Djilali Moussaoui, Benamar Kadri, Mohammed Feham, Boucif Ammar Bensaber
Among the important challenges for Vehicular Adhoc Network (VANET) Security and Privacy. Most of the solutions for privacy in vanet are based on pseudonyms. And the pseudonyms are digital certificates with very limited information, valid for a short time, and hide the identity of the vehicle. The pseudonym operations (issuing, changing, and revoking) are centralized by a certification authority. In our paper, we propose a fully distributed management for pseudonyms in VANETs. We use the blockchain technology to perform the different operations related to pseudonyms. Our proposal use two blockchains, one for registering pseudonyms, the second for revoked ones. The vehicles are considered as miners in the blockchain. Our approach makes the vehicles in VANET more autonomous in managing the security, and reduce the exchanged data with a centralized authority (Certificate Authority-CA).
Abstract From the past few years, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) has proved an immense potential in providing the cost and time‐efficient solutions to the various societal applications such as healthcare, supply chain, and video & surveillance. It has many data security and privacy issues, and researchers across the globe have given many solutions to protect data from cyber‐attacks. Many of them have suggested cryptographic‐based solutions, which is very compute extensive. Very few researchers have suggested Blockchain (BC)‐based solutions, but their solutions may suffer from high data storage cost as well as network latency, reliability, and bandwidth issues. To overcome the above‐mentioned issues, this paper proposed an InterPlanetary File System and BC‐based secure UAV communication scheme over the 6G network. This proposed scheme ensures data security and privacy, reduces data storage cost, and enhances network performance. Then, the research challenges and future directions for further improvement of the proposed system have been presented.
By virtue of intelligent data processing and vehicular network, Internet of Vehicle (IoV) provides the transport system with real-time traffic information, which greatly improves the traffic conditions of the city. Moreover, to ease the computing and storage burden of the increasing number of the vehicle, edge computing is introduced to offload computing tasks on the local with low latency. But it still suffers from data integrity and privacy concerns. To meet these challenges, this paper proposes an efficient and conditional privacy-preserving authentication protocol using blockchain-enabled IoV with edge computing. Specifically, edge computing and consortium blockchains are combined to support efficient computation and storage capabilities with low communication delay while providing data auditability. Also, a pseudonym mechanism and identity-based signature are utilized to achieve identity privacy-preserving conditionally and messages authentication of vehicles, respectively. Moreover, for the dynamic change of vehicles, a clustering selection algorithm and a key updating algorithm based on Chinese remainder theorem are given, which guarantees the forward and backward security of transmission information. Security analysis and experiment evaluation with respect of communication and computation cost demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed protocol.
Hao Xu, Zihan Zhou, Lei Zhang, Yunqing Sun · 5 authors
As 6G networks evolve towards a synergistic system of Communication, Sensing, and Computing, Radio Access Networks become more distributed, necessitating robust end-to-end authentication. We propose Blockchain-enabled Radio Access Networks, a novel decentralized RAN architecture enhancing security, privacy, and efficiency in authentication processes. BE-RAN leverages distributed ledger technology to establish trust, offering user-centric identity management, enabling mutual authentication, and facilitating on-demand point-to-point inter-network elements and UE-UE communication with accountable logging and billing service add-on for public network users, all without relying on centralized authorities. We envision a thoroughly decentralized RAN model and propose a privacy-preserving P2P communication approach that complements existing security measures while supporting the CSC paradigm. Results demonstrate BE-RAN significantly reduces communication and computation overheads, enhances privacy through decentralized identity management, and facilitates CSC integration, advancing towards more efficient and secure 6G networks.
Recent advancements in smart grids (SGs) have introduced Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) networks as an emerging technology for electric power distribution networks. V2G provides more sophisticated energy trading by enabling bi-directional flow of electricity as well as communication channels between SGs and the electric vehicles (EVs). However, due to the huge daily volumes of trading data, the underlying V2G infrastructure suffers from scalability and security challenges. Therefore, new design principles are favorable to realize next generation of V2G networks. As distributed energy information networks are amongst the key desiderata of future power grids, the blockchain technology shows promising potential to facilitate decentralized power generation and local energy trading. Thus, we propose a framework that uses the distributed ledger and Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) of a blockchain with a dynamic Proof-of-Work (dPoW) consensus for secure V2G energy trading. The ledger functions to execute transactions and thereafter, log them in the blockchain. With PKI, an authentication mechanism for EVs is established, whereas dPoW supports varying mining difficulty levels for a high throughput rate. To demonstrate the feasibility of our framework, security and performance analyses are presented, where the designed framework has been realized to preserve the privacy of EVs, support minimal computational overhead, and facilitate scalability in V2G networks.
Passing through a rural area with a limited network infrastructure may disrupt fog computing support for vehicles. As a result, some applications on vehicles may turn off and bother the performance of the vehicular systems. In order to escape from this kind of situation, vehicular fog computing is discussed in recent times as an alternative of fog computing support while passing through a blank spot of network infrastructure. However, it is not feasible to establish a trusted vehicular fog computing service among vehicles without mutual trust. To deal with this situation, this paper proposes a method called Bidding-Price-based Transaction (BPT) for vehicular fog computing service in rural areas. This method is composed of bidding-price-based mutual trust establishment between client vehicle and server vehicle and also payoff assignment based on transaction evaluation. By applying this method, trusted fog computing service transactions between two vehicles can be achieved without the direct assistance of any trusted third party as a validating entity. The simulation results and feasibility analysis then validate the performance of the BPT scheme in rural areas. Based on feasibility analysis, we claim that the BPT scheme can be realized by adjusting vehicle speed and transmission range with respect to the size of offloaded data.
Jianfeng Ma, Tao Li, Jie Cui, Zuobin Ying · 5 authors
Vehicles gather data collected by sensor nodes, combined with messages obtained from the other nodes in vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs), to achieve safe driving. An announcement type of message is sent in the VANET; it is collected by mobile vehicles, uploaded to a cloud server for storage, and provided to other vehicles for reference. However, in an open cloud environment, plaintext data are vulnerable to unauthorized access and even malicious tampering. To solve this issue, we propose an attribute-based encryption algorithm using blockchain, which is maintained by a roadside unit (RSU). The uploader's symmetric key is recorded on the blockchain, and all uploaded and accessed transactions are recorded for auditing. Our scheme can achieve the function of securely accessing different types of announcement messages according to different vehicle attributes. Security analysis and experimental results indicate that our scheme has achieved a balance between security and efficiency.
Existing trust mechanisms in vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs) suffer from a variety of vulnerabilities, such as trust inconsistency in different regions and fake trust values generated by a set of cooperating malicious nodes. In this paper, we propose a novel local trust management mechanism, ATM, to solve these problems. ATM employs active detection and blockchain techniques. Specifically, the active detection effectively filters the surrounding malicious nodes and prevents their active cooperation, while the blockchain ensures the consistency of trust data across different regions. We conduct numerical analysis to evaluate the performance of ATM. Our experiment results show that ATM performs the best among the three trust mechanisms under test. It can effectively identify malicious behaviors in terms of 95% detection accuracy and 90% deliver ratio, respectively.
An energy-trading system is essential for the successful integration of Electric vehicles (EVs) into the smart grid. Existing systems merely focus on making optimal decisions while others depend on anonymization to achieve EVs drivers' privacy which is not enough because they can be identified from visited locations. In this paper, leveraging blockchain technology, we propose a privacy-preserving charging-station-to-vehicle (CS2V) energy trading scheme. To preserve privacy, EVs are anonymous, however, a malicious EV may abuse the anonymity to launch Sybil attacks by pretending as multiple non-exiting EVs to launch powerful attacks such as Denial of Service (DoS) by submitting multiple reservations/offers without committing to them, to prevent other EVs from charging and make the trading system unreliable. To thwart the Sybil attacks, we use a common prefix linkable anonymous authentication scheme, so that if an EV submits multiple reservations/offers at the same timeslot, the blockchain can identify such submissions. To further protect the privacy of EV drivers, we introduce an anonymous and efficient blockchain-based payment system that cannot link individual drivers to specific charging locations. Our experimental results indicate that our schemes are secure and privacy-preserving with low communication and computation overheads.
Vehicular social networks (VSNs) are the vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs) that integrate social networks. Compared with traditional VANETs, VSNs are more suitable to serve a group of vehicles with common interests. In VSNs, vehicles can upload the necessary data in the cloud service provider (CSP) and other vehicles can query the data they are interested in through CSP, which enables VSNs to provide more user-friendly services. However, due to the wireless network communication environment, the data sent by the vehicle can easily be monitored. Adversaries are able to violate the privacy of the vehicle based on the collected data, thereby threatening the security of the entire network. In addition, if a vehicle shares malicious or false data with other vehicles, it is easy to mislead drivers and even cause serious traffic accidents. This paper proposes an effective data sharing scheme based on blockchain in VSNs. By integrating an identity based signature mechanism and pseudonym generation mechanism, we first propose an anonymous authentication mechanism as the basis for establishing trust relationships before data transmission between entities in VSNs. Then, a data sharing scheme based on blockchain is described, in which the signature mechanism and the consensus mechanism guarantee the security and traceability of data. The result of the performance analysis and the simulation experiment indicate that VAB can achieve a favourable performance compared with existing schemes.
A. F. M. Suaib Akhter, Mohiuddin Ahmed, A. F. M. Shahen Shah, Adnan Anwar · 5 authors
Existing research shows that Cluster-based Medium Access Control (CB-MAC) protocols perform well in controlling and managing Vehicular Ad hoc Network (VANET), but requires ensuring improved security and privacy preserving authentication mechanism. To this end, we propose a multi-level blockchain-based privacy-preserving authentication protocol. The paper thoroughly explains the formation of the authentication centers, vehicles registration, and key generation processes. In the proposed architecture, a global authentication center (GAC) is responsible for storing all vehicle information, while Local Authentication Center (LAC) maintains a blockchain to enable quick handover between internal clusters of vehicle. We also propose a modified control packet format of IEEE 802.11 standards to remove the shortcomings of the traditional MAC protocols. Moreover, cluster formation, membership and cluster-head selection, and merging and leaving processes are implemented while considering the safety and non-safety message transmission to increase the performance. All blockchain communication is performed using high speed 5G internet while encrypted information is transmitted while using the RSA-1024 digital signature algorithm for improved security, integrity, and confidentiality. Our proof-of-concept implements the authentication schema while considering multiple virtual machines. With detailed experiments, we show that the proposed method is more efficient in terms of time and storage when compared to the existing methods. Besides, numerical analysis shows that the proposed transmission protocols outperform traditional MAC and benchmark methods in terms of throughput, delay, and packet dropping rate.
The conventional architecture of vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs) with a centralized approach has difficulty overcoming the increasing complexity of intelligent transportation system (ITS) applications as well as challenges in providing large amounts of data storage, trust management, and information security. Therefore, vehicular edge computing networks (VECNets) have emerged to provide massive storage resources with powerful computing on network edges. However, a centralized server in VECNets is insufficient due to potential data leakage and security risks as it can still allow a single point of failure (SPoF). We propose consortium blockchain and smart contracts to ensure a trustworthy environment for secure data storage and sharing in the system to address these challenges. Practical byzantine fault tolerance (PBFT) is utilized because it is suitable for consortium blockchain to audit publicly, store data sharing, and records the whole consensus process. It can defend against system failures with or without symptoms to reach an agreement among consensus participants. Furthermore, we use an incentive mechanism to motivate the vehicle to contribute and honestly share their data. The simulation results satisfy the proposed model’s design goals by increasing vehicular networks’ performance in general.
Maroua Abdelhafidh, Nadia Charef, Adel Ben Mnaouer, Lamia Chaari Fourati
Recently, the internet of things (IoT) has gained popularity as an enabling technology for wireless connectivity of mobile and/or stationary devices providing useful services for the general public in a collaborative manner. Mobile ad-hoc networks (MANETs) are regarded as a legacy enabling technology for various IoT applications. Vehicular ad-hoc networks (VANETs) and flying ad-hoc networks (FANETs) are specific extensions of MANETs that are drivers of IoT applications. However, IoT is prone to diverse attacks, being branded as the weakest link in the networking chain requiring effective solutions for achieving an acceptable level of security. Blockchain (BC) technology has been identified as an efficient method to remedy IoT security concerns. Therefore, this chapter classifies the attacks targeting IoT, VANETs, and FANETs systems based on their vulnerabilities. This chapter explores a selection of blockchain-based solutions for securing IoT, VANETs, and FANETs and presents open research directions compiled out of the presented solutions as useful guidelines for the readers.
During this last decade, the blockchain (BC) paradigm has been required in several use cases and scenarios in particular for security, privacy, and trust provisioning. Accordingly, several studies proposed the use of BC technology to secure and to assure the trustworthiness of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). In this context, this chapter highlights several applications and scenarios for the deployment of UAVs within diverse smart systems. In addition, it illustrates the advantages of the integration of the BC within UAVs-based smart systems. This integration reveals new challenges and future research directions that are discussed in this chapter.
Sumaira Johar, N. Ahmad, Asfandyar Durrani, G. Ali
Intelligent Transportation Systems is the future for safe and secure transportation. Vehicles in the ITS share basic safety information which can prompt the disclosure of the real identity of the vehicles. Thus, adversaries can misuse these safety messages. Pseudonyms are alias granted to vehicles by trusted authorities to conceal their original identities. To avoid linkability, various pseudonym generation and distribution protocols have been proposed. Such protocols pose overheads in the system as they are performed by Central Authorities. Therefore, re-utilizing the existing pseudonyms through shuffling is the most optimal mechanism for ITS. The Blockchain is a digital ledger and tamper-resistant record of transactions. It eliminates the need of central authority as well as provides anonymity of transactions resulting in more secure and privacy protected solution. To handle distribution optimization issue in the pseudonym shuffling process without a central authority, the blockchain is used with its distributed consensus. The shuffling results are logged in blocks as transactions. Pseudonym shuffle randomness is achieved via blockchain and it provides robustness in the structure. When one system fails, the rest would continue to work. The method also provide fully traceable record in case of certification revocation. The existing blockchain-based pseudonym shuffling mechanism uses traditional consensus algorithms to support the cryptography operation. This leads to overhead in terms of execution time and memory usage. This research proposes Proof of Pseudonym consensus protocol for the shuffling scheme to improve the efficiency of consensus as compared to Proof of Work, Proof of Kernel Work and, Proof of Elapsed Time in terms of time and memory. The execution time of Proof of Pseudonym is shorter than other algorithms. The security and privacy analysis revealed that our scheme achieves identity privacy, unlinkability, and non-repudiation properties. Threat analysis evaluates the proposed protocol in terms of both internal and external attacks.
This paper presents the first, novel, dynamic, resilient, and consistent Blockchain COngestion ContrOL (BCOOL) system for vehicular networks that fills the gap of trustworthy Blockchain congestion prediction systems. BCOOL relies on the heterogeneity of Machine Learning, Software-Defined Networks and Network Function Virtualization that is customized in three hybrid cloud/edge-based On/Offchain smart contract modules and ruled by an efficient and reliable communication protocol. BCOOL's first novel module aims at managing message and vehicle trustworthiness using a novel, dynamic and hybrid Blockchain Fog-based Distributed Trust Contract Strategy (FDTCS). The second novel module accurately and proactively predicts the occurrence of congestion, ahead of time, using a novel Hybrid On/Off-Chain Multiple Linear Regression Software-defined Contract Strategy (HOMLRCS). This module presents a virtualization facility layer to the third novel K-means/Random Forest-based On/Off-Chain Dynamic Service Function Chaining Contract Strategy (KRF-ODSFCS) that dynamically, securely and proactively predicts VNF placements and their chaining order in the context of SFCs w.r.t users' dynamic QoS priority demands. BCOOL exhibits a linear complexity and a strong resilience to failures. Simulation results show that BCOOL outperforms the next best comparable strategies by 80% and 100% reliability and efficiency gains in challenging data congestion environments. This yields to fast, reliable and accurate congestion prediction decisions, ahead of time, and optimizes transaction validation processing time. Globally, the Byzantine resilience, complexity and attack mitigation strategies along with simulation results prove that BCOOL securely predicts the congestion and provides real-time monitoring, fast and accurate SFC deployment decisions while lowering both capital and operational expenditures (CAPEX/OPEX) costs.
An unmanned aerial vehicle ad hoc network (UAANET) is an information sensing, analyzing, and transmitting network formed by multiple coordinated and collaborating UAVs. It is an emerging networking technology with a broad market prospect, but faces the problems of high dynamic topology and lack of trust. To address these issues, this article proposes a blockchain-em-powered trusted networking framework for UAANET, as well as the corresponding network architecture, protocol stack, key control signaling, and algorithms. To be more specific, blockchain is designed as a layer of distributed peer-to-peer security running on top of the physical UAANET. Three types of control signaling are designed, namely HELLO packet, topology control packet, and consensus packet. A max-min stable routing algorithm with three-dimensional link duration and a multipoint-relay-driven delegated Byzantine fault tolerance consensus mechanism are proposed for trusted networking of UAANET. The involved technical background and challenges are also detailed. These works together provide good references for scale deployment of UAANET in the near future.