A Multidimensional Trust Fusion and Transmission Path-Backtracking Framework for Secure Communication in VANETs

Abstract

Trust-based security framework for Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks (VANETs) to construct trustworthy as well as secure message dissemination in highly dynamic vehicular environments. The VANET scenario consisting of vehicles, roadside units (RSUs), and mobility patterns, where safety and event-driven messages are generated with sender identification and timestamps to preserve authenticity. Message dissemination is achieved through multi-hop communication using Ad hoc On-Demand Distance Vector (AODV) and Dynamic Source Routing (DSR) protocols, supporting efficient routing under frequent topology changes. Node reliability is assessed by collecting trust evidence from multiple dimensions, including direct trust from direct interactions, indirect trust from neighboring recommendations, and path trust based on routing behavior. These evidences are fused using Dempster–Shafer (DS) theory to handle uncertainty and conflicting information, producing hierarchical trust levels. Additionally, a path backtracking mechanism verifies hop integrity, evaluates path similarity, and traces malicious behavior. The framework effectively detects proposed MDT-EF+PBM achieves higher accuracy of 99%, MEFPB with precision of 100%, recall of 90%, F-measure of 95%, packet delivery ratio of 0.99, packet drop ratio of 0.03,delay of 55, throughput of 8, thereby ensuring secure and trustworthy VANET communications.