ESAP: Efficient and scalable authentication protocol with conditional privacy for secure vehicular communications

Security mechanisms such as authentication, message integrity, and non-repudiation are extremely important features for both vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communications in vehicular ad hoc networks. This paper proposes an Efficient and Scalable Authentication Protocol (ESAP) that provides anonymity and conditional privacy for vehicular ad hoc networks based on the self-generated certificates. The proposed ESAP provides all required security services such as authentication, message integrity, non-repudiation and revoking malicious vehicles in an efficient and scalable manner while supporting user anonymity, location privacy and conditional privacy. Moreover, accuracy of this protocol does not depend on the availability of Road Side Units.