Spectrum sharing security and attacks in CRNs: a review

Cognitive Radio plays a major part in communication technology by resolving the shortage of the spectrum through usage of dynamic spectrum access and artificial intelligence characteristics. The element of spectrum sharing in cognitive radio is a fundament al approach in utilising free channels. Cooperatively communicating cognitive radio devices use the common control channel of the cognitive radio medium access control to achieve spectrum sharing. Thus, the common control channel and consequently spectrum sharing security are vital to ensuring security in the subsequent data communication among cognitive radio nodes. In addition to well known security problems in wireless networks, cognitive radio networks introduce new classes of security threats and challenges, such as licensed user emulation attacks in spectrum sensing and misbehaviours in the common control channel transactions, which degrade the overall network operation and performance. This review paper briefly presents the known threats and attacks in wireless networks before it looks into the concept of cognitive radio and its main functionality. The paper then mainly focuses on spectrum sharing security and its related challenges. Since spectrum sharing is enabled through usage of the common control channel, more attention is paid to the security of the common control channel by looking into its security threats as well as protection and detection mechanisms. Finally, the pros and cons as well as the comparisons of different CR - specific security mechanisms are presented with some open research issues and challenges

A Candour-based Trust and Reputation Management System for Mobile Ad Hoc Networks

The decentralized administrative controlled-nature of mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) presents security vulnerabilities which can lead to attacks such as malicious modification of packets. To enhance security in MANETs, Trust and Reputation Management systems (TRM) have been developed to serve as measures in mitigating threats arising from unusual behaviours of nodes. In this paper we propose a candour-based trust and reputation system which measures and models reputation and trust propagation in MANETs. In the proposed model Dirichlet Probability Distribution is employed in modelling the individual reputation of nodes and the trust of each node is computed based on the node’s actual network performance and the quality of the recommendations it gives about other nodes. Cooperative nodes in our model will be rewarded for expanding their energy in forwarding packets for other nodes or for disseminating genuine recommenda-tions. Uncooperative nodes are isolated and denied the available network resources. We employed the Ruffle algorithm which will ensure that cooperative nodes are allowed to activate sleep mode when their service is not required in forwarding packets for its neighbouring trustworthy nodes. The proposed TRM system enshrines fairness in its mode of operation as well as creating an enabling environment free from bias. It will also ensure a connected and capacity preserving network of trustworthy node

Economic incentive patterns and their application to ad hoc networks

While research about cooperation incentives for mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) is done only for a relative short period, there exists tremendous knowledge in the economic and social areas. Based on a new categorization of incentive patterns, we examine the relevant properties of each pattern and demonstrate their respective design alternatives and occurring challenges for the application to ad hoc networks. With a focus on trade based patterns, we found that negotiation about actions proves to be very complex or inefficient in MANETs. Another approach, the introduction of an artificial currency, also implies several problems like how to equip the entities with means of payment and how to secure liquidity. As a novelty, we introduce a new kind of incentive pattern following the concept of company shares. It suits well for MANETs because it can be shown that through the creation of individual currencies the above mentioned problems disappear

Multipath Routing of Fragmented Data Transfer in a Smart Grid Environment

The purpose of this paper is to do a general survey on the existing communication modes inside a smart grid, the existing security loopholes and their countermeasures. Then we suggest a detailed countermeasure, building upon the Jigsaw based secure data transfer [8] for enhanced security of the data flow inside the communication system of a smart grid. The paper has been written without the consideration of any factor of inoperability between the various security techniques inside a smart gridComment: 5 pages, 2 figure

Counteracting Selfish Nodes Using Reputation Based System in Mobile Ad Hoc Networks

A mobile ad hoc network (MANET) is a group of nodes constituting a network of mobile nodes without predefined and pre-established architecture where mobile nodes can communicate without any dedicated access points or base stations. In MANETs, a node may act as a host as well as a router. Nodes in the network can send and receive packets through intermediate nodes. However, the existence of malicious and selfish nodes in MANETs severely degrades network performance. The identification of such nodes in the network and their isolation from the network is a challenging problem. Therefore, in this paper, a simple reputation-based scheme is proposed which uses the consumption and contribution information for selfish node detection and cooperation enforcement. Nodes failing to cooperate are detached from the network to save resources of other nodes with good reputation. The simulation results show that our proposed scheme outperforms the benchmark scheme in terms of NRL (normalized routing load), PDF (packet delivery fraction), and packet drop in the presence of malicious and selfish attacks. Furthermore, our scheme identifies the selfish nodes quickly and accurately as compared to the benchmark scheme

On secure communication in integrated internet and heterogeneous multi-hop wireless networks.

Integration of the Internet with a Cellular Network, WMAN, WLAN, and MANET presents an exceptional promise by having co-existence of conventional WWANs/WMANs/WLANs with wireless ad hoc networks to provide ubiquitous communication. We call such integrated networks providing internet accessibility for mobile users as heterogeneous multi-hop wireless networks where the Internet and wireless infrastructure such as WLAN access points (APs) and base stations (BSs) constitute the backbone for various emerging wireless networks (e.g., multi-hop WLAN and ad hoc networks. Earlier approaches for the Internet connectivity either provide only unidirectional connectivity for ad hoc hosts or cause high overhead as well as delay for providing full bi-directional connections. In this dissertation, a new protocol is proposed for integrated Internet and ad hoc networks for supporting bi-directional global connectivity for ad hoc hosts. In order to provide efficient mobility management for mobile users in an integrated network, a mobility management protocol called multi-hop cellular IP (MCIP) has been proposed to provide a micro-mobility management framework for heterogeneous multi-hop network. The micro-mobility is achieved by differentiating the local domain from the global domain. At the same time, the MCIP protocol extends Mobile IP protocol for providing macro-mobility support between local domains either for single hop MSs or multi-hop MSs. In the MCIP protocol, new location and mobility management approaches are developed for tracking mobile stations, paging, and handoff management. This dissertation also provides a security protocol for integrated Internet and MANET to establish distributed trust relationships amongst mobile infrastructures. This protocol protects communication between two mobile stations against the attacks either from the Internet side or from wireless side. Moreover, a secure macro/micro-mobility protocol (SM3P) have been introduced and evaluated for preventing mobility-related attacks either for single-hop MSs or multi-hop MSs. In the proposed SM3P, mobile IP security has been extended for supporting macro-mobility across local domains through the process of multi-hop registration and authentication. In a local domain, a certificate-based authentication achieves the effective routing and micro-mobility protection from a range of potential security threats