A Dual Approach for Preventing Blackhole Attacks in Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks Using Statistical Techniques and Supervised Machine Learning

Abstract

Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks (VANETs) have the potential to improve road safety and reduce traffic congestion by enhancing sharing of messages about road conditions. Communication in VANETs depends upon a Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) that checks for message confidentiality, integrity, and authentication. One challenge that the PKI infrastructure does not eliminate is the possibility of malicious vehicles mounting a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack. We present a scheme that combines statistical modeling and machine learning techniques to detect and prevent blackhole attacks in a VANET environment.Simulation results demonstrate that on average, our model produces an Area Under The Curve (ROC) and Receiver Operating Characteristics (AUC) score of 96.78% which is much higher than a no skill ROC AUC score and only 3.22% away from an ideal ROC AUC score. Considering all the performance metrics, we show that the Support Vector Machine (SVM) and Gradient Boosting classifier are more accurate and perform consistently better under various circumstances. Both have an accuracy of over 98%, F1-scores of over 95%, and ROC AUC scores of over 97%. Our scheme is robust and accurate as evidenced by its ability to identify and prevent blackhole attacks. Moreover, the scheme is scalable in that addition of vehicles to the network does not compromise its accuracy and robustness.