Zero-Trust Mobility-Aware Authentication Framework for Secure Vehicular Fog Computing Networks

TL;DR

This paper introduces ZTMAF, a zero-trust, mobility-aware authentication framework designed to enhance security and efficiency in vehicular fog computing networks, addressing challenges posed by vehicle mobility and diverse trust boundaries.

Contribution

The paper proposes a novel, lightweight, context-aware authentication framework with decentralized trust evaluation and fog-assisted validation for secure VFC communications.

Findings

Improved authentication latency and scalability.

Reduced computational overhead compared to traditional models.

Effective against spoofing, replay, and impersonation attacks.

Abstract

Vehicular Fog Computing (VFC) is a promising paradigm to meet the low-latency and high-bandwidth demands of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS). However, dynamic vehicle mobility and diverse trust boundaries introduce critical security challenges. This paper presents a novel Zero-Trust Mobility-Aware Authentication Framework (ZTMAF) for secure communication in VFC networks. The framework employs context-aware authentication with lightweight cryptographic primitives, a decentralized trust evaluation system, and fog node-assisted session validation to combat spoofing, replay, and impersonation attacks. Simulation results on NS-3 and SUMO demonstrate improved authentication latency, reduced computational overhead, and better scalability compared to traditional PKI and blockchain-based models. Our findings suggest that ZTMAF is effective for secure, real-time V2X interactions under adversarial and mobility-variant scenarios.