Urban pseudonym changing strategy for location privacy in VANETs. (2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Boualouache, Abdelwahab; Moussaoui, Samira
• Is Part Of: International journal of ad hoc and ubiquitous computing. Volume 24:Number 1/2(2017)
• Page Start: 49
• Page End: 64
• Publication Date: 2017
• Subjects: VANETs -- vehicular ad hoc networks -- location privacy -- network security -- pseudonym changing -- pseudonym exchanging -- PKI -- public key infrastructure -- urban pseudonyms -- privacy preservation -- privacy protection -- cities -- vehicular communications; Ubiquitous computing -- Periodicals; Embedded computer systems -- Periodicals; Electronic data processing -- Distributed processing -- Periodicals; Wireless communication systems -- Periodicals; Computer architecture -- Periodicals; 004.2
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1743-8225

Abstract

The development of an effective pseudonym changing strategy to protect the location privacy of the vehicular adhoc network's (VANET's) users is still an open problem in the literature. In this paper, we first propose a comparison between the existing pseudonym changing strategies. This comparison is based on their effectiveness to prevent the pseudonyms linking attacks and based on the costs involved in changing a pseudonym. We also propose a new pseudonym changing strategy adapted for the urban environment, called urban pseudonym changing strategy (UPCS). UPCS is based on the construction of silent mix zones (SMs) at signalised intersections. UPCS can be configured to use either pseudonyms changing technique or pseudonyms exchanging technique inside these SMs. The analyses show a good level of prevention against the pseudonyms linking attacks. The performances are evaluated in various vehicular scenarios. The obtained results show high levels of location privacy protection can be achieved using UPCS with pseudonyms changing configuration.