Mitigating primary user emulation attack in cognitive radio network using localization and variance detection

Abstract

Cognitive Radio (CR) mechanism brings the solution to the difficulty of spectrum inadequacy by distributing the unexploited spectrum to unlicensed users (Secondary Users) when the licensed users (Primary Users) are not using them so that transmission by primary user would not be distorted. To attain this, the CR dynamically regulates their physical and transmission parameters. The key characteristics of Cognitive radio, Cognitive Capability and Reconfigurability make the radio network vulnerable to security threats. One of the foremost intimidations is Primary User Emulation Attack (PUEA) performed by secondary user (or an attacker) by imitating the primary user characteristics at physical layer. In this paper, an algorithm is projected to distinguish primary user signal from others, through an energy-efficient localization mechanism and channel parameter variance, which is simulated in MATLAB environment and it is found to be an effective mechanism to authenticate primary user and mitigate the primary user emulation attack.