Patent ID: 7934095

Claim:
A method for exchanging messages containing reliable information between nodes in a vehicle ad hoc network comprising the steps of: (a) initially providing a public key from a certificate authority for a PKI encrypted certificate authority signature to all nodes in the vehicle ad hoc network, (b) providing a private key from the certificate authority for a PKI encrypted certificate authority signature to all nodes known to transmit reliable information, (c) each node transmitting a signal containing node identification information and the PKI encrypted certificate authority signature associated with that node, (d) each node receiving said signals from the other nodes, (e) each node decrypting the certificate authority signatures received from the other nodes by using the public key to ascertain the authenticity of the received certificate authority signatures, (f) thereafter said nodes receiving and authenticating messages with a timed efficient stream loss tolerant authentication encrypted signature only with nodes identified to have an authentic certificate authority signature until the occurrence of a subsequent predefined event, said certificate authority revoking the public key for any node identified as transmitting improper messages so that all subsequent timed efficient stream loss tolerant messages transmitted by said node transmitting improper messages are ignored by other nodes in the vehicle ad hoc network.