A location verification based hybrid routing protocol for VANETs

In this work we investigate, for the first time, the bandwidth cost of a Location Verification System (LVS) on the control overhead of a well-known geographical routing protocol for vehicular networks. In our new system, at the onset of a new connection, all vehicles in the selected route report their locations using the Global Positioning System (GPS) to an LVS which is installed at a base station. The LVS verifies the reported locations and broadcasts the decisions to all vehicles in the transmission range. Via local updating of all routing tables, all vehicles are notified of the decisions. This results in a geographical routing protocol that is significantly more secure compared to one with no LVS in place. Specifically, the likelihood of a malicious vehicle causing significant degradation to the network routing via location spoofing is significantly reduced. We demonstrate that the additional control overhead needed for this more secure routing protocol is manageable, and the protocol remains scalable provided the likelihood of a vehicle being malicious is below a determined value. Our work is of significance in that proves for the first time that advanced location verification techniques can be seamlessly integrated into the hybrid routing protocols embedded in vehicular networks.