IEEE INTERNET OF THINGS JOURNAL, VOL. 10, NO. 24, 15 DECEMBER 2023 21421
Preserving Privacy in Internet of Vehicles (IoV):
A Novel Group-Leader-Based Shadowing
Scheme Using Blockchain
Najam U Saqib , Saif U. R. Malik, Adeel Anjum, Madiha Haider Syed , Syed Atif Moqurrab ,
Gautam Srivastava
, Senior Member, IEEE, and Jerry Chun-Wei Lin , Senior Member, IEEE
Abstract—Recent developments in the Internet of Vehicles
(IoV) and vehicular adhoc networks (VANET) have revolution-
ized our infrastructure, making it safer, more convenient, and
efficient. VANET provide smart traffic control, event allocation,
and real-time information. Existing vehicles in VANET are now
equipped with intelligent navigation, entertainment, and emer-
gency applications. However, the highly connected nature of these
vehicles poses a significant safety and security risk to drivers
and assets which can result in life-threatening consequences.
Location privacy is critical, and robust network security tech-
niques should be used to counter threats in VANET environments.
Existing schemes like obfuscation, mix-zones, and silent periods
have preserved location privacy to some extent but have poor
Quality of Service (QoS) and lack both efficiency and security.
To address these issues, a shadowing scheme is introduced, which
is an improvement of earlier schemes used for location privacy.
This approach ensures better service to the vehicle by allowing
precise location-based service (LBS) requests to the LBS server
and uses blockchain technology for storing vehicular certificates.
The inclusion of a group leader significantly reduces the time
taken for implementing the scheme, improving efficiency and
scalability. The anonymity set size increases over time, offering
better privacy protection especially in densely populated areas.
The proposed scheme overcomes drawbacks of existing tech-
niques which includes reduced location accuracy and low-quality
service in spatial obfuscation techniques, limited applicability
and high tracking rate in shadow-based approaches, and reduced
Manuscript received 10 November 2022; revised 12 May 2023 and 15 June
2023; accepted 24 June 2023. Date of publication 11 July 2023; date of current
version 7 December 2023. The work of Saif U. R. Malik was supported by the
Estonian Research Council under Grant PRG1780. (Corresponding authors:
Gautam Srivastava; Syed Atif Moqurrab.)
Najam U Saqib is with the Department of Computer Science, COMSATS
University, Islamabad 45550, Pakistan (e-mail: najmusaqib77@gmail.com).
Saif U. R. Malik is with the Information Security Institute, Cybernetica
AS, 12618 Tallinn, Estonia (e-mail: saif.rehmanmalik@cyber.ee).
Adeel Anjum is with the Institute of Information Technology, Quaid-i-Azam
University, Islamabad 15320, Pakistan, and also with the Information Security
Institute, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen 518055,
China (e-mail: aanjum@qau.edu.pk).
Madiha Haider Syed is with the Institute of Information Technology, Quaid-
i-Azam University, Islamabad 15320, Pakistan (e-mail: Madiha@qau.edu.pk).
Syed Atif Moqurrab is with the School of Computing, Gachon University,
Seongnam 13120, South Korea (e-mail: atif@gachon.ac.kr).
Gautam Srivastava is with the Department of Math and Computer Science,
Brandon University, Brandon, MB R7A 6A9, Canada, also with the Research
Centre for Interneural Computing, China Medical University, Taichung 404,
Taiwan, and also with the Department of Computer Science and Math,
Lebanese American University, Beirut 1102, Lebanon (e-mail: srivastavag@
brandonu.ca).
Jerry Chun-Wei Lin is with the Department of Computing, Mathematics,
and Physics, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, 5063 Bergen,
Norway (e-mail: jerrylin@ieee.org).
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/JIOT.2023.3294133
utility in distance-based schemes. Moreover, single point of failure
and resource-intensive group formation in group-based schemes,
and dependency on additional infrastructure in mix-zone-based
schemes are also overcome. The proposed scheme’s experimental
results validate it, showing that it outperforms current state-of-
the-art schemes based on metrics, such as anonymity set size,
entropy, and tracking success ratio.
Index Terms—Anonymization, blockchain, data privacy, data
publishing, data utility, local recording.
I. INTRODUCTION
A
SPECIAL class of mobile adhoc networks is called
vehicular adhoc networks (VANET). VANET consist of
predefined routes to improve road safety, vehicles exchange
information, and provide passengers with access to the
Internet. In road networks, vehicles communicate with each
other freely or with particular authorities and road side units
(RSU) as shown in Fig. 1. Usually, the mode of communi-
cation is Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V), Vehicle-to-Infrastructure
(V2I), or a hybrid approach [1] in a single or multihop archi-
tecture using dedicated short range communication (DSRC). In
2023, the global car market is expected to be 18% of total car
sales
1
with vehicles increasing exponentially providing people
with more convenience in transportation.
VANET are highly vulnerable to external and internal
attacks due to their high mobility and volatility [1]. Security,
privacy, and trust are the three major issues that need to be
addressed in designing a secure VANET. Researchers have
proposed various techniques to ensure security, protect privacy,
and manage trust in VANET. However, the unique challenge
that VANET present in terms of location privacy requires a
different approach. The protocols used in VANET are dif-
ferent from those used in other networks, and sharing of
location information without proper protection can lead to
serious consequences, such as eavesdropping and malicious
attacks.
Location-based services (LBS) have emerged as a new
paradigm in mobile technology, providing users with services
based on their location. With the development of global
information systems (GIS) and Internet connectivity, LBS
have become an integral part of our daily lives. However,
the advancement of LBS has also raised concerns related
1
https://www.virta.global/en/global-electric-vehicle-market
2327-4662
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