A Security Protocol for Vehicular Distributed Systems

Vehicular Ad-Hoc Networks (VANETs) have the potential to optimize traffic in modern urban areas, reduce congestions and pollution, and increase passenger safety and comfort. Applications designed for such networks pose new security constraints. The mobile devices have limited resources to spare, and the network connectivity is reduced because of the mobility of cars. We present a security protocol designed for VANET environments. It guarantees the content of messages against possible attackers. Because privacy of the passengers must be preserved in VANET, the security protocol is designed not to rely on the drivers' identity. The protocol also proves the time and location when a message was sent. We present evaluation results demonstrating that the protocol is able to correctly handle different security threats.