TileChain: A Blockchain-Based Framework for Security Service Management For Vehicular Communications

Vehicular communications have become essential for functional and road safety purposes due to the development of vehicle fleets. However, these communications have made vehicles more vulnerable to cyber-attacks. The security of data exchanges in vehicular networks currently relies on a centralized architecture that is responsible for managing various security services such as authentication, confidentiality, non-repudiation, real-time misbehavior detection, certificate management and revocation. However, this centralized approach can be challenging and costly for authorities, and it may even weaken the network's overall security. In this paper, we propose a complementary solution that uses a decentralized security framework to help authorities better manage their network security by involving each vehicle in the overall security management. Our framework, TileChain, is blockchain based solution that use road information to manage the network's security dynamically. The architecture is designed to optimize any security service efficiently. To demonstrate the feasibility and performance of our proposed solution, we selected certificate revocation as a critical service and performed simulations using real vehicle traffic data provided by The French road operator DIR Nord. Our Smart Contract achieved an accuracy of 81.3% in misbehavior detection, leading to certificate revocation. Furthermore, the computation load for security management by authorities potentially reduced by a factor of 96.8%. In summary, our proposed solution, TileChain, offers a promising decentralized approach for managing vehicular network security that can potentially improve the overall security of the network while reducing the computational burden on authorities.