TEBChain: A Trusted and Efficient Blockchain-Based Data Sharing Scheme in UAV-Assisted IoV for Disaster Rescue

The destruction of communication infrastructure after a disaster makes it impossible for vehicles to timely transmit important data, such as casualty locations, road conditions and rescue demands, which brings great difficulties to ensure safe driving and efficient rescue. Some existing schemes have proposed the use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) to assist data sharing in the Internet of Vehicles (IoV) to perform instant rescue missions. However, the untrusted network environment after the disaster and the mutual unbelief among rescue vehicles lead to potential security problems in data sharing between vehicles and UAVs. In addition, some selfish or malicious participants may disseminate meaningless or false data, which will not only waste valuable rescue resources in disaster areas but also may threaten the safety of rescue workers. To overcome these challenges, we propose TEBChain, a trusted and efficient data sharing scheme based on blockchain. In TEBChain, a blockchain-based lightweight framework is first designed to guarantee effective data sharing and record all abnormal behavior. Then, we present an improved key update mechanism based on the Boneh-Lynn-Shacham (BLS) threshold signature, which can ensure the trust of shared data among frequently moving vehicles. Furthermore, to facilitate consensus and reduce communication overhead, a lightweight and secure PBFT (LS-PBFT) consensus protocol is proposed to enable efficient rescue of vehicles and UAVs. Finally, the effectiveness and feasibility of our proposed TEBChain are validated through performance comparisons and simulation experiments.