A collaborative protocol for anonymous reporting in vehicular ad hoc networks

• We propose a new collaborative protocol for enforcing anonymity in multi-hop VANETs.
• The protocol is specifically devised for multi-hop lossy networks.
• Our proposal is built and evaluated upon standard routing protocols.
• We explore the tradeoff among anonymity, delay and packet losses.

Vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs) have emerged to leverage the power of modern communication technologies, applied to both vehicles and infrastructure. Allowing drivers to report traffic accidents and violations through the VANET may lead to substantial improvements in road safety. However, being able to do so anonymously in order to avoid personal and professional repercussions will undoubtedly translate into user acceptance. The main goal of this work is to propose a new collaborative protocol for enforcing anonymity in multi-hop VANETs, closely inspired by the well-known Crowds protocol. In a nutshell, our anonymous-reporting protocol depends on a forwarding probability that determines whether the next forwarding step in message routing is random, for better anonymity, or in accordance with the routing protocol on which our approach builds, for better quality of service (QoS). Different from Crowds, our protocol is specifically conceived for multi-hop lossy wireless networks. Simulations for residential and downtown areas support and quantify the usefulness of our collaborative strategy for better anonymity, when users are willing to pay an eminently reasonable price in QoS.