Secure communication in VANET broadcasting

Broadcasting is a communication mechanism utilized in VANET architecture that facilitates in disseminated of public information to help reduce traffic jams/congestions. The authentic and genuine nature of public information is required to be maintained to avoid broadcasting of false information causing mass panic and hysteria. Therefore, it is of utmost importance to secure the broadcasting information so that an intruder is unable to alter any information without compromising public nature of the information. In this paper, we have proposed a secure broadcasting architecture consisting of different layers stacked together in different formation according to operating modes. A real-time simulation model is developed in Python, while simulations are run on a supercomputer for the purpose of gathering results for highway environments. We compare the results of the proposed secure highway architecture with unsecure architecture. Overall, the results show delayed propagation time due to the availability of multiple information packets as well as prioritization of these information packets. However, there was no significant difference in retransmission of different information packets when compared with either different broadcasting probability or unsecure highway scenario, which indicates an effective as well as efficient, secure broadcasting architecture.