Secure protocol for ad hoc transportation system

We define an ad hoc transportation system as one that has no infrastructure such as roads (and lanes), traffic lights etc. We assume that in such a system the vehicle are autonomic and can guide and direct themselves without a human driver. In this paper we investigate how a safe distance can be maintained between vehicles. A vehicle which has been compromised by an adversary can cause serious chaos and accidents in such a network (a denial of service type of attack). A simple key management scheme is then introduced to ensure secure communications between the components of the system.