The Concept regarding Vehicular Communications Based on Visible Light Communication and the IoT

Abstract

The most controversial technology—visible light communication—is becoming increasingly promising in the field of wireless networks, being ideal for many indoor and outdoor applications. This article proposes VLC methods and architectures capable of providing high security in vehicles and in their communications with the environment or other cars in traffic. The architectures proposed involve the inclusion of ambient lighting equipment and systems and indoor and outdoor lighting systems, such as headlights, traffic lights, and stoplights. Securing data within vehicular networks and validating them through multiple layers of filtering at the level of the physical PHY layer would drastically strengthen the position of VLC. They are the only source of information through which direct contact is maintained with the other entities in the network. The evaluations and proposals presented here are highly viable and deserve future consideration in light of the results obtained in the practical steps carried out in the research process.

1. Introduction

Visible light communication (VLC) represents an important component of optical wireless communication (OWC) and has brought many challenges to the research community, as well as those attracted to this field [1]. VLC could become an extremely remarkable technology because, in addition to being used for lighting, it can also be used for data communication between devices, users, and the outside environment. This approach is important in terms of the benefits it can bring, as well as in terms of its huge potential for future development across extremely vast areas [2]. VLC is different from the technologies we know. It can be developed at the level of pre-existing lighting infrastructure or at the level of equipment containing LEDs, offering the opportunity for the mass development of a fast and cost-effective network [3]. According to the specialized literature, the basic principle of VLC is that the data are transported using an optical carrier without leading to higher energy consumption, which is another advantage of this technology [4]. Most studies conclude that LED light, in conjunction with the data transmission process, is becoming more and more common in our society and employ the lens of avoiding health risks due to exposure to emissions and radiation, as VLC is one of the greenest technologies. The specialized literature demonstrates the high potential of VLC technology and elucidates several of its aspects through the lens of its standardization by competent organizations, including the IEEE [5]. In terms of energy efficiency, VLC uses LED light to transmit data, and this is known as a low-power-consumption factor. Wi-Fi low power is designed as a restrained form of energy consumption but, compared to VLC, it is much more expensive. Channel bandwidth represents a constraint for the number of data packets that can be transmitted over a certain channel. Wi-Fi has a much higher channel bandwidth than VLC, but low-power Wi-Fi operates in the 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz frequency bands and has bandwidths of 20 MHz or more. Although it is a technology brought back to the public after a period of evanescence, VLC reappeared with prototypes developed and the first standardization, recognized with the acronym IEEE 802.15.7, was achieved in 2011 and later benefited from new updates [6]. VLC is showing an upward trend and represents an opportune moment for today’s society, branching out into more and more fields. In the early days of the technology, it was used to make high-speed wireless connections, as it is extremely suitable for broadband internet. In this field, VLC technology has proven its capabilities: it can ensure data transfer at speeds of several gigabits per second and, in ideal cases and laboratory tests, the technology can also establish connections that reach transfer values of over 100 Gb/s [7,8]. These aspects make VLC an extremely promising candidate for systems based on technologies such as 5G or 6G. VLC is suitable for most fields due to its ability to reuse space and small communication cells. Therefore, 5G and 6G technologies could achieve much higher transfer rates than known before; low latencies, even below <1 ms; and extremely wide coverage [9,10]. In accordance with the extremely wide distribution of LED lighting sources, in addition to applications related to its information- and energy-transfer capacities, VLC could also be used in Internet of Things-type applications, see Figure 1. Great progress could be made in the transition towards Industry 4.0 or 5.0 through the application of wireless communication in production lines and automation. VLC’s simplified implementation, cost efficiency, flexibility, and versatility would help in significantly scaling these processes, and it can be declared an ideal technology. Automation and robotization processes could use VLC for communication, control, management, and location tasks, and identification of equipment could also be controlled with it [11].

Perhaps the most representative and popular field of use for VLC technologies is in road and safety and the design of applications dedicated to vehicular communications. This field also receives increased attention in light of the loss of human life involved, as road accidents are the second leading cause of death worldwide. Implementations in this direction are more and more numerous, proving that VLC is extremely reliable and can provide adequate resistance against noise. Communication distances can exceed 200 m and latencies meet the requirements of some vehicle-to-vehicle communication applications [12]. Analyzing all the research and the specialized literature, perhaps the most important aspect for today’s society is that VLC is safe for the human body and for other equipment that can be influenced by or is sensitive to interference [13], and VLC is recommended even in RF-restricted areas. VLC can be used in medical procedures, transportation, logistics, security, oil rigs, nuclear power plants, highly confined areas, and even in aquatic research. VLC technology offers many unique benefits, including very high bandwidth and high transfer rates, in addition to the green zone aspects already presented [14]. This technology is increasingly being exploited by research groups, as well as in the private environment, to open up new fields and explore applications that could fix certain pressing problems of our society.

The effectiveness of current networks for communication between vehicles has been demonstrated, as well as their use in communication and control in autonomous cars, but aspects related to safety and information protection have been neglected. Therefore, this study focused on the analysis, presentation, and development of an architecture capable of providing a high degree of security in the process of communication between vehicles and between vehicles and infrastructure through the distribution of light in the indoor and outdoor environment [15]. The application of the solution is oriented toward both the user and the infrastructure or vehicles. The large number of systems produced by research groups so far proves the usefulness of this technology. The experimental evaluation process and the implementation were carried out in different stages, and the concepts were determined at the architectural level but without the implications related to the hardware and software components through which these processes were carried out. The data security aspect is extremely important for both the user and other traffic participants. The data communicated can be intercepted and, subsequently, the control of autonomous vehicles or on-board systems can undergo changes that may jeopardize the condition of the vehicle and endanger the driver, pedestrians, and other traffic participants [16]. Many of the major challenges currently impeding the implementation of new technologies, such as 5G, can be mitigated by using VLC [17,18]. The most important point is that VLC provides an alternative by not having a limitation in the radio frequency spectrum, which is already loaded and limited, and VLC even has a capacity more than 10,000 times higher than that of RF [19,20]. As the VLC spectrum remains unregulated and unlicensed, it can be considered an extremely important solution from a bandwidth perspective, capable of mitigating the limitations of the RF spectrum. New approaches and an increase in the degree of security for VLC, as well as development of an implementation method, are imperative. The most important contributions of the article are the proposal for a network architecture for future implementation in relation to vehicular communication and the enhancement of data security through multiple connections based on primary authentication keys and the parameterization of information using unique IDs. Section 2 reviews the methodology, outlines a proposal, while Section 3 is related to the implementation, and describes some of the results. Section 4 includes further discussion of the experimental results, and Section 5 is dedicated to the conclusion and future approaches.

2. Methodology and Design Parameters

Based on experience in the field of optical communication, research groups have consistently focused on adding new functions and generating related applications for VLC, including in relation to the IoT and vehicular communication. Several papers have discussed the use of VLC as part of various wireless technologies, but very few have focused on the IoT and road safety applications. In [21], architectures were proposed for VLC systems employing the IoT and its integration in the dark, using orthogonal frequency division modulation (OFDM) to overcome the identified limits [22]. In [23], VLC-over-UART-type systems were proposed that used the bit error rate and system evaluation. Another research paper [24] elucidated the potential of Li-Fi and its capacity for use in outdoor lighting, stating that it may represent a new backbone in the field of wireless communications. The activation of 5G wireless access using Li-Fi technology was addressed in [25] based on OFDM, demonstrating speeds of 200–300 kbps. Many of the challenges related to VLC, as well as the potential it has for industrial applications, were presented in [26], along with other concepts. Another review can be found in [27] that discusses various aspects and contributions, as well as providing an ensemble presentation, including aspects related to the optical IoT (OIoT). One new approach in V2V technology is the use of light fidelity (Li-Fi), which is an alternative medium in data transmission. The capacity of this technology to send data over an optical medium wirelessly using light-emitting diodes that propagate the signal makes it very promising. In the case of Li-Fi technology, data are extracted from the vehicle and spread via headlights or stoplights to other traffic participants or infrastructure, but there are many challenges related to bandwidth and data latencies. As shown in Figure 2, Li-Fi systems are composed of luminous media (LEDs) that transmit data and information, and the receiving system is based on a photo-detector that processes the data and analyzes the obtained signal. It is imperative to implement systems of this type because the actions that traffic participants take are based on information obtained from other vehicles and involve short durations of time and extremely low-validity data. Thus, in the case of systems of this type, GPS and Wi-Fi units are not necessary because Li-Fi technology can use interface or PIC controllers to emit tiny pulses of sound, which can penetrate barriers and be employed with straight roads or those of the T-junction type [24].

V2V technology can accurately calculate the moment T of a collision and highlight its severity when used synchronously with a laser detector or laser rangefinder (LRF). The guarantee that this is a highly viable system comes from the accumulation of adjustable vehicle functions, which can allow the generation of protocols and procedures to expedite the activation of pre-crash systems or airbags even before collisions occur [28]. Communication between vehicles is dependent on the distance of the convergence or divergence between them because the density of cars on roads is involved in the first process of the information transmission mechanism. In the case of congested roads where the traffic density shortens the distance between vehicles, the communication process takes place in a platoon-type network with vehicles separated by small distances, and hybrid implementation of VLC-RF is necessary [29]. In the case of visible light, data can be transmitted with a single data-stream instance extremely quickly [30]. In addition to what has been presented above, there are also aspects of the topic related to the exploitation of THz bands dedicated to vehicular networks, which have intrinsic properties. As millimeter-wave technology moves toward commercial implementation, it is clear that the terahertz (THz) band is the next frontier of communications. Summaries of all the RF techniques are provided in

Table 1. Network systems and approaches in relation to coverage.

Traffic Networks	RF Systems	Network Approaches
Low-density and sparse network	Radio cognitive network Short-range radio	Low
Vehicular network-type for densities	Short-range radio millimeter waves	High
Use of high-density network millimeter waves	Network based on VLC radio	High
Use of higher frequency bands (THZ)	Network based on 5G	High

, where we show how they can be used under different traffic density conditions, and in

Table 2. Existing approaches and prospects for development.

VLC Applicability	VLC/Li-Fi Design and Architecture	VLC Approaches and Proposals	VLC IoT Challenges	Solution Presented	Future Perspectives
VLC systems [31]	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Vehicular systems [32]	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
IoT [33]	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Safety systems [34]	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
V2V and Li-Fi [35]	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
IoT [36]	✓	✓	X	✓	✓
OIoT [37]	✓	X	✓	X	X
Industrial applications [38]	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
IoT [39]	✓	X	✓	✓	✓
5G and IoT [40]	✓	✓	✓	X	✓
6G [41]	✓	✓	✓	X	✓

, where other related work is addressed.

The proposed solution could make major contributions to the emergency transmission of priority messages, the avoidance of road accidents, and the safety and security of data. In all these processes, it is extremely important to also consider the adoption of vehicular ad hoc network (VANET) technology, which can guarantee the safety of vehicles and transmits information through central roadside units (RSUs) or electronic control units (ECUs) that can pre-secure data with up to six encryption cycles [42]. With vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs), it is possible to manage multiple vehicles that have on-board units or roadside units, as illustrated in Figure 2. Further measures at the security level could involve Euclidean distance calculation components, which can provide data on the distance between vehicles and RSUs or on the occurrence of adverse events at the edge of the road surface. Therefore, the protocols used to secure data could be based on event detection crawling and information filtering procedures, sending the data only through repetitive loops to the RSU-type units or concatenating the input data with the output data to encrypt them. If an accident is detected, the system sends the information to nearby vehicles and, through a filtering process that also uses an advanced driver-assistance system (ADAS), implements assistance processes, even providing traffic updates. Data are pre-swapped and routed through band-switching to ensure security and privacy, then initialized and keyed into the cloud. Any sudden change in the amount of data or any data modification result in a software trigger that processes each routine and compares it with the additional sets [43,44].

2.1. Li-Fi Communication System Proposal

The most important advantage that this new Li-Fi technology brings to the field of communications is greater security through the lower radius of the coverage area, as well as data encoding. As a consequence of limiting the coverage area, VLC cannot penetrate opaque surfaces or obstacles, even when geographically limited. In addition, VLC systems can employ connectivity based on unique IDs to encrypt the information in a format that can only be decoded with an adapted receiver. Therefore, this approach is extremely important in terms of the security and integrity of data communication, both for users and within vehicular networks. In the design process for a VLC system, the transmitter is not necessarily the central component, although it is important for the communication process, but an extremely volatile and important part of the system rests on the shoulders of the receiver. This idea was deduced from the specialized literature [45,46] (see Figure 3).

The IEEE 802.15.7 standard provides additional functions, some of which are complementary to lighting devices, and, in this case, they do not negatively influence the process [47]. Even if these systems have to be able to provide both lighting and data communication, they must not induce a flickering effect perceptible to the human eye, and it is necessary to implement functions capable of diminishing the light intensity if this is required. Hardware and software solutions have been found for this problem. Figure 4 shows a complete VLC diagram, as well as a way to secure the communication. The diagram includes an ARM Cortex M7 microcontroller component with a frequency of 1008 MHz, which is the central element around which the entire system gravitates. The basic function of the microcontroller is to transmit the data and transform/demodulate them to obtain a continuous stream of information/bitstream [48,49].

Thus, the microcontroller facilitates the processing, encoding, modulation, and contouring of bit matrices to expose them and transmit them further. Through the prism of its versatility, its performance and data security can be substantially improved, including by using on–off keying (OOK) at the emission and modulation side. The improved security process is also based on the central anti-flicker aspect; the VLC transmitter runs a code based on unique IDs and a run-length-limited (RLL) code, which can overlap the logic levels “1” and “0” at the same light intensity. Encrypting data by using security keys with unique IDs assigned to each data matrix also increases the data transmission speed and the instantiation capacity; in some cases, the speeds are around 250–300 kb/s [50]. To validate the security process carried out, the GVLC comparator structured based on the message intent iterates a log with the purpose of validating the receiver as a part of the system; everything is undertaken based on unique IDs. Subsequently, the message header provides the VLC receiver with information regarding the modulation technique, coding, transfer rate, and length of the message, aspects that ultimately validate the communication and security process. The instance frame contains all the transmitted data, and it is followed by a stop and validate header, the purpose of which is to inform the VLC receiver that the data have arrived.

As shown by communications tests, the intermittency of the signals between data frames also facilitates the implementation of an additional security protocol. The top microcontroller component can generate data and transmit them to other devices, but, at the same time, it can be interfaced with other devices through CAN, I2C, or SPI ports, which increases the safety and veracity of the information [51]. Regarding the level of frame data and the data quantity, solutions related to the cadence of the data transmission can be established with the help of an LED driver. The generation of the light beam that contains that data is related to the dynamics of the environment and the data quantity; the light contains the data that must be provided to the receiver, and the data take a path through the optical channel in free space (see Figure 4).

To obtain a more robust structure, this research focused on the development of a system capable of providing information and connectivity with any other device. For the reception side, as can be seen, the collector optical system had a processing component and a processing unit. These components integrate optical filters that adjust the signal to noise ratio (SNR) and remove unwanted components from the optical spectrum. For the optical detection part, a PDA component and PIN photodiodes connected to direct transimpedance circuits were used. For the processing blocks, bandpass filters were introduced with certain cutoff frequencies determined by the spectral densities. The data encoding and decoding process are carried out using quadratic triggers and other types of triggers, and the final signal is ultimately analyzed and received by the ARM Cortex M4-type controller. The final data arrive at the last unit and can be accessed by the end user [52,53].

2.2. Proposal for Software Infrastructure and Architectural Components

In accordance with the prospects for future use of Li-Fi networks for V2V interactions, the proposed algorithm validates and authenticates users in vehicles based on the queries it makes within the internal nomenclature, which includes all IDs and encryption codes related to users. The interaction between the device and the vehicle involves a database located at the level of the vehicle ECU infrastructure. The risk of information leakage is minimal due to the degree of encryption and the transmission of information through light, the identifiers being encrypted at the level of the internal stack without generating an exact reference to a specific device and constantly reinitialized every time they are reintegrated into the system. Regarding the security protocol for VLC-based networks such as Li-Fi, the process by which this occurs takes places in several stages. Devices are verified before connecting to the network and, if a device is in range, it receives a query asking for an access code and its verification leads to the first process. When the code is valid, the data are checked for identifiers and for whether there have been any previous logins. When the device authenticates and authorizes itself, the data are encrypted and sent within the network, with the traffic on that network being constantly monitored. In addition to these aspects, there are functions dedicated to the additional protection of the network from possible external attacks or penetrations.

Therefore, encrypting and transmitting data through a Li-Fi-type network can be achieved using a symmetric encryption algorithm. A symmetric encryption algorithm is based on the use of unique keys that encrypt and decrypt data. In a Li-Fi network, these keys are generated and distributed across the network to all devices. One example of an algorithm based on symmetric encryption is the advanced encryption standard (AES). According to specialist studies, it is considered one of the most viable and powerful algorithmic structures in terms of symmetric encryption, and it is used in more and more security standards and, now, in VLC [54].

The structure in this case could be implemented according to the following steps:

(a)

The header is initialized and a cryptographic key is generated for each ID (i.e., for each device on the network or each device that should connect to it);

(b)

The AES algorithm is used to encrypt the data and transmit them via the Li-Fi network;

(c)

The unique cryptographic keys are then sent to the connected devices to enable the decryption of the received data. Their form being that of the MD5 hash function, the unique identifier generated for each vehicle in the network can be inserted into their headers;

(d)

The keys are used to decrypt the data when they are received by the connected device.

The existence of new technologies dedicated to cryptography has a direct connection with quantum cryptography, which is advancing quickly around the world. Specifically, quantum cryptography involves quantum key distribution (QKD) and subsequent redistribution of a cryptographic key. Later, the degree of security can be proven by using new instantiations on the bases of computational complexity and processing with emerging quantum computers [55]. In QKD, the quantum key can be exchanged between network users in the form of light to increase security. When quantum sequences are iterated, they are measured post-processing to generate identical keys on both sides of the network. A first step in this direction is the QuINSiDa project, which is the first to incorporate a “QKD over Li-Fi”-type system [56]. This aspect makes QKD data transfer possible, which is more widely used in communications between buildings and offices. The project aims to demonstrate that a quantization-based data communication network can be flexible in its secure backbone infrastructure and can make the step to the vehicular area. In summary, the project aims to realize wireless data communication in a point-to-point scenario but, at the same time, simultaneously secure all individual communication channels through quantum keys [57].

An extremely important aspect in any network is maintaining the confidentiality of the generated key at all times and, in cases where new external connections are introduced, generating authentication keys after a certain time interval. The security of wireless networks and their data security routines are based on encrypted connections centered on protocols for data transmission, such as WPA2 or WP3. Another aspect of security is related to the use of firewalls, which limit access to networks and, at the same time, do not let external entities connect. In addition, two- or three-step authentication systems can be used to increase safety.

For our proposal regarding securing Li-Fi data communication networks for vehicles, we considered aspects related to the creation of an encryption and decryption algorithm to limit access to the infrastructure created. Li-Fi networks offer a high degree of security because this technology is bidirectional and can only be accessed through certain decoding procedures with dedicated systems. There are no generally valid programming languages that can be used to create security protocols in Li-Fi networks or to define a security standard to date. Therefore, this approach is extremely important for the scientific environment and, as a result of the experience accumulated in this field, presents a viable alternative through which this technology will soon be able to branch out into more fields. Even if technological advances favor communication based on the 802.11 p/a standard, 4G, 5G, and even 6G, the complementarity and usefulness of VLC are undeniable [58,59].

The encryption and formation of a security protocol at the physical level in a data network based on VLC could have the following structure (Algorithm 1).

Algorithm 1: Pseudocode for the encryption process for data at the physical level of the network.

from vlc_supp import SEC1_SUPP vlc = SEC1_SUPP(lifi0) vlc.set_network(‘usr’, ‘pass’, Li-Fi1#!2) vlc.enable_network()

In Algorithm 1, an attempt was made to create a much stronger encryption process compared to those known from the much more widespread networks that encrypt data within wireless networks. In the previously presented case, security keys are outlined in the function header, after which the imports are undertaken and the user and password are validated sequentially as the first iterator.

In Algorithm 2, a firewall-type procedure is outlined that can manage the network more efficiently, restrict access to it, and prevent external attacks. Towards the end, the created traffic network and its port are also highlighted. A final step in accomplishing the process of securing a network is authentication and the creation of a way to validate previous data. Therefore, in Algorithm 3, all the data from the encrypted validation files are imported, along with the user input data to be filled in by the handler, and the password is maintained at the same time as the credentials. All the data are saved in a nomenclator in the VLC database and requested for access and validation through iterative instance comparators. In the last stage, the algorithm decides whether access is allowed depending on the degree of portability of the user and the password.

Algorithm 2: Pseudocode for the import and filtering of access data for the generated address.

from ipvlctables import Iptablesvlc ipt = Ipvlctables() ipt.block_all_trafficvlc() ipt.allow_traffic(100.100.1.0/88)

Algorithm 3: Pseudocode for final validation and authentication in the created communication process.

from passlibvlc.hash import sha256_crypt usr = input(“Enter user: “) pass = input(“Enter pass: “) stored_passvlc = “hashed_pass_from_databasevlc” if shabvlc_crypt.verify(pass, stored_pass): print(“Access granted LiFI.”) else: print(“Access denied to Li-Fi.”)

The proposed architecture provides, using several LEDs, an authentication ID regarding the location and identification data for the vehicle, these being managed with cryptography [60,61]. The network undertakes the distribution of the authentication ID and the lighting sources, a process that increases the degree of security through power lines. Extremely high scalability can be achieved through the efficient management of IDs, highlighting how the use of VLC in a direct approach with new technologies can be extremely interesting. Therefore, ID management guarantees the validity of the IDs and offers a control mechanism through which the necessary data can be obtained. The combination of the existing infrastructure with the IDs generated through validation within the existing nomenclature with preset IDs interchangeable between vehicles offers a new security policy for optical communications.

3. Implementation and Results

The proposal was tested using various methods and tools based on the Linux operating system capable of intercepting data or connections, such as BackTrack and WireShark. These methods’ connections and their traffic management were analyzed. These aspects are important and each type of amendment was staged, which was the purpose of the study, starting from the unstructured ones and then the structured, external, and internal ones. In vehicular networks in particular, we can experience unstructured threats from other users without a high level of training; these practices are undertaken only out of pure curiosity and their method of operation is extremely easy to identify. These types of penetration are carried out by users who know the methods of operation and the vulnerabilities of networks and later develop scripts capable of disrupting access to them.

Vehicular network security and communications between infrastructure, pedestrians, cars, and intelligent traffic systems are extremely pressing topics for today’s society. Attacks from the outside can be initiated at the level of intelligent transportation systems (ITSs) by capable individuals who gain access to the entire infrastructure, generating chaos and panic in addition to pursuing extremely well-defined goals of controlling certain areas of activity. Many of the attacks from outside target issues that are closely related to bank fraud, personal information, and the mining of confidential data. Analyzing the subject in detail, persons with hidden intentions could take control of autonomous vehicles, as well as intelligent traffic systems. Attacks of an internal type, however—and at this moment it is much too early to take these aspects into account—have more to do with the accuracy and degree of security established by existing users and the way they set up their accounts.

Analysis of the Security Process and the Threats to Which the Network Is Exposed

When there are security and privacy concerns, in order to ensure reliable communication between the sender and the recipient, we need to perform certain tests that can give us feedback on the VLC’s compliance with the requirements imposed by other wireless systems. Therefore, the system proposed in this study aims to provide protection against external connections and rejects data assignment to other users outside the network or who may compromise the network. The proposed system does not fully behave like a commercial Internet network but, as shown by the simulation process, it provides the most important features: authenticity, confidentiality, integrity, and availability.

The authenticity feature aims to limit the introduction of messages into the communication channel that may disturb the receivers and prevent them from transmitting messages. The privacy feature imposes limits on data access to prevent disclosure of communication routes or routes created between senders and receivers. The integrity feature maintains the accuracy of content throughout its transmission from source to destination. If available, it prevents authentication from being given to unauthorized users, while for others, it requires access keys, in addition to the username and password. For such a system based on VLC to meet the mandatory requirements, several critical issues must be addressed in the final implementation. In the case of much more established communications, the network layer assumes all responsibilities of protecting the data and keeping them private from all points of view, including the legal and the commercial perspectives. In terms of the VLC channel, it can be vulnerable to attacks within vehicular networks, and the confidentiality of the data transmitted between the vehicles may be endangered. The measurements and tests presented here were carried out to track how a VLC system can be protected from various types of attacks in the network, such as flooding attacks, poisoning attacks, and cache attacks. These types are the ones that could endanger the integrity of the system, and this study proves that the security breaches in the case of VLC are much more critical than in the case of standard VANET communications (Figure 5).

According to the research carried out, the sources of and exposure to external risks can only come about when there are failures in the physical infrastructure or the system itself. Matrix data approaches and evolutionary determinants of attacks within the physical layers have been considered and these threats to VLC do not compromise data security and integrity. To penetrate a VLC network or a communication system based on this technology, dedicated modules and receivers are needed, and if the communication system behaves like a classic wireless network, the penetration procedure is difficult and the contamination time is relatively long (see Figure 6 and Figure 7).

Regarding the connectivity of such a network, the insertion of data packets capable of providing a perspective on the network through their iteration was also considered. Therefore, cascading data templates were used, and these were split into multiple data matrices that randomly populated the network. A premature conclusion regarding their capacity and accuracy should not be drawn, but, regarding the main aspect of security, there were many indications that confirmed that the data were in a network capable of providing them with a high degree of protection. As shown by Figure 8, no technical problems were encountered, and the data packet penetration process, which was constantly monitored, could not be derailed.

4. Discussion

Following the analysis of the proposal offered as a communication and security alternative, new directions were generated, especially concerning the use of VLC-RF and the two systems’ integration in lighting systems, both in public and in vehicle lighting systems, to achieve communication of permanent data and in complete safety. These new approaches can address extremely pressing problems in today’s society. It should not be overlooked that pollution and congestion are causes of traffic and mismanagement. The purpose of the proposal was to highlight the usefulness of VLC in systems other than the standard ones while, at the same time, indicating the high degree of security offered by the new standard compared to the existing ones. The communication through visible light employed in the proposed approach is performed in the PHY layers, resulting in unidirectional UDP connections in the first instance. The tests are in the early stages and have not passed the first stages where addresses are generated and packets with digital samples and minimal processing blocks are sent. Various parameters, sample rates, data rates, and modulation schemes have been studied, but no conclusions have yet been drawn, as these digital samples are routed internally without processing. An outline of a GNURadio-type processing block can be proposed that targets a future direction of being able to modulate the transmission bandwidth in both directions of the optical channel. When the intensity of the transmitted light is detected by a receiver and converted into an electrical current, unforeseen effects can occur. In this case, a file-type protection board on the transmitter–receiver path that can demodulate the received carrier signal is imperative. Thus, the data in

Table 3. Testbed routing.

Source	Next Node	Destination Node	Mask Address	Interface Connection
100.100.1.0	100.100.1.1	100.100.1.0	255.255.255.0	ethvlc0
100.100.2.0	100.100.2.2	100.100.2.0	255.255.255.0	ethvlc0
100.100.3.0	100.100.3.3	100.100.3.0	255.255.255.0	ethvlc0
100.100.4.0	100.100.4.4	100.100.4.0	255.255.255.0	ethvlc0
100.100.5.0	100.100.5.5	100.100.5.0	255.255.255.0	ethvlc0
100.100.6.0	100.100.6.6	100.100.6.0	255.255.255.0	ethvlc0
100.100.7.0	100.100.7.7	100.100.7.0	255.255.255.0	ethvlc0
100.100.8.0	100.100.8.8	100.100.8.0	255.255.255.0	ethvlc0
100.100.9.0	100.100.9.9	100.100.9.0	255.255.255.0	ethvlc0
100.100.10.0	100.100.10.10	100.100.10.0	255.255.255.0	ethvlc0
100.100.11.0	100.100.11.11	100.100.11.0	255.255.255.0	ethvlc0

were extracted from the first stage of analysis of the presented proposal. The sources were retrieved and identified as the main data providers within the network, while the nodes represented the control units with destinations and sources. Figure 8 presents the degree of security of the data exposed in the information transmission process, showing that they do not deviate in the process they follow, nor do they present certain violations.

Visible light communication is considered extremely important because it is a new physical environment that promises to alleviate the pressure hovering over the use of the RF spectrum. This tool is becoming more and more common, highlighting the performance of VLC in the case of end-to-end network integrations. The purpose of this article was to highlight the diverse applications of VLC, its complementarity with RF, and, in particular, to process of emergence through which it can have an important role within the same system. The VLC model was validated by the tests and the measurements undertaken, but there is a need for the independence of VLC to be finalized, and questions arise as to how it can be used with Wi-Fi and RF, encouraging proposals for hybrid networks at scale.

Instrumenting binaries with additional code sequences can be used to achieve a higher degree of routing by passing each instruction into the buffer dedicated to validation and generation of execution. Implementation at the architecture or prototype levels demonstrates leaps in tracking binary macs. Arguably, this implies the detection of unknown exploits from the previous parsing that trigger new routines in the buffer and create tags for system-wide validation.

Therefore, any type of attack against the networks outlined on board vehicles can be successfully mitigated because such attacks cannot be backed by classic exploitation techniques, penetration tests, buffer overflows, packet injection, or fake routines. Through such an approach, it is possible to ensure that the information is and will remain private and the data are kept within the ECUs until the moment of validation by the issuer and confirmation that the data can travel the unidirectional route. The major problem is created when binary tools need a larger number of binary tags; these must be extracted from multiple sources until MAC addresses can have one-byte characteristics with the ability to expose distinct tags for IDs, they must obtain contains eight characteristics generated for each. It is possible to limit the volume of data and the sources, but the goal is to secure a small dataset, which is a priority for optical communication dedicated to road safety and vehicular communication. A brake pressed suddenly in a major emergency triggers a request from a certain distance, and the existing cryptographic security process inserts labels for each VLC code and transmits them to the other sensors to verify the veracity of the data. The role of tags is to validate data from several sources: at least three tagging sources for each court validating code, cause code, or sub-cause code. These codes are already developed with a nomenclature dedicated to the traffic codes that the V2X–DSRC networks have, and they are called CAM and DENM messages. The presented solution is at an early stage and requires intensive study of the codes that the ECUs generate and analysis of data flows and the protocols they use, as well as identification of efficient ways of processing data in a relatively short time. The process cannot be used by all existing vehicles but may be an extremely important feature for future approaches.

5. Conclusions

When resource-intensive computing services employing big data are used and they contain location data or large-scale derivations, query requests also arise. They are encrypted and transmitted to vehicles to efficiently manage the processes carried out by the RSUs. The roadside control and management units can calculate the shortest routes to the desired destinations, a feature that transforms the network into a continuous flow of variants. In addition to these features, distance and location data are only captured at the user’s physical level of inquiry and are shown in standard CPSs. The transfer of information and its sharing between vehicles is undertaken through a different environment that can control each physical level and a layer of the sharable service query. When the data are collected, they are adjusted with on-board units capable of branching the information into distinct stages and iterative processes through which the filtering of the usual information from that of control and management is distinctly achieved. Regardless of the area in which communications are used or their type, keeping personal information confidential and encrypting it are of paramount importance. The future is extremely promising for the application and development of such systems but, at the same time, the accumulation of factors and the dangers to which individuals and users are exposed can create more identity and authentication intrusions. Location and destination monitoring may make new systems veritable maps of possible targets for malicious individuals. Another approach that the scientific community can consider is that of generating fake data for the external environment and constantly updating IDs, producing a model capable of maintaining some degree of discretion in terms of safety and security.