A Secure VANET MAC Protocol for DSRC Applications

Vehicular ad hoc networking is an important component of Intelligent Transportation Systems. The main benefit of vehicular ad hoc network (VANET) communication is seen in active safety systems that increase passenger safety by exchanging warning messages between vehicles. Other applications and private services are also permitted in order to lower the cost and to encourage VANET deployment and adoption. Dedicated Short Range Communications (DSRC) is a key enabling technology for VANET applications and services. There are many challenges that must be addressed before VANETs can be successfully deployed. Among these challenges is designing of security mechanisms to secure VANETs against abuse, and designing of efficient medium access control (MAC) protocols so that safety related and other application messages can be timely and reliably disseminated through VANETs. In this paper we propose a secure MAC protocol for VANETs, with different message priorities for different types of applications to access DSRC channels. Our simulations and analysis show that the proposed MAC protocol can provide secure communications while guarantee the reliability and latency requirements of safety related DSRC applications for VANETs.