The security in cognitive radio networks

Abstract

Recent developments of wireless communication lead to the problem of growing spectrum shortage. Cognitive radio, as a novel technology, tends to solve this problem by dynamically utilizing the spectrum. Security in cognitive radio network becomes a challenging issue, since more chances are given to attackers by cognitive radio technology compared to general wireless network. These weaknesses are introduced by the nature of cognitive radio, and they may cause serious impact to the network quality of service. However, at present there are no specific secure protocols for cognitive radio networks. Motivated by this, the current state of art in security of cognitive radio network is reviewed in this paper. We focus on analyzing the security system at the macroscopic level, where both protection and detection are significant parts for ensuring security of the whole network. Special characteristics of cognitive radio network in different protocol layers are also investigated, such as physical layer, link layer, network layer, transport layer and application layer.