{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,26]],"date-time":"2026-03-26T19:36:37Z","timestamp":1774553797523,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":42,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"7","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2022,3,25]],"date-time":"2022-03-25T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1648166400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100006261","name":"Taif University","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["TURSP-2020\/314"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["TURSP-2020\/314"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100006261","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Sensors"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Autonomous vehicles offer various advantages to both vehicle owners and automobile companies. However, despite the advantages, there are various risks associated with these vehicles. These vehicles interact with each other by forming a vehicular network, also known as VANET, in a centralized manner. This centralized network is vulnerable to cyber-attacks which can cause data loss, resulting in road accidents. Thus, to prevent the vehicular network from being attacked and to prevent the privacy of the data, key management is used. However, key management alone over a centralized network is not effective in ensuring data integrity in a vehicular network. To resolve this issue, various studies have introduced a blockchain-based approach and enabled key management over a decentralized network. This technique is also found effective in ensuring the privacy of all the stakeholders involved in a vehicular network. Furthermore, a blockchain-based key management system can also help in storing a large amount of data over a distributed network, which can encourage a faster exchange of information between vehicles in a network. However, there are certain limitations of blockchain technology that may affect the efficient working of autonomous vehicles. Most of the existing blockchain-based systems are implemented over Ethereum or Bitcoin. The transaction-processing capability of these blockchains is in the range of 5 to 20 transactions per second, whereas hashgraphs are capable of processing thousands of transactions per second as the data are processed exponentially. Furthermore, a hashgraph prevents the user from altering the order of the transactions being processed, and they do not need high computational powers to operate, which may help in reducing the overall cost of the system. Due to the advantages offered by a hashgraph, an advanced key management framework based on a hashgraph for secure communication between the vehicles is suggested in this paper. The framework is developed using the concept of Leaving of Vehicles based on a Logical Key Hierarchy (LKH) and Batch Rekeying. The system is tested and compared with other closely related systems on the basis of the transaction compilation time and change in traffic rates.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/s22072529","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2022,3,27]],"date-time":"2022-03-27T21:31:25Z","timestamp":1648416685000},"page":"2529","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":28,"title":["Integrated IoT-Based Secure and Efficient Key Management Framework Using Hashgraphs for Autonomous Vehicles to Ensure Road Safety"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"22","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-0074-2584","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Sudan","family":"Jha","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Sciences, Christ (Deemed to be University), NCR-New Delhi Campus, Ghaziabad 201003, India"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Nishant","family":"Jha","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Networking and Security, School of Computer Science and Engineering (SCSE), Lovely Professional University, Phagwara 144411, India"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-8786-1115","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Deepak","family":"Prashar","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Networking and Security, School of Computer Science and Engineering (SCSE), Lovely Professional University, Phagwara 144411, India"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-3198-7974","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Sultan","family":"Ahmad","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Computer Science, College of Computer Engineering and Sciences, Prince Sattam Bin Abdulaziz University, Alkharj 11942, Saudi Arabia"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-7759-0940","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Bader","family":"Alouffi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Computer Science, College of Computers and Information Technology, Taif University, P.O. Box 11099, Taif 21944, Saudi Arabia"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Abdullah","family":"Alharbi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Information Technology, College of Computers and Information Technology, Taif University, P.O. Box 11099, Taif 21944, Saudi Arabia"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2022,3,25]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1832","DOI":"10.1109\/JIOT.2017.2740569","article-title":"Blockchain-Based Dynamic Key Management for Heterogeneous Intelligent Transportation Systems","volume":"4","author":"Lei","year":"2017","journal-title":"IEEE Internet Things J."},{"key":"ref_2","unstructured":"Soto Villacampa, J.A. (2019). Towards a Blockchain-Based Private Road Traffic Management Implementation. [Ph.D. Thesis, Lule\u00e5 University of Technology]."},{"key":"ref_3","unstructured":"(2022, February 21). Self-Driving Cars Could Reduce Accidents by 90%, Saving $190B\u2014Goliath. Available online: https:\/\/www.goliath.com\/tech\/self-driving-cars-could-reduce-accidents-by-90-saving-190b\/."},{"key":"ref_4","unstructured":"Lei, A. (2017). Dynamic Key Management for Secure Heterogeneous Vehicular Communication Systems, University of Surrey."},{"key":"ref_5","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Sharma, R., and Chakraborty, S. (2018, January 9\u201313). Blockapp: Using blockchain for authentication and privacy preservation in IoV. Proceedings of the 2018 IEEE Globecom Workshops (GC Wkshps), Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.","DOI":"10.1109\/GLOCOMW.2018.8644389"},{"key":"ref_6","unstructured":"Nakamoto, S. (2021, January 28). Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System. Available online: bitcoin.org."},{"key":"ref_7","first-page":"1567","article-title":"Energy Aware Metaheuristic Optimization with Location Aided Routing Protocol for MANET","volume":"71","author":"Devi","year":"2022","journal-title":"CMC-Comput. Mater. Contin."},{"key":"ref_8","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Barskar, R., Ahirwar, M., and Vishwakarma, R. (2016, January 3\u20135). Secure key management in vehicular ad-hoc network: A review. Proceedings of the 2016 International Conference on Signal Processing, Communication, Power and Embedded System (SCOPES), Paralakhemundi, India.","DOI":"10.1109\/SCOPES.2016.7955730"},{"key":"ref_9","first-page":"13","article-title":"Key management techniques for vanets","volume":"2","author":"Sasikala","year":"2012","journal-title":"Intl. J. Comput. Appl."},{"key":"ref_10","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2482","DOI":"10.1109\/ACCESS.2019.2962387","article-title":"Secure Authentication and Key Management with Blockchain in VANETs","volume":"8","author":"Tan","year":"2019","journal-title":"IEEE Access"},{"key":"ref_11","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"177","DOI":"10.1016\/j.dcan.2019.04.003","article-title":"A new type of blockchain for secure message exchange in VANET","volume":"6","author":"Shrestha","year":"2020","journal-title":"Digit. Commun. Netw."},{"key":"ref_12","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"5836","DOI":"10.1109\/TVT.2020.2972923","article-title":"An Efficient Decentralized Key Management Mechanism for VANET With Blockchain","volume":"69","author":"Ma","year":"2020","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Veh. Technol."},{"key":"ref_13","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"3765","DOI":"10.1109\/TITS.2020.3035869","article-title":"Blockchain-Based Trust Management Model for Location Privacy Preserving in VANET","volume":"22","author":"Li","year":"2021","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Intell. Transp. Syst."},{"key":"ref_14","unstructured":"(2021, November 11). 5 Key Challenges For Blockchain Adoption In 2020|Blockchain Council. Available online: https:\/\/www.blockchain-council.org\/blockchain\/5-key-challenges-for-blockchain-adoption-in-2020\/."},{"key":"ref_15","unstructured":"Baird, L., Harmon, M., and Madsen, P. (2019). A Public Hashgraph Network & Governing Council, Hedera. White Paper, 1."},{"key":"ref_16","unstructured":"(2021, November 11). Hedera Hashgraph Problems and Challenges of Implementation. Available online: https:\/\/applicature.com\/blog\/blockchain-technology\/hashgraph-problems."},{"key":"ref_17","unstructured":"Schmoll, A. (2018). A Hardware-Based Secure Communication Module to Protect Internet Connected Vehicles. [Master\u2019s Thesis, Lule\u00e5 University of Technology]."},{"key":"ref_18","unstructured":"Rui, S. (2021, November 11). Design and Performance Analysis of Urban Traffic Control Systems. Available online: https:\/\/ethos.bl.uk\/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.747226."},{"key":"ref_19","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.1155\/2021\/3697733","article-title":"B5G Ultrareliable Low Latency Networks for Efficient Secure Autonomous and Smart Internet of Vehicles","volume":"2021","author":"Alshamrani","year":"2021","journal-title":"Math. Probl. Eng."},{"key":"ref_20","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Lasla, N., Younis, M., Znaidi, W., and Ben Arbia, D. (2018, January 26\u201328). Efficient distributed admission and revocation using blockchain for cooperative its. Proceedings of the 2018 9th IFIP International Conference on New Technologies, Mobility and Security (NTMS), Paris, France.","DOI":"10.1109\/NTMS.2018.8328734"},{"key":"ref_21","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Lu, Z., Wang, Q., Qu, G., and Liu, Z. (2018, January 1\u20133). BARS: A Blockchain-Based Anonymous Reputation System for Trust Management in VANETs. Proceedings of the 2018 17th IEEE International Conference on Trust, Security and Privacy in Computing and Communications\/12th IEEE International Conference on Big Data Science and Engineering (TrustCom\/BigDataSE), New York, NY, USA.","DOI":"10.1109\/TrustCom\/BigDataSE.2018.00025"},{"key":"ref_22","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"30868","DOI":"10.1109\/ACCESS.2019.2903202","article-title":"Blockchain-Based Traffic Event Validation and Trust Verification for VANETs","volume":"7","author":"Yang","year":"2019","journal-title":"IEEE Access"},{"key":"ref_23","unstructured":"Leiding, B., and Vorobev, W.V. (2022, February 21). Tezos-Based Vehicular Ad Hoc Blockchains. Available online: https:\/\/uploads-ssl.webflow.com\/5a4ea18a81f55a00010bdf45\/5b9599af6708aa28b5e2a7b5_20180908_draft-v05.pdf."},{"key":"ref_24","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Prashar, D., Jha, N., Jha, S., Joshi, G., and Seo, C. (2020). Integrating IoT and Blockchain for Ensuring Road Safety: An Unconventional Approach. Sensors, 20.","DOI":"10.3390\/s20113296"},{"key":"ref_25","unstructured":"Sharma, S., Agarwal, V., Gupta, D., and Hasija, V. (2022, February 21). Directed Acyclic Graph for Peer-to-Peer Distributed Communication in Vehicular Network. Available online: https:\/\/githubmemory.com\/repo\/rubiruchi\/Directed-Acyclic-Graph-for-Peer-to-Peer-Distributed-Communication-in-Vehicular-Network."},{"key":"ref_26","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Wang, G., Wang, B., Wang, T., Nika, A., Zheng, H., and Zhao, B.Y. (2016, January 25\u201330). Defending against Sybil devices in crowdsourced mapping services. Proceedings of the 14th Annual International Conference on Mobile Systems Applications, and Services, Singapore.","DOI":"10.1145\/2906388.2906420"},{"key":"ref_27","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"4101","DOI":"10.1109\/JIOT.2019.2957421","article-title":"A Blockchain-Based Trust Management with Conditional Privacy-Preserving Announcement Scheme for VANETs","volume":"7","author":"Liu","year":"2020","journal-title":"IEEE Internet Things J."},{"key":"ref_28","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Javaid, U., Aman, M.N., and Sikdar, B. (May, January 27). DrivMan: Driving Trust Management and Data Sharing in VANETs with Blockchain and Smart Contracts. Proceedings of the 2019 IEEE 89th Vehicular Technology Conference (VTC2019-Spring), Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.","DOI":"10.1109\/VTCSpring.2019.8746499"},{"key":"ref_29","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"102426","DOI":"10.1016\/j.ipm.2020.102426","article-title":"B-FERL: Blockchain based framework for securing smart vehicles","volume":"58","author":"Oham","year":"2021","journal-title":"Inf. Process. Manag."},{"key":"ref_30","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"101877","DOI":"10.1016\/j.sysarc.2020.101877","article-title":"Blockchain-based batch authentication protocol for Internet of Vehicles","volume":"113","author":"Bagga","year":"2021","journal-title":"J. Syst. Arch."},{"key":"ref_31","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"11815","DOI":"10.1109\/JIOT.2020.3002711","article-title":"A Scalable Protocol for Driving Trust Management in Internet of Vehicles with Blockchain","volume":"7","author":"Javaid","year":"2020","journal-title":"IEEE Internet Things J."},{"key":"ref_32","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"29","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jpdc.2020.11.003","article-title":"A blockchain-based Roadside Unit-assisted authentication and key agreement protocol for Internet of Vehicles","volume":"149","author":"Xu","year":"2021","journal-title":"J. Parallel Distrib. Comput."},{"key":"ref_33","unstructured":"(2022, February 21). Hashgraph Vs Blockchain: A Detailed Comparison. Available online: https:\/\/101blockchains.com\/hashgraph-vs-blockchain\/."},{"key":"ref_34","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"32","DOI":"10.1109\/MNET.001.1900146","article-title":"Integrating Blockchain and IoT\/ITS for Safer Roads","volume":"34","author":"Taha","year":"2020","journal-title":"IEEE Netw."},{"key":"ref_35","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Tripathi, G., Ahad, M.A., and Sathiyanarayanan, M. (2019, January 12\u201314). The Role of Blockchain in Internet of Vehicles (IoV): Issues, Challenges and Opportunities. Proceedings of the 2019 International Conference on contemporary Computing and Informatics (IC3I), Singapore.","DOI":"10.1109\/IC3I46837.2019.9055613"},{"key":"ref_36","unstructured":"(2022, January 25). How Blockchain Will Revolutionize Future Cars. Available online: https:\/\/www.investopedia.com\/investing\/how-blockchain-will-revolutionize-future-cars\/."},{"key":"ref_37","unstructured":"(2022, January 25). Hedera Hashgraph vs. Blockchain|Comparison. Available online: https:\/\/www.leewayhertz.com\/hashgraph-vs-blockchain\/."},{"key":"ref_38","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"5603518","DOI":"10.1155\/2018\/5603518","article-title":"Challenges of Future VANET and Cloud-Based Approaches","volume":"2018","author":"Shrestha","year":"2018","journal-title":"Wirel. Commun. Mob. Comput."},{"key":"ref_39","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Toulni, H., Boudhane, M., Nsiri, B., and Miyara, M. (2016). An Adaptive Key Exchange Procedure for VANET. Int. J. Adv. Comput. Sci. Appl., 7.","DOI":"10.14569\/IJACSA.2016.070441"},{"key":"ref_40","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"16","DOI":"10.1109\/90.836475","article-title":"Secure group communications using key graphs","volume":"8","author":"Wong","year":"2000","journal-title":"IEEE\/ACM Trans. Netw."},{"key":"ref_41","unstructured":"Harney, H., and Harder, E. (2022, February 21). Logical Key Hierarchy Protocol. Available online: https:\/\/datatracker.ietf.org\/doc\/html\/draft-harney-sparta-lkhp-sec-00.txt."},{"key":"ref_42","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Pande, A.S., and Thool, R.C. (2016, January 9\u201310). Survey on Logical Key Hierarchy for secure group communication. Proceedings of the 2016 International Conference on Automatic Control and Dynamic Optimization Techniques (ICACDOT), Pune, India.","DOI":"10.1109\/ICACDOT.2016.7877763"}],"container-title":["Sensors"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/1424-8220\/22\/7\/2529\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,10]],"date-time":"2025-10-10T22:43:21Z","timestamp":1760136201000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/1424-8220\/22\/7\/2529"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2022,3,25]]},"references-count":42,"journal-issue":{"issue":"7","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2022,4]]}},"alternative-id":["s22072529"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/s22072529","relation":{},"ISSN":["1424-8220"],"issn-type":[{"value":"1424-8220","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2022,3,25]]}}}