Stable and Secure Clustering for Internet of Vehicles with RSU-assisted Maintenance and Trust Management

Internet of Vehicles (IoV) has received a great deal of attention in recent years from many researchers. In this paper a novel multi-hop clustering algorithm is proposed, which has as its main objective to form clusters with high stability and also tries to appropriately exploit the advantages offered by the new communication paradigm of IoV. First, stable multi-hop clusters are formed (with not only high-stability CHs, but also having sufficiently stable neighborhoods), and then proper RSU-assisted cluster maintenance and trust management mechanisms are applied. The proposed overall solution is expected to lead to increased clusters overall stability (and as a consequence to prolong clusters lifetime), as well as increased resistance of the whole network to specific kinds of security attacks.