Cyber security standards and issues in V2X communications for Internet of Vehicles

Significant developments have taken place over the past few years in the area of vehicular communication systems in the ITS environment. It is vital that, in these environments, security is considered in design and implementation since compromised vulnerabilities in one vehicle can be propagated to other vehicles, especially given that V2X communication is through an ad-hoc type network. Recently, many standardisation organisations have been working on creating international standards related to vehicular communication security and the so-called Internet of Vehicles (IoV). This paper presents a discussion of current V2X communications cyber security issues and standardisation approaches being considered by standardisation bodies such as the ISO, the ITU, the IEEE, and the ETSI

Smart Vehicles, Technologies and Main Applications in Vehicular Ad hoc Networks

Vehicular Ad hoc NETworks (VANETs) belong to a subcategory of traditional Mobile Ad hoc NETworks (MANETs). The main feature of VANETs is that mobile nodes are vehicles endowed with sophisticated “on-board” equipments, traveling on constrained paths (i.e., roads and lanes), and communicating each other for message exchange via Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) communication protocols, as well as between vehicles and fixed road-side Access Points (i.e., wireless and cellular network infrastructure), in case of Vehicle-to-Infrastructure (V2I) communications. In this chapter we will introduce the state-of-the-art of recent technologies used in vehicular networks, specifically for smart vehicles, which require novel functionalities such as data communications, accurate positioning, control and decision monitoring

Enhancing infotainment applications quality of service in vehicular ad hoc networks

Les réseaux ad hoc de véhicules accueillent une multitude d’applications intéressantes. Parmi celles-ci, les applications d’info-divertissement visent à améliorer l’expérience des passagers. Ces applications ont des exigences rigides en termes de délai de livraison et de débit. De nombreuses approches ont été proposées pour assurer la qualité du service des dites applications. Elles sont réparties en deux couches : réseau et contrôle d’accès. Toutefois, ces méthodes présentent plusieurs lacunes. Cette thèse a trois volets. Le premier aborde la question du routage dans le milieu urbain. A cet égard, un nouveau protocole, appelé SCRP, a été proposé. Il exploite l’information sur la circulation des véhicules en temps réel pour créer des épines dorsales sur les routes et les connecter aux intersections à l’aide des nœuds de pont. Ces derniers collectent des informations concernant la connectivité et le délai, utilisées pour choisir les chemins de routage ayant un délai de bout-en-bout faible. Le deuxième s’attaque au problème d’affectation des canaux de services afin d’augmenter le débit. A cet effet, un nouveau mécanisme, appelé ASSCH, a été conçu. ASSCH collecte des informations sur les canaux en temps réel et les donne à un modèle stochastique afin de prédire leurs états dans l’avenir. Les canaux les moins encombrés sont sélectionnés pour être utilisés. Le dernier volet vise à proposer un modèle analytique pour examiner la performance du mécanisme EDCA de la norme IEEE 802.11p. Ce modèle tient en compte plusieurs facteurs, dont l’opportunité de transmission, non exploitée dans IEEE 802.11p.The fact that vehicular ad hoc network accommodates two types of communications, Vehicle-to-Vehicle and Vehicle-to-Infrastructure, has opened the door for a plethora of interesting applications to thrive. Some of these applications, known as infotainment applications, focus on enhancing the passengers' experience. They have rigid requirements in terms of delivery delay and throughput. Numerous approaches have been proposed, at medium access control and routing layers, to enhance the quality of service of such applications. However, existing schemes have several shortcomings. Subsequently, the design of new and efficient approaches is vital for the proper functioning of infotainment applications. This work proposes three schemes. The first is a novel routing protocol, labeled SCRP. It leverages real-time vehicular traffic information to create backbones over road segments and connect them at intersections using bridge nodes. These nodes are responsible for collecting connectivity and delay information, which are used to select routing paths with low end-to-end delay. The second is an altruistic service channel selection scheme, labeled ASSCH. It first collects real-time service channels information and feeds it to a stochastic model that predicts the state of these channels in the near future. The least congested channels are then selected to be used. The third is an analytical model for the performance of the IEEE 802.11p Enhanced Distributed Channel Access mechanism that considers various factors, including the transmission opportunity (TXOP), unexploited by IEEE 802.11p

Design and Numerical Implementation of V2X Control Architecture for Autonomous Driving Vehicles

This paper is concerned with designing and numerically implementing a V2X (Vehicle-to-Vehicle and Vehicle-to-Infrastructure) control system architecture for a platoon of autonomous vehicles. The V2X control architecture integrates the well-known Intelligent Driver Model (IDM) for a platoon of Autonomous Driving Vehicles (ADVs) with Vehicle-to-Infrastructure (V2I) Communication. The main aim is to address practical implementation issues of such a system as well as the safety and security concerns for traffic environments. To this end, we first investigated a channel estimation model for V2I communication. We employed the IEEE 802.11p vehicular standard and calculated path loss, Packet Error Rate (PER), Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR), and throughput between transmitter and receiver end. Next, we carried out several case studies to evaluate the performance of the proposed control system with respect to its response to: (i) the communication infrastructure; (ii) its sensitivity to an emergency, inter-vehicular gap, and significant perturbation; and (iii) its performance under the loss of communication and changing driving environment. Simulation results show the effectiveness of the proposed control model. The model is collision-free for an infinite length of platoon string on a single lane road-driving environment. It also shows that it can work during a lack of communication, where the platoon vehicles can make their decision with the help of their own sensors. V2X Enabled Intelligent Driver Model (VX-IDM) performance is assessed and compared with the state-of-the-art models considering standard parameter settings and metrics

Controlo de acesso ao meio em comunicações veiculares de tempo-real

Despite several preventive measures, the number of roadway accidents is still very high, being considered even a problem of public health by some entities. This thesis has as global purpose of contributing to the reduction of that number of accidents, and consequent fatalities, by using safety-related applications that use communication among vehicles. In particular, the primary goal is guaranteeing that communication between users in vehicular environments is done with appropriate time bounds to transfer safety-critical information. In detail, it is studied how to manage the scheduling of message’s transmissions (medium access control - MAC), in order to define precisely who will communicate and when is the appropriate instant. The preferable situation where a communication infrastructure is present with full coverage (RSUs) is also studied, from which medium access control is defined precisely, and vehicles (OBUs) become aware of medium utilization. Also, sporadic situations (e.g., absence of RSUs) are studied in which the communication network is “ad hoc” and solely formed by the current vehicles. It is used the recently WAVE / IEEE 802.11p standard, specific for vehicular communications, and it is proposed a TDMA based solution, with appropriate coordination between RSUs in order to effectively disseminate a critical safety event. It is taken into account two different ways of choosing the instant for the initial broadcast, and both cases are compared. In case there is no infrastructure available, methods are derived to minimize communication medium access collisions, and to maximize the available bandwidth. The results reflect the total end-to-end delay, and show that adequate times are attained, and meet with the requisites for the type of applications being considered. Also, enhancements are obtained when using the alternate choice for the initial broadcast instant.Apesar de diversas medidas preventivas, o número de acidentes rodoviários continua a ser muito elevado, sendo mesmo considerado uma questão de saúde pública por algumas entidades. Esta tese tem como objetivo geral contribuir para a redução desse número de acidentes, e consequentes fatalidades, através da utilização de aplicações de segurança que envolvem comunicação entre veículos. Em particular, o objetivo principal é garantir que a comunicação entre utentes, em ambientes veiculares, seja efetuada com limites temporais apropriados à transferência de informações críticas. De forma mais detalhada, é estudada a gestão do escalonamento das transmissões (controlo de acesso ao meio – MAC) que irá definir quem vai comunicar e quando o pode fazer. São estudadas situações (desejadas) onde há uma infra-estrutura de comunicações com cobertura integral (RSUs), a partir da qual se faz a coordenação do acesso ao meio pelos veículos (OBUs), e situações (esporádicas, por ausência de RSU) em que a rede de comunicação é “ad hoc” e apenas constituída pelos veículos presentes. Utiliza-se a recente norma WAVE / IEEE 802.11p, específica para comunicações veiculares, e propõe-se uma solução baseada em TDMA, com coordenação apropriada entre RSUs para disseminação efetiva de um evento crítico de segurança. A escolha do instante para o broadcast inicial do evento de segurança também é tida em conta, e são comparados dois casos distintos. No caso da ausência de infraestrutura, derivam-se métodos para minimizar colisões no acesso ao meio de comunicação, e maximizar a largura de banda disponível. Os resultados refletem o atraso total end-to-end, mostrando tempos apropriados para os requisitos das aplicações em causa, e evidenciando melhorias aquando da escolha alternativa para o instante do broadcast inicial.Programa Doutoral em Engenharia Eletrotécnic

Time- and Frequency-Varying KK-Factor of Non-Stationary Vehicular Channels for Safety Relevant Scenarios

Vehicular communication channels are characterized by a non-stationary time- and frequency-selective fading process due to fast changes in the environment. We characterize the distribution of the envelope of the first delay bin in vehicle-to-vehicle channels by means of its Rician $K$-factor. We analyze the time-frequency variability of this channel parameter using vehicular channel measurements at 5.6 GHz with a bandwidth of 240 MHz for safety-relevant scenarios in intelligent transportation systems (ITS). This data enables a frequency-variability analysis from an IEEE 802.11p system point of view, which uses 10 MHz channels. We show that the small-scale fading of the envelope of the first delay bin is Ricean distributed with a varying $K$-factor. The later delay bins are Rayleigh distributed. We demonstrate that the $K$-factor cannot be assumed to be constant in time and frequency. The causes of these variations are the frequency-varying antenna radiation patterns as well as the time-varying number of active scatterers, and the effects of vegetation. We also present a simple but accurate bi-modal Gaussian mixture model, that allows to capture the $K$-factor variability in time for safety-relevant ITS scenarios.Comment: 26 pages, 12 figures, submitted to IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems for possible publicatio

A comprehensive survey of V2X cybersecurity mechanisms and future research paths

Recent advancements in vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication have notably improved existing transport systems by enabling increased connectivity and driving autonomy levels. The remarkable benefits of V2X connectivity come inadvertently with challenges which involve security vulnerabilities and breaches. Addressing security concerns is essential for seamless and safe operation of mission-critical V2X use cases. This paper surveys current literature on V2X security and provides a systematic and comprehensive review of the most relevant security enhancements to date. An in-depth classification of V2X attacks is first performed according to key security and privacy requirements. Our methodology resumes with a taxonomy of security mechanisms based on their proactive/reactive defensive approach, which helps identify strengths and limitations of state-of-the-art countermeasures for V2X attacks. In addition, this paper delves into the potential of emerging security approaches leveraging artificial intelligence tools to meet security objectives. Promising data-driven solutions tailored to tackle security, privacy and trust issues are thoroughly discussed along with new threat vectors introduced inevitably by these enablers. The lessons learned from the detailed review of existing works are also compiled and highlighted. We conclude this survey with a structured synthesis of open challenges and future research directions to foster contributions in this prominent field.This work is supported by the H2020-INSPIRE-5Gplus project (under Grant agreement No. 871808), the ”Ministerio de Asuntos Económicos y Transformacion Digital” and the European Union-NextGenerationEU in the frameworks of the ”Plan de Recuperación, Transformación y Resiliencia” and of the ”Mecanismo de Recuperación y Resiliencia” under references TSI-063000-2021-39/40/41, and the CHIST-ERA-17-BDSI-003 FIREMAN project funded by the Spanish National Foundation (Grant PCI2019-103780).Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version