A platform for secure multi-service vehicular communication

Vehicular communication systems (VCS) are becoming a cornerstone of modern intelligent transport systems. By enabling vehicles to communicate with each other via inter-vehicle communication as well as with roadside units via roadside-to-vehicle communication, vehicular networks will contribute to safer and more efficient roads by providing timely information to drivers and concerned authorities. This paper develops a new vehicular communication architecture supporting a wide spectrum of applications. We analyze the security services provided by this architecture and focus on event timestamping, which is of great interest in incident investigation. Our major contribution is the introduction of a new component, called the black box, which is able to securely store the events related to the vehicle. We also develop a new cryptographic protocol to support the management of the black box component.