Security for Cognitive Radio Networks

Most of the frequency spectrum bands have already been licensed, and the licensed spectrum is not being utilized efficiently. Cognitive Radio Networks (CRNs) are the kind of full duplex radio that automatically altered its transmission or reception parameters, in such a way that the entire wireless communication network of which it is a node communicates efficiently, while avoiding interference with primary or secondary users. In this chapter, the authors introduce the concept of security threats that may pose a serious attack in CRN. Due to the unique characteristics of CRN, such network is highly vulnerable to security attacks compared to wireless network or infrastructure-based wireless network. The main objective of this chapter is to assist CR designers and the CR application engineers to consider the security factors in the early development stage of CR techniques. Challenges and various security issues are explored with respect to OSI (Open Systems Interconnection) reference model. Various possible and attacks are discussed broadly and respective solutions are also proposed by this chapter. Different architectures and models are also explained, and compared with the existing models.