An Efficient and Secure Alert System for VANETs to Improve Crosswalks' Security in Smart Cities

Area of Science:

• Intelligent Transportation Systems
• Cybersecurity
• Smart City Technologies

Background:

• Smart Cities aim to reduce conflicts between dynamic agents like vehicles and pedestrians.
• Existing systems lack robust security and real-time performance for crosswalk safety alerts.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose a system augmenting vehicle driver awareness of pedestrians in crosswalks.
• To ensure secure and timely dissemination of pedestrian presence alerts.

Main Methods:

• Interconnecting Road Side Units (RSUs) with vehicles to broadcast pedestrian alerts.
• Implementing Nimble Asymmetric Cryptography (NAC) for message signing and validation.
• Utilizing hash chaining for source authentication and minimizing asymmetric cipher usage.

Main Results:

• The proposed system enhances driver awareness of pedestrians at crosswalks.
• NAC provides non-repudiation and real-time validation of alert messages.
• Minimized use of asymmetric cryptography improves system performance.

Conclusions:

• The NAC system effectively addresses security and real-time requirements for Smart City crosswalk safety.
• This approach enhances the safety of vehicle-pedestrian interactions in dynamic urban environments.