AI-Driven Moving Target Defense for VANETs: Route Mutation via Multiagent Reinforcement Learning
摘要
VANETs are highly vulnerable to packet drop and route manipulation attacks due to their inherently distributed nature and rapidly changing topology. Traditional security mechanisms, such as multi-path routing and trust-based forwarding, are limited in practical deployment: the former introduces significant energy overhead, while the latter depends on complex and often unreliable trust evaluations. In this work, we introduce a novel MTD strategy enhanced by AI to dynamically and intelligently adapt routing paths, thereby increasing the uncertainty and cost for adversaries. Specifically, we design a Grid-based Extended Joint Action Learning framework (Grid-eJAL), which leverages MARL to implement an online and adaptive MTD policy tailored for VANETs. Unlike conventional route mutation schemes that rely on static topologies and centralized control, Grid-eJAL supports decentralized, real-time decision-making by enabling vehicles to share learned parameters, accelerating convergence without compromising autonomy. The physical region is partitioned into equal-sized grids, and the AI agent selects the next hop within the optimal grid based on minimum mobility angle and learned defense strategies. The theoretical foundations of Grid-eJAL ensure its convergence. Finally, comprehensive experiments demonstrate its superiority over advanced baseline methods in various adversarial scenarios.