Toward Blockchain-Based Spoofing Defense for Controlled Optimization of Phases in Traffic Signal System

Controlled optimization of phases (COP) is a core implementation in the future intelligent traffic signal system (I-SIG), which has been deployed and tested in countries including the U.S. and China. In such a system design, optimal signal control depends on dynamic traffic situation awareness via connected vehicles. Unfortunately, I-SIG suffers data spoofing from any hacked vehicle; in particular, the spoofing of the last vehicle can break the system and cause severe traffic congestion. Specifically, coordinated attacks on multiple intersections may even bring cascading failure of the road traffic network. To mitigate this security issue, a blockchain-based multi-intersection joint defense mechanism upon COP planning is designed. The major contributions of this paper are the following. 1) A blockchain network constituted by road-side units at multiple intersections, which are originally distributed and decentralized, is proposed to obtain accurate and reliable spoofing detection. 2) COP-oriented smart contract is implemented and utilized to ensure the credibility of spoofing vehicle detection. Thus, an I-SIG can automatically execute a signal planning scheme according to traffic information without spoofing data. Security analysis for the data spoofing attack is carried out to demonstrate the security. Meanwhile, experiments on the simulation platform VISSIM and Hyperledger Fabric show the efficiency and practicality of the blockchain-based defense mechanism.