Efficient distributed group authentication protocol for vehicular ad hoc network

Abstract

Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) has evolved to support Vehicular Ad Hoc Network (VANET) for communicating road safety messages while driving on the road. However, VANET faces the vital security challenges such as key and certificate management and privacy preservation when scalability and mobility become the essential part of this network. Privacy service prevents the original identification of the vehicle to be used by other vehicles from tracing. In this paper, a distributed authentication protocol called as Efficient distributed Group Authentication (E-GAP) is proposed to resolve the most conflicting security requirements in authentication and conditional privacy. The group signature and batch verification schemes proposed in the E-GAP protocol aim to control the overall message delay during authentication process. Session based pseudonym strengthens further the privacy preservation process that is decided on the anonymous communication between vehicles. Trusted Authority is capable of tracing both benign and malign vehicles using the conditional privacy feature of the protocol. © 2011 Springer-Verlag.