Hash-Chain-Based Cross-Regional Safety Authentication for Space-Air-Ground Integrated VANETs

Abstract

With the increasing demand for intelligent traffic management and road network intelligent information services, the vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs) combined with information of air, space and ground have outstanding advantages in coverage, reliable transmission, and resource richness. Due to the characteristics of heterogeneous, numerous nodes, and frequent cross-network flow, the space–air–ground integrated network (SAGIN) puts forward higher requirements for security. This paper proposes a cross-regional node identity management architecture based on the hash chain, combined with radio frequency (RF) fingerprint theory, to guarantee node identity security with a non-duplicated physical information identity authentication mechanism. At the same time, the blockchain consensus mechanism is simplified to achieve block recording and verification. OMNet ++, SUMO, and Veins co-simulation platforms are used to generate transactions for cross-regional traffic flow. Based on the Hyperledger–Fabric architecture, Kafka and PBFT consensus algorithms are simulated. The simulation results show that the average delay of a single transaction generated block is about 0.9 ms, which achieves efficient and low-latency authentication.