A byzantine-tolerant distributed consensus algorithm for connected vehicles using proof-of-eligibility

Abstract

Emerging applications in connected vehicles have tremendous potential for advances in safety, navigation, traffic management and fuel efficiency, while also posing new security challenges such as false information attacks. This paper targets the problem of securing critical information that is disseminated among nearby vehicles for safety and traffic efficiency purposes through distributed consensus. We present a consensus algorithm, which uses a "proof of eligibility" test to establish that a group of vehicles are actually within the vicinity of the information source. With the presence of a limited number of compromised (Byzantine faulty) participants, our algorithm provides correct consensus among healthy vehicles in real time. The algorithm provides fast and reliable consensus group formation and private key distribution without privileged members, trusted setup, or leader election. In addition to proving a safety property of our consensus algorithm, we have implemented it on top of a widely-used vehicle simulation environment (SUMO, OMNeT++ and Veins) and evaluated its performance on a model of the streets in a real midtown area. Simulation results demonstrate that the algorithm can reach consensus very efficiently (within 9.5s) and with up to 30% of compromised vehicles in a given area. The simulations also demonstrate the ability of our algorithm to more quickly disseminate information about a traffic accident and more efficiently route traffic around the accident site, as compared to previous robust information dissemination approaches.