A Blockchain-Assisted Trusted Clustering Mechanism for IoT-Enabled Smart Transportation System

Abstract

Vehicular Ad-hoc Network (VANET) is a modern concept of transportation that was formulated by extending Mobile Ad-hoc Networks (MANETs). VANET presents diverse opportunities to modernize transportation to enhance safety, security, and privacy. Direct communication raises various limitations, most importantly, the overhead ratio. The most prominent solution proposed is to divide these nodes into clusters. In this paper, we propose a clustering mechanism that provides security and maintains quality after the cluster formulation based on the pre-defined Quality-of-Service (QoS) parameters. To address potential attacks in the VANET environment, the proposed mechanism uses blockchain to encrypt the trust parameters’ computation. A particular trust degree of a vehicle is evaluated by the base station, encrypted with the blockchain approach, and transmitted toward roadside units (RSUs) for further utilization. The system’s performance is evaluated and compared with the existing approaches. The results show a significant improvement in terms of security and clustering quality.