Enhancing Authentication Security in Internet of Vehicles: A Blockchain-Driven Approach for Trustworthy Communication

The Internet of Vehicles (IoVs) is an emerging technology that enhances transportation systems by enabling interactions between vehicles, infrastructure, and other entities. Securing IoV networks from cyber threats like eavesdropping, data tampering, and intrusions is a major challenge. This research presents a Blockchain-Enabled Secure Authentication Protocol for IoVs (BESA-IOV), which leverages blockchain’s decentralized and tamper-resistant nature for secure communication in vehicular networks. By utilizing ECC-based lightweight cryptography and blockchain-based public key management, it ensures strong authentication, confidentiality, and integrity. The results show that BESA-IOV significantly reduces authentication delay and computational cost compared to protocols such as NOTSA, RVAC, VANET-Auth, and SecureIoV. Extensive simulations indicate that BESA-IOV reduces authentication delay by 35% and computational overhead by 40%, enhancing real-time communication in the IoV environment. BESA-IOV is secure, efficient, and scalable for next-generation IoV systems.