Secure lightweight digital twin (DT) technology for seamless wireless communication in vehicular ad hoc network

Abstract

Security in VANETs (Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks) is crucial due to the inherent vulnerabilities in wireless communication. These networks face several security challenges, including authentication, privacy protection, and secure data transmission. Authentication issues arise from the dynamic nature of vehicular networks, where vehicles need to authenticate each other and entities like roadside units securely. The challenges include GPS spoofing, where attackers manipulate location data to mislead vehicles; Sybil attacks, where a single node illegitimately claims multiple identities to disrupt network operations; and Denial of Service (DoS) attacks, which overwhelm the network, rendering it unavailable for legitimate users. Additionally, key management for secure encryption, replay attacks where previously transmitted messages are maliciously reused, and jamming attacks that disrupt wireless signals are notable threats. To overcome the issue in VANET wireless communication this paper proposed DT-LHBC (Digital Twin Lightweight Hashing Blockchain Cryptography) into VANETs (Vehicular Ad-Hoc Networks) to enhance security and efficiency in vehicular communication systems. DT-LHBC combines advanced cryptographic techniques with digital twin technology to ensure secure data transmission and communication integrity across dynamic vehicular environments. With the implementation of a digital twin technology cryptography model of hashing-based blockchain (LHBC) is integrated to achieve effective wireless communication. Results demonstrate DT-LHBC's effectiveness in mitigating various security threats, including Sybil attacks, Denial of Service (DoS) attacks, and Message Tampering, achieving up to 98 % accuracy in attack detection. Despite challenges in optimizing cryptographic speeds and addressing GPS Spoofing vulnerabilities, DT-LHBC reduces blockchain latency to as low as 12 milliseconds and maintains a high transaction throughput of 500 transactions per second.