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B4LL Architecture

This section describes the architecture proposed for the B4LL project. The project was thought to be modular, allowing to offer, when necessary, new use cases, types of biometrics and biometrics suppliers.

The architecture is divided in three main parts: the communication channels (mostly represented by the application), the engine, and the biometrics suppliers. Each part is briefly described below. More details can be found in the following sections1:

  1. Communication Channels: The communication channels are responsible for the communication interface between the user and the b4ll system. The main communication channel is the mobile application, however, these channels can use external communication providers to supply new forms of interaction. The use of Twilio to create a call center is an example of a communication channel provider.

    Mobile Application: The main communication channel currently used in the project. The mobile application will provide access to all types of biometrics.

  2. Engine: This part orchestrates the connection between the other parts of the architecture handling the data received from the communication channels and providing it to the engine.

  3. Biometric Suppliers: Biometric solutions available on the market. The connection with the suppliers takes place through an SDK or API and allows access to biometric recognition solutions.

Architectural Parts​

Figure: Main components of the architecture.

B4ll architetcure

Connexions​

  • The elements of the communication channel are responsible for requests and responses to the engine of the system.
  • The engine orchestrates the flow of messages and directs the requests to the selected biometric supplier.
  • The connection between the engine and the supplier is made using AWS lambda functions and the API or SDK provided by the supplier.

When using B4LL, the user activates one of the communication providers that will intermediate data capture through the user interface. In this case, the channel can be the mobile application, or another one that is necessary. The architecture is prepared to accept extra communication providers and integrates them with the engine. The call center is an example of this situation. In this case a component to connects the call center to the engine was created.

The business logic of the communication channel integrates the communication between the communication provider and the engine, allowing data capture, processing and when necessary storage. Then the biometric data is passed to the engine.

The engine logic handle the data received from the communication channels and provide it to the Biometric Suppliers in an acceptable format. The request/response connextion between engine and biometric supplier is done using the supplier's API (or SDK) and the engine handler functions.

Figure: Architecture components and its relations.

B4ll architetcure
Data Storage

It is important to mention here that the biometric data is only stored on the biometric suppliers side.

Detailed View​

The diagram below sketches out a microservice-based serverless architecture. Embracing a microservice architecture will make it more straightforward to add new biometrics types or providers in future through the creation of new connections for the new components.

Figure: Detailed architectural diagram.

B4ll architetcure

Other services can also be used to enhance the user experience – for example DynamoDB may be used to store user data and preferences within the communication channel business logic – or for other technical reasons, such as using an S3 bucket in the biometrics engine to store image data prior to biometric verification.

Technological Considerations​

  • The architecture is based on a scalable serveless model using an AWS environment

  • The orchestration and deployment of the components is fully automatable by using AWS CloudFormation and AWS SAM.

  • The main language used for the project is TypeScript

  • The API's follow the API Specification 3.0

Footnotes​
  • 1 : B4LL project page contains relevant information for a better understanding of the use of biometrics and how the B4ll project can support mobile operators in the implementation of biometric technologies.