Supporting Situational Awareness in VANET Attack Scenarios

Abstract

The integration of sensors and communication technologies is enabling vehicles to become increasingly intelligent and autonomous. The Internet of Vehicles (IoVs) is built from intelligent vehicles that work collaboratively and interact with the surrounding environment in real time. The underlying communications infrastructure is provided by Vehicular Ad-hoc Networks (VANETs), for vehicle to infrastructure (V2I) and vehicle to vehicle (V2V) communications.  The volume of autonomous vehicles (AVs) increases, as well as the level of automation for vehicles. The potential for related incidents and attacks increases as a result. A particular concern is the ability to disseminate alerts and emergency messages effectively and securely via the V2V/V2I nodes, given the diminishing involvement of autonomous vehicle users with the operation of the autonomous vehicles.

With this challenge in mind, this paper investigates the issue of situational awareness for occupants in autonomous vehicles.  Building from the concept of VANETs and recognised classification of automation levels, the discussion considers a range of related attack scenarios that could be encountered, each of which illustrates also contexts in which occupants may need to be made aware and take decisions in response. Consideration is then given to resulting support for situational awareness that would be required, particularly highlighting the associated requirements for user responsibility at different levels of automation.  The resulting discussion serves to articulate the challenge and serves as a basis for further research to inform the mechanisms to address the resulting requirements.