Security Analysis of Merging Control for Connected and Automated Vehicles

Securing traffic flows in internet of vehicles (IoV) environments for connected and automated vehicles (CAVs) is a critical task as it should be done in real-time to allow vehicles’ controllers engagement on time. In this paper, the security of CAV communication at merging points is studied, the insecure vehicle communication is analysed in terms of the possible security threats and consequences, and security goals are then identified to protect the environment. We present a network topology that improves the availability of the system and propose a high-level design of a vehicle authentication protocol based on public key cryptography to authenticate vehicles. Simulation and analysis of the cryptographic functions are done to choose the best fit for vehicle communication, where Rivest-Shamir-Adleman (RSA)-2048 algorithms provide faster and more efficient computations.