Navigation Query Security through Privacy Preservation and Cryptography in VANETs

Vehicular Ad hoc Network (VANET) is an autonomous network with dynamic topology where moving vehicles exchange information regarding their position with other vehicles. Depending on the position information of other nodes, nodes can determine their actions like change in route or change in speed and so on. Many navigation methods are provided in order to guide drivers to reach destination. Providing safety to the drivers is a crucial aspect of this paper. In this paper, VANET security is provided by making sure that the nodes are authenticated through a key exchange with server using intermediate road side units (RSU). Instead of sending the complete query at a time, navigation queries are protected by breaking them down into fragments. The identity of the sender is hidden by encrypting it with the symmetric key. The overhead into the communication framework is not added in the system, this can be shown through the simulation results and nodes can manage a good packet delivery ratio with low latency. The system also helps the nodes to maintain their speed by correctly adjusting speed relative to navigation queries.