Support of Anonymity in VANETs - Putting Pseudonymity into Practice

Despite great advantages of vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs), they also introduce challenges with respect to security and privacy. Today, people are more and more concerned about their privacy. Using unique identifiers for communication, a vehicle can easily be located and tracked. Alternatively, a technical solution to protect drivers' privacy is the use of changing pseudonyms. Existing work mainly focuses on algorithms for pseudonym change and neglect practical implications and realizability. For deployment and integration of pseudonymity into a VANET communication system, several issues need to be solved. This paper analyzes the practical challenges and proposes protocol- and implementation-related solutions necessary to turn pseudonymity support into practice. Finally, the paper concludes by means of analysis and measurements that the burden of pseudonymity can be alleviated at reasonable costs and compromises in anonymity support.