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

Emulación de usuario primario en la red de radio cognitiva móvil: estudio

For emerging networks such as the mobile cognitive radio network, it is essential to study their possible attacks and thus generate detection strategies. Generally attacks are focused on only one layer of the OSI model, they have been studied for each layer from the physical level to the application level and have focused on fixed secondary users. In cognitive radio networks, the primary user emulation (PUE) is the most studied attack since it affects the entire cognitive cycle from the physical layer to the upper layers. This paper defines types of PUE attack and countermeasures, analyzing the effects on fixed and mobile secondary users and attackers.En el caso de las redes emergentes, como la red de radiocomunicaciones cognitivas móviles, es esencial estudiar sus posibles ataques y generar así estrategias de detección. Por lo general, los ataques se centran en una sola capa del modelo OSI, se han estudiado para cada capa desde el nivel físico hasta el nivel de aplicación y se han centrado en los usuarios secundarios fijos. En las redes de radiocomunicaciones cognitivas, la emulación de usuario primario (PUE) es el ataque más estudiado, ya que afecta a todo el ciclo cognitivo desde la capa física hasta las capas superiores. En este documento se definen los tipos de ataque PUE y las contramedidas, analizando los efectos en los usuarios secundarios fijos y móviles y en los atacantes

Synoptic analysis techniques for intrusion detection in wireless networks

Current system administrators are missing intrusion alerts hidden by large numbers of false positives. Rather than accumulation more data to identify true alerts, we propose an intrusion detection tool that e?ectively uses select data to provide a picture of ?network health?. Our hypothesis is that by utilizing the data available at both the node and cooperative network levels we can create a synoptic picture of the network providing indications of many intrusions or other network issues. Our major contribution is to provide a revolutionary way to analyze node and network data for patterns, dependence, and e?ects that indicate network issues. We collect node and network data, combine and manipulate it, and tease out information about the state of the network. We present a method based on utilizing the number of packets sent, number of packets received, node reliability, route reliability, and entropy to develop a synoptic picture of the network health in the presence of a sinkhole and a HELLO Flood attacker. This method conserves network throughput and node energy by requiring no additional control messages to be sent between the nodes unless an attacker is suspected. We intend to show that, although the concept of an intrusion detection system is not revolutionary, the method in which we analyze the data for clues about network intrusion and performance is highly innovative

Cognitive Radio for Smart Grid with Security Considerations

In this paper, we investigate how Cognitive Radio as a means of communication can be utilized to serve a smart grid deployment end to end, from a home area network to power generation. We show how Cognitive Radio can be mapped to integrate the possible different communication networks within a smart grid large scale deployment. In addition, various applications in smart grid are defined and discussed showing how Cognitive Radio can be used to fulfill their communication requirements. Moreover, information security issues pertained to the use of Cognitive Radio in a smart grid environment at different levels and layers are discussed and mitigation techniques are suggested. Finally, the well-known Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) is integrated with the Cognitive Radio part of a smart grid communication network to protect against unauthorized access to customer’s data and to the network at large

A Study on Techniques/Algorithms used for Detection and Prevention of Security Attacks in Cognitive Radio Networks

In this paper a detailed survey is carried out on the taxonomy of Security Issues, Advances on Security Threats and Countermeasures ,A Cross-Layer Attack, Security Status and Challenges for Cognitive Radio Networks, also a detailed survey on several Algorithms/Techniques used to detect and prevent SSDF(Spectrum Sensing Data Falsification) attack a type of DOS (Denial of Service) attack and several other  Network layer attacks in Cognitive Radio Network or Cognitive Radio Wireless Sensor Node Networks(WSNN’s) to analyze the advantages and disadvantages of those existing algorithms/techniques

Primary user emulation attack mitigation in cognitive radio networks.

M. Sc. Eng. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban 2014.The rapid progress in the number of users and applications in wireless communication have led to the problem of growing spectrum scarcity in recent years. This imminent spectrum scarcity problem is in part due to a rapidly increasing demand for wireless services and in part due to the inefficient usage of currently licensed spectrum bands. Cognitive radio (CR) is a new technology that is proposed to improve spectrum efficiency by allowing unlicensed secondary users to access the licensed frequency bands without interfering with the licensed primary users. A malicious secondary user can decide to exploit this spectrum access etiquette by mimicking the spectral characteristics of a primary user, and gain priority access to a wireless channel over other secondary users. This scenario is referred to in literature as Primary User Emulation Attack (PUEA). Though quite a lot of research efforts have been focused on the detection and defense strategy of PUEA in cognitive radio networks, less attention have been given to combating and mitigating PUEA in a cooperative spectrum sensing environment. This dissertation seeks to contribute to research in the field of cognitive radio networks through an investigation into the impacts of Primary User Emulation Attacks (PUEA) on cognitive radio networks, the problem of trust amongst users in the networks and also mitigating the activities of PUEA in the network. An analytical and system model for PUEA in cognitive radio networks is presented and its impacts are also studied using Neyman-Pearson Composite Hypothesis Test. The intention is to evict malicious users from the network and maximize spectrum utilization efficiency. To achieve this, techniques to verify that the source of spectrum occupancy information is from a genuine user are proposed. In a primary user emulation attack, malicious users tend to destruct the spectrum sensing process of a cognitive radio network by imitating the primary signal and deceive other secondary users from accessing vacant frequency bands. An energy detection cooperative spectrum sensing technique is proposed to mitigate this attack. This technique assists in the reduction of errors made by secondary users in detecting primary user signals in frequency bands considering the existence of PUEA in the network. The performance of our proposed method is compared to an existing energy detection spectrum sensing method that does not consider the existence of PUEA in the network. Simulated results show that the proposed method can effectively mitigate PUEA in a cognitive radio network

A Survey on the Communication Protocols and Security in Cognitive Radio Networks

A cognitive radio (CR) is a radio that can change its transmission parameters based on the perceived availability of the spectrum bands in its operating environment. CRs support dynamic spectrum access and can facilitate a secondary unlicensed user to efficiently utilize the available underutilized spectrum allocated to the primary licensed users. A cognitive radio network (CRN) is composed of both the secondary users with CR-enabled radios and the primary users whose radios need not be CR-enabled. Most of the active research conducted in the area of CRNs has been so far focused on spectrum sensing, allocation and sharing. There is no comprehensive review paper available on the strategies for medium access control (MAC), routing and transport layer protocols, and the appropriate representative solutions for CRNs. In this paper, we provide an exhaustive analysis of the various techniques/mechanisms that have been proposed in the literature for communication protocols (at the MAC, routing and transport layers), in the context of a CRN, as well as discuss in detail several security attacks that could be launched on CRNs and the countermeasure solutions that have been proposed to avoid or mitigate them. This paper would serve as a good comprehensive review and analysis of the strategies for MAC, routing and transport protocols and security issues for CRNs as well as would lay a strong foundation for someone to further delve onto any particular aspect in greater depth

Wireless communication, sensing, and REM: A security perspective

The diverse requirements of next-generation communication systems necessitate awareness, flexibility, and intelligence as essential building blocks of future wireless networks. The awareness can be obtained from the radio signals in the environment using wireless sensing and radio environment mapping (REM) methods. This is, however, accompanied by threats such as eavesdropping, manipulation, and disruption posed by malicious attackers. To this end, this work analyzes the wireless sensing and radio environment awareness mechanisms, highlighting their vulnerabilities and provides solutions for mitigating them. As an example, the different threats to REM and its consequences in a vehicular communication scenario are described. Furthermore, the use of REM for securing communications is discussed and future directions regarding sensing/REM security are highlighted