Sybil Attack Detection in Urban VANETs Based on RSU Support

In this paper, we propose a new scheme for detecting Sybil attacks and the attackers in vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs) based on roadside units (RSUs) support. Due to the differences of moving dynamics among vehicles, having two vehicles passing by multiple RSUs at the same time is considered a rare coincidence. In the other hand, observation of two different identities (IDs) in the vicinity of two distinct RSUs provides strong evidence that the IDs belong to different vehicles. We use these two facts to determine if the Sybil attack is taking place. The proposed scheme uses routine communications among the nodes and RSUs to detect the attackers. Our simulation results indicate that the scheme outperforms the existing solutions in terms of detection rate, false positive rate, and system requirements.