An identity-based authentication scheme for safety messages in WAVE-enabled VANETs

In a Vehicular Ad hoc Network (VANET), a road-side infrastructure, or RSU is anticipated to be installed at some road-side location. This exposes the VANET to several different adversaries. In this paper, we present an authentication scheme for infrastructure generated safety messages using an identity-based proxy signature and verification mechanism. An identity-based technique offers a certificate-less public key verification, while a proxy signature provides flexibility in message authentication and trust management. We incorporate an identity-based proxy signature framework with the standard ECDSA for safety application messages from RSU. We also provide forwarding of safety message components ensuring the accountable authentication of RSU’s application messages. Security analysis and network simulation prove that our scheme is resilient to all major security threats, compatible to standards, and efficient in terms of computation complexity. We also conduct simulation experiments to determine the most suitable access classes for OBU and RSU.