A Security Aware Fuzzy Enhanced Reliable Ant Colony Optimization Routing in Vehicular Ad hoc Networks

Abstract

With the growing relevance for Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks (VANETs), the number of applications for such networks also grows. These networks allow vehicles to coordinate, improving both efficiency and safety of road traffic. To make such networks feasible, efficient routing protocols that are robust against malfunctioning or malicious network participants are required. Additionally, the routing algorithm has to be able to cope with the transient nature of connections in VANETs as vehicles pass by each other at high speeds. In this work, we propose the Security Aware Fuzzy Enhanced Reliable Ant Colony optimization (SAFERACO) routing protocol which makes use of a fuzzy logic module to identify misbehaving nodes and exclude them from the routing process. We implement SAFERACO in the NS-3 simulator and evaluate it under different scenarios. The results show superior performance in all relevant metrics, such as packet delivery rate and delay. Due to its ability to identify misbehaving nodes, SAFERACO also provides a high level of robustness against black hole and flooding attacks.