The rapid development of intelligent transportation systems and connected
vehicles has highlighted the need for secure and efficient key management
systems (KMS). In this paper, we introduce VDKMS (Vehicular Decentralized Key
Management System), a novel Decentralized Key Management System designed
specifically as an infrastructure for Cellular Vehicular-to-Everything (V2X)
networks, utilizing a blockchain-based approach. The proposed VDKMS addresses
the challenges of secure communication, privacy preservation, and efficient key
management in V2X scenarios. It integrates blockchain technology,
Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI) principles, and Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs)
to enable secure and trustworthy V2X applications among vehicles,
infrastructures, and networks. We first provide a comprehensive overview of the
system architecture, components, protocols, and workflows, covering aspects
such as provisioning, registration, verification, and authorization. We then
present a detailed performance evaluation, discussing the security properties
and compatibility of the proposed solution, as well as a security analysis.
Finally, we present potential applications in the vehicular ecosystem that can
leverage the advantages of our approach.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figures, accepted by IEEE Globecom 202