Fuzzy decision-making framework for explainable golden multi-machine learning models for real-time adversarial attack detection in Vehicular Ad-hoc Networks

This paper addresses various issues in the literature concerning adversarial attack detection in Vehicular Ad-hoc Networks (VANETs). These issues include the failure to consider both normal and adversarial attack perspectives simultaneously in Machine Learning (ML) model development, the lack of diversity preprocessing techniques for VANETs communication datasets, the inadequate selection guidelines for real-time adversarial attack detection models, and the limited emphasis on explainability in adversarial attack detection. In this study, we propose an original fuzzy decision-making framework that incorporates multiple fusion standpoints. Our framework aims to evaluate multi-ML models for real-time adversarial attack detection in VANETs, focusing on three stages. The first stage involves identifying and preprocessing Dedicated Short-Range Communication (DSRC) data using standard and fusion preprocessing approaches. Two communication scenarios, normal and jammed, are considered, resulting in two DSRC datasets. In the second stage, we develop multi-ML models based on the DSRC datasets using standard preprocessing and feature fusion preprocessing for dataset-1 and dataset-2, respectively. The third stage evaluates the multi-ML models using a fuzzy decision-making approach based on the Fuzzy Decision by Opinion Score Method (FDOSM) and an adversarial attack decision fusion matrix. The External Fusion Decision (EFD) settings of the FDOSM address individual ranking variance, provide a unique rank and select the best model. Experimental results demonstrate that the K-Nearest Neighbors Algorithm (kNN) model achieves the highest explain score of 0.2048 in dataset-1 using standard preprocessing, while the Random Forest (RF) model applied to dataset-2 using fusion preprocessing emerges as the most robust and golden model against adversarial attacks, with a score of 0.1819. This finding suggests that the fusion preprocessing approach using Principal Component Analysis (PCA) is more suitable for addressing normal and adversarial attack perspectives. Furthermore, our fuzzy framework undergoes evaluation in terms of systematic rank, sensitivity analysis, explainability analysis, and comparison analysis. Overall, this framework provides valuable insights for researchers and practitioners in VANETs, informing the execution, selection, and interpretation of multi-ML models to tackle adversarial attack detection problems effectively. The new fuzzy framework demonstrates that multi-ML models based on feature fusion preprocessing are more effective.