Distributed Trust Based Authentication Scheme in a Clustered Environment Using Threshold Cryptography for Vehicular Ad Hoc Network

2. Literature Review

VANETs aim at enhancing safety and efficiency in transportation systems. They comprise network nodes, that is, vehicles and Road side Infrastructure Units RSU), equipped with on-board sensory, processing, and wireless communication modules. Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) and Vehicle-to-Infrastructure (V2I) communication can enable a range of applications. Among these, primarily safety will be enabled, as numerous research and development initiatives indicate, by vehicles frequently beaconing their position, along with warnings on their condition or environment. Nonetheless, VANETs can be vulnerable to attacks and jeopardize user’s privacy. For example, an attacker could inject beacons with false information, or collect vehicle’s messages, track their locations, and infer sensitive user data. To thwart such attacks, security and privacy enhancing mechanisms are necessary or, in fact, a prerequisite for deployment.