Title: Self-sovereign identity scheme for decentralised vehicular named data networking

Authors: Xian Guo; Jianhua Ding

Addresses: School of Computer and Communication, Lanzhou University of Technology, Lanzhou, 730050, China ' School of Computer and Communication, Lanzhou University of Technology, Lanzhou, 730050, China

Abstract: To address the reliance on traditional PKI for establishing trust between entities in vehicular named data networking (VNDN), we propose a hierarchical blockchain-based self-sovereign identity (SSI) scheme for decentralised vehicular named data networking (DVNDN). In our scheme, RSUs and vehicles are registered under supervision of a trusted authority (TA). Then, a committee consisted of RSUs selected is used to manage decentralised identifiers (DIDs) and verifiable credentials (VCs) for vehicle. This approach enables VC-based trust establishment without third-party anchors as in PKI. The proposed solution adopts signature of knowledge (SoK) and non-interactive zero-knowledge proofs (NIZKs) to protect privacy during issuance, presentation, and verification of VC, with the ZoKrates toolkit employed for generating NIZK proofs and enabling on-chain verification. Our security analysis demonstrates that the proposed scheme meets security requirements. Experimental results show feasibility, reliability, and effectiveness of our scheme by applying the Ethereum-based platform on NDN into the vehicular network.

Keywords: vehicular named data networking; VNDN; blockchain; self-sovereign identity; SSI; privacy-preserving.

DOI: 10.1504/IJICS.2025.148850

International Journal of Information and Computer Security, 2025 Vol.28 No.2, pp.205 - 226

Received: 27 Aug 2024
Accepted: 30 Apr 2025

Published online: 29 Sep 2025 *

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