LVAP: Lightweight V2I authentication protocol using group communication in VANETs

The authentication protocol is vital for the security of the wireless sensor network to resist the known threats, such as eavesdropping, replay attack, man-in-the-middle attack, etc. In this paper, a lightweight authentication protocol for vehicular ad hoc networks is proposed using the symmetric encryption, the group communication method, and the proactive authentication technique, which not only achieves the desired security goals but also guarantees the practical anonymity and the accountability. The analysis demonstrates that the proposed protocol works properly in the high-density and the low-density traffic environment.