LEAPER: A lightweight reliable and faithful data packet relaying framework for VANETs

In vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs), it is vital to ensure reliable and faithful data packet relaying over multiple hops, which is critical to many VANET applications. In this paper, a novel Adaptive Role Playing (ARP) strategy is proposed to enable VANET nodes in each hop to countermeasure the malfunctions and misbehaviors of individual nodes. A lightweight reliable faithful data packet relaying framework (LEAPER) is proposed to implement the ARP strategy in each hop, so that each hop can reliably relay the authentic data packet to the next hop. Hop by hop, LEAPER ensures reliable and faithful data packet relaying from the source to the destination. In each hop the required security strength is configurable, making LEAPER flexible and adaptive to various application scenarios. Theoretical analysis and simulation studies show that LEAPER outperforms existing schemes in ensuring reliable and faithful data packet relaying.