An Efficient Pseudonym Change Protocol Based on Trusted Neighbours for Privacy and Anonymity in VANETs

Abstract

In vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs), regular changes in private communication pseudonyms are important to avoid illegal tracking of vehicles and to ensure their anonymity. In this paper, we propose a pseudonym change protocol based on the detection of trusted neighbors. In the absence of the latter, we opted for the attribution of a lifetime to pseudonyms. This protocol triggers the pseudonym change in several vehicles at the same time, a solution that improves vehicles anonymity. In this paper, we evaluate the performance of our protocol and compare our work to that based on a triggering system that changes pseudonyms with individual behavior after a limited lifetime.