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

5G and beyond networks

This chapter investigates the Network Layer aspects that will characterize the merger of the cellular paradigm and the IoT architectures, in the context of the evolution towards 5G-and-beyond, including some promising emerging services as Unmanned Aerial Vehicles or Base Stations, and V2X communications

A Pragmatic View of MANET Performance Evaluation and Design of a Prototype MAC Level Routing Algorithm

Our goal in this research is to investigate and determine how to best support a challenging mobile wireless network based in a military operational environment. Since routing protocols used in mobile ad hoc networks (MANET) must adapt to frequent or continual changes of topology, while simultaneously limiting the impact of tracking these changes on wireless resources, we focused our initial research on improving the efficiency of route discovery. We proposed and designed a new MAC layer routing protocol that pursues reduced routing overhead, greater interaction of network protocol layers and passive neighbor/path discovery. This algorithm, called Virtual MAC Tag Switching (VMTS), evolved as we implemented a prototype in the ns-2 network simulator and conducted simulation analysis of existing protocols: DSDV, DSR and AODV. Upon analyzing the performance of existing routing protocols using pragmatic metrics not applied in any MANET literature it was found that current MANET models produce unsatisfactory performance. Subsequent analysis of transport layer protocol behaviors pinpointed the causes that undermine the performance of the existing protocols and would have thwarted VMTS as well

Resource Allocation and Performance Optimization in Wireless Networks

As wireless networks continue streaking through more aspects of our lives, it is seriously constrained by limited network resources, in terms of time, frequency and power. In order to enhance performance for wireless networks, it is of great importance to allocate resources smartly based on the current network scenarios. The focus of this dissertation is to investigate radio resource management algorithms to optimize performance for different types of wireless networks. Firstly, we investigate a joint optimization problem on relay node placement and route assignment for wireless sensor networks. A heuristic binary integer programming algorithm is proposed to maximize the total number of information packets received at the base station during the network lifetime. We then present an optimization algorithm based on binary integer programming for relay node assignment with the current node locations. Subsequently, a heuristic algorithm is applied to move the relay nodes to the locations iteratively to better serve their associated edge nodes. Secondly, as traditional goal of maximizing the total throughput can result in unbalanced use of network resources, we study a joint problem of power control and channel assignment within a wireless mesh network such that the minimal capacity of all links is maximized. This is essentially a fairness problem. We develop an upper bound for the objective by relaxing the integer variables and linearization. Subsequently, we put forward a heuristic approach to approximate the optimal solution, which tries to increase the minimal capacity of all links via setting tighter constraint and solving a binary integer programming problem. Simulation results show that solutions obtained by this algorithm are very close to the upper bounds obtained via relaxation, thus suggesting that the solution produced by the algorithm is near-optimal. Thirdly, we study the topology control of disaster area wireless networks to facilitate mobile nodes communications by deploying a minimum number of relay nodes dynamically. We first put forward a novel mobility model for mobile nodes that describes the movement of first responders within a large disaster area. Secondly, we formulate the square disk cover problem and propose three algorithms to solve it, including the two-vertex square covering algorithm, the circle covering algorithm and the binary integer programming algorithm. Fourthly, we explore the joint problem of power control and channel assignment to maximize cognitive radio network throughput. It is assumed that an overlaid cognitive radio network (CRN) co-exists with a primary network. We model the opportunistic spectrum access for cognitive radio network and formulate the cross-layer optimization problem under the interference constraints imposed by the existing primary network. A distributed greedy algorithm is proposed to seek for larger network throughput. Cross-layer optimization for CRN is often implemented in centralized manner to avoid co-channel interference. The distributed algorithm coordinates the channel assignment with local channel usage information. Thus the computation complexity is greatly reduced. Finally, we study the network throughput optimization problem for a multi-hop wireless network by considering interference alignment at physical layer. We first transform the problem of dividing a set of links into multiple maximal concurrent link sets to the problem of finding the maximal cliques of a graph. Then each concurrent link set is further divided into one or several interference channel networks, on which interference alignment is implemented to guarantee simultaneous transmission. The network throughput optimization problem is then formulated as a non-convex nonlinear programming problem, which is NP-hard generally. Thus we resort to developing a branch-and-bound framework, which guarantees an achievable performance bound

A Survey on UAV-enabled Edge Computing: Resource Management Perspective

Edge computing facilitates low-latency services at the network's edge by distributing computation, communication, and storage resources within the geographic proximity of mobile and Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices. The recent advancement in Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) technologies has opened new opportunities for edge computing in military operations, disaster response, or remote areas where traditional terrestrial networks are limited or unavailable. In such environments, UAVs can be deployed as aerial edge servers or relays to facilitate edge computing services. This form of computing is also known as UAV-enabled Edge Computing (UEC), which offers several unique benefits such as mobility, line-of-sight, flexibility, computational capability, and cost-efficiency. However, the resources on UAVs, edge servers, and IoT devices are typically very limited in the context of UEC. Efficient resource management is, therefore, a critical research challenge in UEC. In this article, we present a survey on the existing research in UEC from the resource management perspective. We identify a conceptual architecture, different types of collaborations, wireless communication models, research directions, key techniques and performance indicators for resource management in UEC. We also present a taxonomy of resource management in UEC. Finally, we identify and discuss some open research challenges that can stimulate future research directions for resource management in UEC.Comment: 36 pages, Accepted to ACM CSU

Localization Enhanced Mobile Networks

The interest in mobile ad-hoc networks (MANETs) and often more precisely vehicular ad-hoc networks (VANETs) is steadily growing with many new applications, and even anticipated support in the emerging 5G networks. Particularly in outdoor scenarios, there are different mechanisms to make the mobile nodes aware of their geographical location at all times. The location information can be utilized at different layers of the protocol stack to enhance communication services in the network. Specifically, geographical routing can facilitate route management with smaller overhead than the traditional proactive and reactive routing protocols. In order to achieve similar advantages for radio resource management (RRM) and multiple access protocols, the concept of virtual cells is devised to exploit fully distributed knowledge of node locations. The virtual cells define clusters of MANET nodes assuming a predefined set of geographically distributed anchor points. It enables fast response of the network to changes in the nodes spatial configuration. More importantly, the notion of geographical location can be generalized to other shared contexts which can be learned or otherwise acquired by the network nodes. The strategy of enhancing communication services by shared contexts is likely to be one of the key features in the beyond-5G networks

Mobile Ad hoc Networking: Imperatives and Challenges

Mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) represent complex distributed systems that comprise wireless mobile nodes that can freely and dynamically self-organize into arbitrary and temporary, "ad-hoc" network topologies, allowing people and devices to seamlessly internetwork in areas with no pre-existing communication infrastructure, e.g., disaster recovery environments. Ad hoc networking concept is not a new one, having been around in various forms for over 20 years. Traditionally, tactical networks have been the only communication networking application that followed the ad hoc paradigm. Recently, the introduction of new technologies such as the Bluetooth, IEEE 802.11 and Hyperlan are helping enable eventual commercial MANET deployments outside the military domain. These recent evolutions have been generating a renewed and growing interest in the research and development of MANET. This paper attempts to provide a comprehensive overview of this dynamic field. It first explains the important role that mobile ad hoc networks play in the evolution of future wireless technologies. Then, it reviews the latest research activities in these areas, including a summary of MANET\u27s characteristics, capabilities, applications, and design constraints. The paper concludes by presenting a set of challenges and problems requiring further research in the future

Interference Mitigation in Frequency Hopping Ad Hoc Networks

Radio systems today exhibit a degree of flexibility that was unheard of only a few years ago. Software-defined radio architectures have emerged that are able to service large swathes of spectrum, covering up to several GHz in the UHF bands. This dissertation investigates interference mitigation techniques in frequency hopping ad hoc networks that are capable of exploiting the frequency agility of software-defined radio platforms