FL-SATS: Federated Learning for Sybil Attack Detection in Transportation System

Author First name, Last name, Institution

Muhammad Asad, Zayed University
Safa Otoum, Zayed University

Document Type

Conference Proceeding

Source of Publication

IEEE International Conference on Communications

Publication Date

9-26-2025

Abstract

The Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) is advancing with enhanced vehicular networks, making security a critical concern. A major threat to these networks is Sybil attacks, where adversaries forge multiple identities to compromise the system. We propose Federated Learning for Sybil Attack Detection in Transportation Systems (FL-SATS), a mechanism leveraging federated learning for detecting Sybil attacks in ITS. FL-SATS employs a unique three-tier model aggregation at the Roadside Unit, Roadside Controller, and Software-Defined Network Controller, achieving high accuracy. Our results show that FL-SATS outperforms traditional methods with a detection accuracy of 98.7% in baseline Sybil attacks, and 98.5% in highdensity traffic. Moreover, the fuzzy logic-based vehicle selection mechanism optimizes localized training, further reducing detection latency to 20 ms and lowering communication overhead by up to 33% compared to centralized learning approaches. These results establish FL-SATS as a robust solution for securing vehicular communication.

ISBN

[9798331505219]

ISSN

1550-3607

Publisher

IEEE

First Page

3376

Last Page

3381

Disciplines

Computer Sciences

Keywords

Federated Learning, Intelligent Transportation System, Software-Defined Vehicular Network, Sybil Attack Detection

Scopus ID

105018463815

Indexed in Scopus

yes

Open Access

no

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