B-VANET: A blockchain-based vehicular ad-hoc network for data validation

VANET, a type of MANET allows vehicles to connect and communicate information with their peers. In today’s era, the number of connected vehicles is growing intending to make life easier and more luxurious. However, with the advancements and demand for connected vehicles, there is a necessity to rethink the trustworthiness and safety of the data transmitted by the vehicles. The malicious vehicles may send incorrect information to peer vehicles just for the sake of their benefit. Data validation issues as well as issues like Authentication, Non-repudiation, Integrity, and Reliability related to VANET, are also addressed in this paper using Blockchain technology. B-VANET, a system that is the amalgamation of blockchain with VANET is proposed in this paper. Blockchain a peer-to-peer, decentralized, open distributed ledger technology is applied with VANET to make the network secure. Another major issue is the lack of interest in vehicles to forwarding messages is also addressed in this paper. To resolve this issue, a motivation-demotivation mechanism is embedded which will give incentives to all the involved vehicles in correct message communication and validation. The proposed B-VANET is implemented on the Hyperledger fabric platform and the performance of B-VANET is analyzed using the Hyperledger Caliper tool. B-VANET ensures that the network will not accept the fake messages and will not propagate them further which if propagated will affect the system adversely.