A Blockchain Based Distributed Vehicular Network Architecture for Smart Cities

Abstract

In this paper, we propose a blockchain-based data sharing mechanism for Vehicular Network. We introduce edge service providers placed near to ordinary vehicle nodes to fulfill their requests. Smart vehicles generate a huge amount of data which is stored in the Interplanetary File System (IPFS). IPFS is a distributed file storage system that overcomes the limitations of centralized architecture. Monetary incentive is given to edge vehicle nodes for providing services to ordinary nodes. Ordinary nodes give reviews against services provided by the edge nodes that are stored in a blockchain. A smart contract is used to automate system processes without third party involvement and checking reviews of the edge node. To optimize gas consumption, we used Proof of Authority (PoA) as a consensus mechanism for transaction validation. PoA enhances overall system performance and optimized gas consumption. The caching server is introduced to store frequently used services in memory and provided to ordinary vehicles upon request. Moreover, we have used symmetric key cryptographic mechanism which ensures data security and privacy. A trust management system is proposed, which ensures the reputation of nodes. The trust value is stored in a blockchain, which determines the authenticity of nodes involved in a network. From simulation results, it is shown that our proposed system is efficient for the vehicular network.