RFPM: A RSU-aided framework for pseudonym management to preserve location privacy in IoV

The Internet of Vehicles (IoV) has become a rapidly growing research area, with the USA, EU, and Japan leading the way. IoV safety applications rely on broadcasting messages to communicate with peers and infrastructure. However, these messages contain sensitive information that can be used by an adversary to track vehicles' movements or cause chaos if not properly protected, resulting in location privacy concerns. Despite various schemes being proposed to address this issue, a standard approach to providing proper privacy to IoV users has yet to be established. This article proposes a roadside unit (RSU)-aided framework for pseudonym management to preserve location privacy in IoV by enabling anonymity. The RSUs function as key entities, collecting, distributing, and shuffling pseudonyms for use by vehicles to enforce anonymity. The proposed framework has been evaluated through experimental simulations on PREXT, demonstrating better performance than existing schemes in terms of privacy metrics, including traceability, anonymity set, confusion matrix, and maximum entropy. Realistic terrain has been taken into account, and the framework is designed to be flexible and adaptable for future needs.