Query: blockchain  Vehicles

title: A Blockchain SDN Enabled Internet of Vehicles Environment for Fog Computing and 5G Networks
abstract: The goal of intelligent transport systems (ITSs) is to enhance the network performance of vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs) Even though it presents new opportunities to the Internet of Vehicles (IoV) environment, there are some security concerns including the need to establish trust among the connected peers. The fifth generation (5G) communication system, which provides reliable and low latency communication services, is seen as the technology to cater for the challenges in VANETs. The incorporation of software defined networks (SDNs) also ensures an effective network management. However, there should be monitoring and reporting services provided in the IoV. Blockchain, which has decentralization, transparency, and immutability as some of its properties, is designed to ensure trust in networking platforms. In that regard, this article analyzes the combination of blockchain and SDN for the effective operation of the VANET systems in 5G and fog computing paradigms. With managerial responsibilities shared between the blockchain and the SDN, it helps to relieve the pressure off the controller due to the ubiquitous processing that occurs. A trust based model that curbs malicious activities in the network is also presented. The simulation results substantially guarantee an efficient network performance, while also ensuring that there is trust among the entities.

title: A new type of blockchain for secure message exchange in VANET
abstract: In the Vehicular Ad hoc NETworks (VANET) the collection and dissemination of life threatening traffic event information by vehicles are of utmost importance. However, the traditional VANETs face several security issues. We propose a new type of blockchain to resolve critical message dissemination issues in the VANET. We create a local blockchain for real world event message exchange among vehicles within the boundary of a country, which is a new type of blockchain suitable for the VANET. We present a public blockchain that stores the node trustworthiness and message trustworthiness in a distributed ledger that is appropriate for secure message dissemination.

title: Blockchain Empowered Asynchronous Federated Learning for Secure Data Sharing in Internet of Vehicles
abstract: In Internet of Vehicles (IoV) data sharing among vehicles for collaborative analysis can improve the driving experience and service quality. However, the bandwidth, security and privacy issues hinder data providers from participating in the data sharing process. In addition, due to the intermittent and unreliable communications in IoV, the reliability and efficiency of data sharing need to be further enhanced. In this paper, we propose a new architecture based on federated learning to relieve transmission load and address privacy concerns of providers. To enhance the security and reliability of model parameters, we develop a hybrid blockchain architecture which consists of the permissioned blockchain and the local Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG) Moreover, we propose an asynchronous federated learning scheme by adopting Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) for node selection to improve the efficiency. The reliability of shared data is also guaranteed by integrating learned models into blockchain and executing a two stage verification. Numerical results show that the proposed data sharing scheme provides both higher learning accuracy and faster convergence.

title: Applications of blockchain in unmanned aerial vehicles: A review
abstract: The recent advancement in Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) in terms of manufacturing processes, and communication and networking technology has led to a rise in their usage in civilian and commercial applications. The regulations of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in the US had earlier limited the usage of UAVs to military applications. However more recently, the FAA has outlined new enforcement that will also expand the usage of UAVs in civilian and commercial applications. Due to being deployed in open atmosphere, UAVs are vulnerable to being lost, destroyed or physically hijacked. With the UAV technology becoming ubiquitous, various issues in UAV networks such as intra UAV communication, UAV security, air data security, data storage and management, etc. need to be addressed. Blockchain being a distributed ledger protects the shared data using cryptography techniques such as hash functions and public key encryption. It can also be used for assuring the truthfulness of the information stored and for improving the security and transparency of the UAVs. In this paper, we review various applications of blockchain in UAV networks such as network security, decentralized storage, inventory management, surveillance, etc. and discuss some broader perspectives in this regard. We also discuss various challenges to be addressed in the integration of blockchain and UAVs and suggest some future research directions.

title: Blockchain Based Privacy Aware Content Caching in Cognitive Internet of Vehicles
abstract: The Cognitive Internet of Vehicles (CIoV) introduces a cognitive engine in the traditional Internet of Vehicles, which can realize more intelligent functions such as vehicle deployment and resource allocation. Especially in terms of content caching, the cognitive engine can perceive the content requirements of users and match the content providers and content requesters to improve the caching hit rate. However, during this process, users may worry that their privacy data may be leaked. Content requesters need to submit data about points of interest in contents, which is part of their sensitive information. In addition, in terms of rapid speed of vehicles, the connection time is limited, such as vehicle to vehicle and vehicle to roadside unit (RSU) which leads to limited transaction time during obtaining contents. In order to solve these problems, in this article, we propose a blockchain based privacy aware content caching architecture in CIoV. In general, when vehicles need contents, in order to protect the privacy of vehicles, it is no longer necessary to submit a request to an RSU, but through broadcasting contents from an RSU or surrounding vehicles, where vehicles can selectively obtain contents. To improve the cache hit rate, the cognitive engine will perceive content requirements and recommend relevant content requirements to an RSU or content providing vehicles based on machine learning or deep learning methods. However, this method of content acquisition will connect different vehicles, which brings the untrusted problem. Both content requesters and providers may worry about untrusted users connected with them. To this end, we adopt the blockchain technology to record the completed content transactions, which are written into the block after the consensus mechanism is completed, thus solving the problem of distrust between vehicles. Experiments demonstrate the privacy aware content caching architecture based on blockchains effectiveness.

title: Federated Learning With Blockchain for Autonomous Vehicles: Analysis and Design Challenges
abstract: We propose an autonomous blockchain based federated learning (BFL) design for privacy aware and efficient vehicular communication networking, where local on vehicle machine learning (oVML) model updates are exchanged and verified in a distributed fashion. BFL enables oVML without any centralized training data or coordination by utilizing the consensus mechanism of the blockchain. Relying on a renewal reward approach, we develop a mathematical framework that features the controllable network and BFL parameters (e.g. the retransmission limit, block size, block arrival rate, and the frame sizes) so as to capture their impact on the system level performance. More importantly, our rigorous analysis of oVML system dynamics quantifies the end to end delay with BFL, which provides important insights into deriving optimal block arrival rate by considering communication and consensus delays. We present a variety of numerical and simulation results highlighting various non trivial findings and insights for adaptive BFL design. In particular, based on analytical results, we minimize the system delay by exploiting the channel dynamics and demonstrate that the proposed idea of tuning the block arrival rate is provably online and capable of driving the system dynamics to the desired operating point. It also identifies the improved dependency on other blockchain parameters for a given set of channel conditions, retransmission limits, and frame  However, a number of challenges (gaps in knowledge) need to be resolved in order to realise these changes. In particular, we identify key bottleneck challenges requiring further investigations, and provide potential future reserach directions.1An early version of this work has been accepted for presentation in IEEE WCNC Wksps 2020

title: A Scalable Protocol for Driving Trust Management in Internet of Vehicles With Blockchain
abstract: Recent developments in IoT have facilitated advancements in the Internet of Vehicles (IoV) with autonomous vehicles and roadside infrastructure as its key components. IoV aims to provide new innovative services for different modes of transport with adaptive traffic management and enables vehicles to broadcast messages to improve traffic safety and efficiency. However, due to nontrusted environments, it is difficult for vehicles to evaluate the credibility of the messages that they receive. Therefore, trust establishment in IoV is a key security concern that is constantly limited by scalability challenges. This article proposes a blockchain based protocol for IoV using smart contracts, physical unclonable functions (PUFs) certificates, and a dynamic Proof of Work (dPoW) consensus algorithm. The blockchain, in conjunction with contracts, provides a secure framework for registering trusted vehicles and blocking malicious ones. PUFs are used to assign a unique identity to each vehicle via which trust is established. Certificates are issued by roadside units that preserve the privacy of vehicles, whereas the dPoW consensus allows the protocol to scale according to the incoming traffic generated by the vehicles. To demonstrate the feasibility and scalability of the proposed protocol, security and performance analyses are presented. A case study is also discussed along with a comparative analysis, which confirms that our protocol can provide superior decentralized trust management for IoV.

title: Privacy Preserving Authentication Scheme for Connected Electric Vehicles Using Blockchain and Zero Knowledge Proofs
abstract: With the increasing interest in connected vehicles along with electrification opportunities, there is an ongoing effort to automate the charging process of electric vehicles (EVs) through their capabilities to communicate with the infrastructure and each other. However, charging EVs takes time and thus in advance scheduling is needed. As this process is done frequently due to limited mileage per charge on EVs, it may expose the locations and charging pattern of the EV to the service providers, raising privacy concerns for their users. Nevertheless, the EV still needs to be authenticated to charging providers, which means some information will need to be provided anyway. While there have been many studies to address the problem of privacy preserving authentication for vehicular networks, such solutions will be void if charging payments are made through traditional means. In this paper, we tackle this problem by utilizing distributed applications enabled by Blockchain and smart contracts. We adapt zero knowledge proofs to Blockchain for enabling privacy preserving authentication while removing the need for a central authority. We introduce two approaches, one using a token based mechanism and another utilizing the Pederson Commitment scheme to realize anonymous authentication. We also describe a protocol for the whole process which includes scheduling and charging operations. The evaluation of the proposed approaches indicates that the overhead of this process is affordable to enable real time charging operations for connected EVs.

title: Vehicular Blockchain Based Collective Learning for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles
abstract: The accuracy of the ML model is essential for the further development of AI enabled CAVs. With the increasing complexity of on board sensor systems, the large amount of raw data available for learning can however cause big communication burdens and data security issues. To alleviate the communication cost yet improve the accuracy of machine learning with preserved data privacy is an important issue to address in CAVs. In this article, we survey the existing literature toward efficient and secured learning in a dynamic wireless environment. In particular, a BCL framework for AI enabled CAVs is presented. The framework enables distributed CAVs to train ML models locally and upload to blockchain network to overall utilize the "collective intelligence" of CAVs while avoiding large amounts of data transmission. Blockchain is then applied to protect the distributed learned models. We evaluate the performance of the presented framework by simulations and discuss a range of open research issues that need to be addressed in the future.

title: Blockchain for the Internet of Vehicles: A Decentralized IoT Solution for Vehicles Communication Using Ethereum
abstract: The concept of smart cities has become prominent in modern metropolises due to the emergence of embedded and connected smart devices, systems, and technologies. They have enabled the connection of every "thing" to the Internet. Therefore, in the upcoming era of the Internet of Things, the Internet of Vehicles (IoV) will play a crucial role in newly developed smart cities. The IoV has the potential to solve various traffic and road safety problems effectively in order to prevent fatal crashes. However, a particular challenge in the IoV, especially in Vehicle to Vehicle (V2V) and Vehicle to Infrastructure (V2I) communications, is to ensure fast, secure transmission and accurate recording of the data. In order to overcome these challenges, this work is adapting Blockchain technology for real time application (RTA) to solve Vehicle to Everything (V2X) communications problems. Therefore, the main novelty of this paper is to develop a Blockchain based IoT system in order to establish secure communication and create an entirely decentralized cloud computing platform. Moreover, the authors qualitatively tested the performance and resilience of the proposed system against common security attacks. Computational tests showed that the proposed solution solved the main challenges of Vehicle to X (V2X) communications such as security, centralization, and lack of privacy. In addition, it guaranteed an easy data exchange between different actors of intelligent transportation systems.