A Multidimensional Trust Model for Vehicular Ad-Hoc Networks

In this paper, we propose a multidimensional trust model for vehicular networks. Our model evaluates the trustworthiness of each vehicle using two main modes: 1) Direct Trust Computation DTC related to a direct connection between source and target nodes, 2) Indirect Trust Computation ITC related to indirectly communication between source and target nodes. The principal characteristics of this model are flexibility and high fault tolerance, thanks to an automatic trust scores assessment. In our extensive simulations, we use Total Cost Rate to affirm the performance of the proposed trust model.

Introduction

Vehicular communication technology provides two types of communications: 1) Vehicle to Vehicle (V2V) to offer a secure network and safe exchange of information between nodes (i.e., vehicles), and 2) Vehicle to Infrastructure (V2I) in which vehicles exchange messages with road infrastructures [1], [2]. As illustrated in Fig. 1, the main two components of the vehicular network are On-Board Units (OBUs) and Road Side Units (RSUs) [3], which are deployed along the road. The main purpose of vehicular technology is to prevent accidents, improve traffic control systems and enable safer driving [4]. However, the vehicular network is prone to critical risks, threats, and attacks due to its unique characteristics and dynamic topology.