Mix-Zones for Location Privacy in Vehicular Networks

Vehicular Networks (VNs) seek to provide, among other applications, safer driving conditions. To do so, vehicles need to periodically broadcast safety messages providing precise position information to nearby vehicles. However, this frequent messaging (e.g., every 100 to 300ms per car) greatly facilitates the tracking of vehicles, as it suffices to eavesdrop the wireless medium. As a result, the drivers privacy is at stake. In order to mitigate this threat, while complying with the safety requirements of VNs, we suggest the creation of mix-zones at appropriate places of the VN. We propose to do so with the use of cryptography, and study analytically how the combination of mix-zones into mix-networks brings forth location privacy in VNs. Finally, we show by simulations that the proposed mix system is effective in various scenarios.