Effectively Changing Pseudonyms for Privacy Protection in VANETs

As a technology to improve safety, efficiency and convenience in transportation, vehicular ad hoc networks(VANETs) attract more and more attentions of researchers. VANETs will achieve a series of applications by periodically broadcasting beacons containing vehicular status information such as position, velocity and direction. However, some attackers might also utilize the information to track users´ whereabouts. Therefore, the lack of privacy protection might impede the further success of VANETs in the future. Frequently changing pseudonyms are commonly accepted as a solution to protect privacy in VANETs, but most pseudonym change algorithms are ineffective. This paper proposes a pseudonym change algorithm, called synchronous pseudonym change algorithm, where both simultaneity of changing pseudonyms and vehicular status information are taken into consideration. Simulation results show that the algorithm can improve the effectiveness of changing pseudonyms to protect privacy in VANETs.