SHA-3 Algorithm-based Authentication Scheme for Vehicular Ad-hoc Networks

Abstract

Vehicular Ad-hoc Networks (VANETs) are a subset of Mobile Ad-hoc Networks (MANETs), specifically designed for interconnection among vehicles and between vehicles and Road-Side-Units (RSU), in order to ensure efficient and secure transportation. Authentication is the process of identifying nodes or verifying messages and is of utmost importance in VANETs. Expedite Message Authentication Protocol (EMAP) is a notable authentication protocol specifically designed for VANETs which exploits the hash-based message authentication (HMAC) instead of certificate verification to minimize message loss-ratio and delay. On the downside, to generate the hash code, the EMAP uses Secure Hash Algorithm (SHA-1) which is an outdated algorithm susceptible to collision attack. Contrary to it, SHA-3 is a new hash standard that was not derived from the SHA family. Although the SHA-3 scheme is superior and different in structure from the previous family of standards, the feasibility analysis of SHA-3 scheme in VANETs is an open research problem. This paper presents the results of implementation of HMAC with SHA-3 algorithm in VANETs for authentication and analyzes its impact on Quality of Service (QoS) parameters of VANETs such as Packet Delivery Ratio (PDR), delay and throughput and compares these results against SHA-1 and SHA-2 algorithms. The simulations are carried out using the Network Simulator (NS3). Our results show that SHA-3 based algorithm provides improvement in PDR and end-to-end delay and is a viable choice for authentication in VANETs for providing superior security.