Systematic Study of VANET

Abstract

From the past decade, vehicular ad hoc network (VANET) is turning up as a promising field for academic researchers and the automotive industry. Nowadays, intelligent transportation system (ITS) is one of the most emerging application areas of VANETs. According to a survey by the World Health Organization (WHO), nearly 1.35 million individuals die every single year in road accidents. VANET can be a good prospective for the improvement in traffic safety, efficiency of roadside traffic and effortless performance. Moreover, various services such as infotainment services and billing services for toll can be provided to both driver and passenger of the vehicle. VANET, the special category of mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs), is a network in which nearby vehicles can converse with each other or can converse with nearby stationary equipment placed on the road to make use of dedicated short-range communication (DSRC) protocol. VANETs are themselves susceptible to attacks, which causes the security breach in it and results in loss of time, money, efforts and even lives. The implementation of a comprehensive, secure and robust VANET system is a challenging and time-consuming activity and requires a prodigious effort. This chapter systematically reviews research on VANET. First, VANET and its application areas are discussed. Subsequently, the layered architecture of VANET and challenges in VANET are explored. Afterward, the key issues in VANET, i.e., security and privacy, are explored. The security is a vital parameter of VANET and deals with various issues associated with threats and attacks. In VANET, authentication is the most crucial security service. Later, authentication is classified based on cryptography, signature and verification. Finally, various research areas in VANETs are explored. The main objective of this chapter is to discuss various challenges related to VANETs, especially security and authentication to overcome from the misuse of private data along with the necessary suggestions to improve the existing architecture.