Providing VANET security through active position detection

Vehicle position is one of the most valuable pieces of information in a Vehicular Ad hoc Network (VANET). The main contribution of this work is a novel approach to enhancing position security in VANETs. We achieve local security by enlisting the help of on-board radar to detect neighboring vehicles and to confirm their announced coordinates. Local security is extended to achieve global security by using preset position-based groups to create a communication network and by using a dynamic challenging mechanism to confirm remote position information. Our solution is predicated on the widely accepted assumption that the vast majority of vehicles are honest and behave responsibly. Extensive simulations confirm the quality of the proposed solution by measuring how fast compromised vehicles can be detected under various conditions. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.