Improved Key Based Security Framework for Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks

Abstract

Vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs) are a subgroup of mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) with the distinguishing property that the nodes are vehicles like cars, trucks, buses and motorcycles. This implies that node movement is restricted by factors like road course, encompassing traffic and traffic regulations. Nodes are expected to communicate by means of North American DSRC standard that employs the IEEE 802.11p standard for wireless communication. To allow communication with participants out of radio range, messages have to be forwarded by other nodes (multi-hop communication).A web based secure registration process that allows a user to create an account with RSUs. During the registration, users provide all required information that enables them to have the benefit of secure connectivity starting from the first packet that they send to the RSUs. We propose a novel cryptographic function that enables users and RSUs to apply the required security level of exchanged messages by adjusting the number of iterations of the function. We derive a set of encryption keys that are used to encrypt the next packet from part of the data in the current packet.