Context-based Pseudonym Changing Scheme for Vehicular Adhoc Networks

Vehicular adhoc networks allow vehicles to share their information for safety and traffic efficiency. However, sharing information may threaten the driver privacy because it includes spatiotemporal information and is broadcast publicly and periodically. In this paper, we propose a context-adaptive pseudonym changing scheme which lets a vehicle decide autonomously when to change its pseudonym and how long it should remain silent to ensure unlinkability. This scheme adapts dynamically based on the density of the surrounding traffic and the user privacy preferences. We employ a multi-target tracking algorithm to measure privacy in terms of traceability in realistic vehicle traces. We use Monte Carlo analysis to estimate the quality of service (QoS) of a forward collision warning application when vehicles apply this scheme. According to the experimental results, the proposed scheme provides a better compromise between traceability and QoS than a random silent period scheme.Comment: Extended version of a previous paper "K. Emara, W. Woerndl, and J. Schlichter, "Poster: Context-Adaptive User-Centric Privacy Scheme for VANET," in Proceedings of the 11th EAI International Conference on Security and Privacy in Communication Networks, SecureComm'15. Dallas, TX, USA: Springer, June 2015.

POSTER: Context-adaptive user-centric privacy scheme for VANET

Vehicular adhoc network allows vehicles to exchange their information for safety and traffic efficiency. However, exchanging information may threaten the driver privacy because it includes spatiotemporal information and is broadcast publicly on a periodical basis. In this paper, we propose a context-adaptive privacy scheme which lets a vehicle decide autonomously when to change its pseudonym and how long it should remain silent to ensure unlinkability. This scheme adapts dynamically based on the density of the surrounding traffic and the user privacy preferences. According to the experimental results, the proposed scheme demonstrates a significant reduction in traceability with a better quality of forward collision warning application compared with the random silent period scheme. \textcopyright Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering 2015