technological solutions which cover any part of a BCP control system and are able to work individually or as a whole. The major scope of the SMILE approach is to provide a palette of cost effective and easy to be installed or adapted modules, in order to support the increased needs of EU Land Border Infrastructures.

More specifically, the key operational building elements in SMILE’s approach are:

Building upon SoA wireless networking technologies and by applying recent advances of the Internet of Things (IoT) paradigm, SMILE proposes the realisation of Smart Lanes as the entrance point to European Land Border infrastructures. These lanes will enable the Registered Travellers to access the SMILE platform and authenticate themselves (through the SMILE gateway) using multimodal biometrics embedded in their mobile devices (SMILE RTP Client), and exploit smart borders’ facilities while approaching Border Control Points (BCP). More specifically, travellers in the Fast Lane will be notified through alerts and/or electronic messages to turn-on their mobile client (which automatically connects to the local Smart Lanes wireless network) and access the SMILE Frontend in order to validate their registration via multimodal biometrics and receive an e-Token. This e-Token will be used repeatedly throughout the travellers’ check/authentication processes while crossing borders, and may have a certain lifetime (e.g. 30 minutes) that may vary according to the overall BCPs’ traffic, during which travellers may proceed to the BCP for automated controls(i.e. interact with the system under border guard supervision). Otherwise, if the e-Token expires, travellers may have to go through manual controls(controls performed by a border guard who interacts with SMILE and existing BCP infrastructure). At the same time, Smart Lanes will assist border staff/authorities to identify registered travellers and take appropriate actions for facilitating their fast and secure border crossing, by minimizing the intervention during verification and pass control for a pre-registered traveller. In case of travellers passing with a vehicle (e.g. they have registered their car and matriculation plate) visual/optical sensor devices will also be utilised (mobile camera, legacy systems) for scanning the car’s registration number. The challenge, therefore, is to investigate the physical characteristics of these Smart Lanes (e.g. length), the type of IoT modules and their constellation across the envisaged Smart Lanes, the type of network access and corresponding communication protocols, along with the utilisation of any additional modules assisting fast and secure travellers’ processing at BCPs.

Upon successful retrieval of the e-Token (i.e. while in the Smart Lane), travellers will be guided through e-messages on their mobile client to an RTP clearance point, where they validate their e-Token(s), and get directions to which Fast Lane to proceed. For this reason, the RTP clearance point initially communicates with the RTP data base in order to verify that the specific e-Tokens are valid. Upon successful verification, the clearance point decides to which Fast Lane the traveller should proceed, by calculating (in real time) the Border Wait Time (BWT) and choosing the least populated Fast Lane, thus contributing towards traffic optimisation among all available Fast Lanes, which in turn results to cross-border throughput maximisation. It should be noted that in cases where there are numerous travellers within a vehicle (e.g. car), the clearance point will also be assisted by cameras and other sensory devices in order to identify the number of passengers; an issue that directly affects BWT optimisation, prior to directing the vehicle to the corresponding Fast Lane with the least load. 

Upon arrival at the BCP, travellers will go through a manual control performed by a border guard who interacts with the systems, or through automated controls by interacting with the system under border guard supervision, whichever is appropriate. Travellers will initially be checked if holding a valid e-Token by connecting their mobile device to an e-Token reader, the communication of which may be based on Near Field Communication technology (NFC). The officer/guard will be notified (by the Land Border Agent – i.e. the local RTP system) if the e-Token is still valid, and will ask the traveller to authenticate him/herself via multimodal biometrics provided via his/her mobile device and any other medium including MRTDs/e-MRTDs. In case there are more travellers in a car, the guard could ask them to authenticate themselves following the same process or some other locally/legally requisite process.

Nowadays, border guards are supposed to check the validity of the traveller’s documents, record their EES status, besides being able to monitor any illegal actions (e.g. overstays) and update/renew electronic documents on-site. To automatize this process and make it more efficient, SMILE will elaborate on the design and implementation of the secure IT infrastructure (SMILE gateway, optical PUF, Cloud Backend), software tools (Homomorphic Encryption, Interfaces with BIMS) and applications (Single Search Interface, Multimodal Biometrics) that border staff will utilise for on-line and real time traveller’s Entry/Exit clearance and control, alongside the technical requirements and specifications for the underlying networking infrastructure capable of interconnecting with BCPs, not only within the same country (intra-country communication), but also and most importantly the BCPs located in different states (inter-country communication). Such intra/inter BCP communication will be conducted through a distributed (e.g. instances located in different European states) SMILE Orchestrator entity, and will be carried over Secured Network and Interfaces.

Upon arrival at the BCP, non pre-registered travellers (or non smart mobile equipment owners) will go through a manual controlperformed by a border guard who interacts with the systems through his/her mobile handheld. The collection of the biometric data and the verification of travelling documents will be done by using the embedded (to the mobile device) sensors. The guard/officer’s mobile device is always connected with the SMILE gateway which has the authorisation to send the encrypted data to the SMILE cloud back-end. The SMILE platform compares the received info (biometric matching, historical travelling data, etc.) with the available border management information systems and transmits the corresponding notification back to the guards/officer mobile device and to the BCP control office. In the case of valid border access the SMILE platform erases the travellers’ info. In case there are more travellers in a car, the guard could ask them to authenticate themselves following the same process or some other locally/legally requisite process.