The design and implementation of a robust scheme to combat the effect of malicious nodes in cognitive radio ad hoc networks

Abstract

A cognitive radio network, which enables dynamic spectrum access, addresses the scarcity of radio spectrum caused by ever-increasing demand for spectrum. Cognitive radio technology ensures the efficient utilisation of underutilised licenced spectrum by secondary users (SUs). SUs sense the radio environment before utilising the available spectrum to avoid signal interference. The SUs cooperatively sense the spectrum to ensure a global view of the network. Unfortunately, cooperative sensing is vulnerable to Byzantine attacks whereby SUs falsify the spectrum reports for selfish reasons. Hence, this study proposes the implementation of a scheme to combat the effects of Byzantine attack in cognitive radio networks. The proposed scheme, known as the extreme studentized cooperative consensus spectrum sensing (ESCCSS), was implemented in an ad hoc cognitive radio network environment where the use of a data fusion centre (DFC) is not required. Cognitive radio nodes perform their own data fusion before making spectrum access decisions. They fuse their own reports with reports from neighbouring nodes. To evaluate the performance of our scheme and its effectiveness in combating the effect of Byzantine attack, comparative results are presented. The comparative results show that the ESCCSS outperformed the Attack-Proof Cooperative Spectrum Sensing scheme.