A Novel Blockchain-Based Trust Management Scheme for Vehicular Networks

Recent advancements in embedded sensing system, wireless communication technologies, big data, and artificial intelligence have fueled the development of Internet of Vehicles (IoV), where vehicles, road side unit (RSUs), and smart devices seamlessly interact with each other to enable the gathering and sharing of information on vehicles, roads, and their surrounds. As a fundamental component of IoV, vehicular networks (VANETs) are playing a critical role in processing, computing, and sharing travel-related information, which can help vehicles timely be aware of traffic situation and finally improve road safety and travel experience. However, due to the unique characteristics of vehicles, such as high mobility and sparse deployment making neighbor vehicles unacquainted and unknown to each other, VANETs are facing the challenge of evaluating the credibility of road safety messages. In this paper, we propose a blockchain-based trust management system using multi-criteria decision-making model, also referred to as $Trust_{MCDM}^{Block}$, in VANETs. In the $Trust_{MCDM}^{Block}$, each vehicle evaluates the credibility of received road safety message and generates the trust value of message originator. Due to the limited storage capacity, each vehicle periodically uploads the trust value to a nearby RSU. After receiving various trust values from vehicles, the RSU calculates the reputation value of message originator of road safety message using multi-criteria decision-making model, packs the reputation value into a block, and competes to add the block into blockchain. We evaluate the proposed $Trust_{MCDM}^{Block}$ approach through simulation experiments using OMNeT++ and compare its performance with prior blockchain-based decentralized trust management approach. The simulation results indicate that the proposed $Trust_{MCDM}^{Block}$ approach can not only improve fictitious message detection rate and malicious vehicle detection rate, but also can increase the number of dropped fictitious messages.

I. Introduction

As one of the most important evolution of vehicular networks (VANETs) and Internet of Things (IoT), Internet of Vehicles (IoV) has emerged as a promising technology to address the grand challenges of modern transportation. In the IoV, vehicles, road side units (RSUs), and smart devices smoothly interact with each other through Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) communications to achieve the goals of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITSs), such as improving the safety, efficiency, and sustainability of transportation networks, reducing traffic congestion, and enhancing drivers’ experiences [1]. It is expected that the number of passengers and commercial vehicles used worldwide is about to reach 2 billion by 2035 [2], and there will be 20.8 millions autonomous vehicles in operation in the U.S. by 20230 [3]. Moreover, the McKinsey & Company Global Institute predicts that the potential economic value of IoV will be between 740 billion in the year 2025 [4]. However, IoV is fast becoming a double edged sword: while it is improving our life, it also bring many other problems. The explosive growth in the number of vehicles has potentially caused and even worsened traffic congestion and vehicle accidents on the roads. According to the annual global road crash statistics from Association for Safe International Road Travel [5], nearly 1.25 million people die in road crashes each year, on average 3,287 deaths a day.