Blockchain-enabled security and privacy for Internet-of-Vehicles

The evolution of Internet-of-Vehicles (IoV) has promised improvement in traffic management and road safety. However, with continuously increasing number of vehicles on road, there are numerous challenges associated with IoV. Communication among vehicles is needed to be secure and bandwidth efficient. Messages exchanged between vehicles must be authentic so as to maintain trust among the network. On the other hand, blockchain is a rapidly emerging technology for various IoT related applications. It ensures security by maintaining transaction history in the form of an encrypted and immutable ledger. Therefore, blockchain-based communications can potentially solve various challenges of IoV. However, there are certain constraints which make the practical implementation of blockchain in IoV difficult. For example, one of the most common consensus algorithms of blockchain, Proof-of-Work, is energy inefficient and time consuming. Various other consensus algorithms have been developed but they compromise security. This chapter conceptualises the implementation of blockchain in IoV, particularly useful in emergency situations, such as accident. We discuss some consensus algorithms of blockchains and their suitability in IoV, ultimately leading to a formation of voting based consensus integrated with a relay selection mechanism. Furthermore, we present an economic model to incentivise vehicles for safe driving and cooperation through blockchain-enabled transaction of rewards. The security capacity of proposed blockchain against collusion of relay nodes is analysed by game theory. Simulation results of the proposed approach demonstrate its efficiency in terms of latency and success rate in message transmission as compared to other blockchain-based solutions for IoV