DYNAMIC-TRUST: Blockchain-Enhanced Trust for Secure Vehicle Transitions in Intelligent Transport Systems

Intelligent transportation systems (ITS) improve vehicle connectivity, traffic efficiency, and road safety. Conversely, quick and safe vehicle authentication still poses a significant issue, especially at the handover time when switching between roadside units (RSUs), where network efficacy is influenced by computational overhead and re-authentication delays. To overcome these issues, this paper proposes DYNAMIC-TRUST. This blockchain-based authentication framework relies on the Proof of Trust (PoT) consensus mechanism to avoid redundant re-authentication, minimizing computation and communication costs. Compared to conventional authentication approaches, our method decentralizes vehicle revocation, allowing RSUs to revoke compromised vehicles autonomously without relying on a trusted authority, providing resilience regardless of adversarial conditions. The proposed framework’s resistance to identity theft, replay, and Sybil attacks has been proven by formal security analysis using Scyther and the Real-Or-Random (ROR) oracle model. Also, the Simulation of Urban Mobility (SUMO) is used to evaluate real-world practicality, proving improved scalability, lowered authentication latency, and greater network efficiency over various vehicular circumstances. Blockchain’s potential for enhancing vehicular network performance, trust, and security is highlighted in this study, which helps to develop smart cities and 6G-enabled Internet of Vehicles (IoV) infrastructures.