Toward Secure Software Defined Vehicular Networks: Taxonomy, Requirements, and Open Issues

The emerging software defined vehicular networking (SDVN) paradigm promises to dramatically simplify network management and enable innovation through network programmability. Despite noticeable advances of SDNs in wired networks, it is also becoming an indispensable component that potentially provides flexible and well managed next-generation wireless networks, gaining massive attention from both industry and academia. In spite of all the hype surrounding emerging SDVNs, exploiting its full potential is demanding, and security is still the key concern and an equally arresting challenge. On the contrary, the complete transformation of the network into an SDN structure is still questionable, and the security and dependability of SDNs have largely been neglected topics. Moreover, the logical centralization of network intelligence and the tremendously evolving landscape of digital threats and cyber attacks that predominantly target emerging SDVNs will have even more devastating effects than they are in simple networks. Besides, the deployment of the SDVNs' novel entities and several architectural components drive new security threats and vulnerabilities. Since the SDVNs architectural layers and their corresponding APIs are heavily dependent on each other, this article aims to present a systematic top-down approach to tackle the potential security vulnerabilities, attacks, and challenges pertaining to each layer. The article contributes by presenting the security implications of the emerging SDVNs to devise comprehensive thematic core layered taxonomies together with external communication APIs. Moreover, we also describe the potential requirements and key enablers toward secure SDVNs. Finally, a plethora of open security research issues are presented that may be deemed appropriate for young researchers and professionals around the globe to tackle in anticipation of secure SDVNs.