An efficient geographic location-based security mechanism for vehicular adhoc networks

In vehicular adhoc network (VANET), applications are involved with sensitive and secret information. We address a location-based encryption method that not only ensures messages confidentiality but also authenticates identity and location of communication peers. The authentication of location means that a message can only decrypted by the receiver which is ldquophysicallyrdquo present inside a decryption region that is specified by location, time and speed. A practical mapping function which converts location, time and speed into a unique lock key is proposed. The determination of the decryption region is addressed in two steps: predicting and updating. The proposed method evaluated by simulations is efficient and secure.