Ultra-secure transmissions for 5G-V2X communications

Abstract Contact with Vehicle-to-everything (V2X) is a field that concerns many academic institutions as well as the industry. Standards for these communications have been developed by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI). Such standards define a protocol stack that builds on top of the 802.11p Wi-Fi protocol, which does not provide protection. Many businesses and research institutes are now interested in using this emerging technology in V2X communications due to the successful implementation of 5G. The possibility of exchanging 802.11p with 5 G allows, among many other changes, to improve the efficiency of the protection mechanisms specified by the ETSI. The new features could also carry new vulnerabilities at the same time. The aim of this work is to examine how security is affected by the implementation of 5 G in V2X communications. We show that the transition from 802.11p to 5 G is feasible, but not easy, and the remainder of the protocol stack needs certain changes. In addition, some potential changes are suggested to the protection mechanisms offered higher up in the stack. Improvements include the elimination of the existing authentication certificate mechanism, since some 5G features would render it redundant. Finally, the pros and cons of implementing 5G are discussed in V2X communications.