Energy Detection Based Sensing for Secure Cognitive Spectrum Sharing in the Presence of Primary User Emulation Attack

Spectrum sensing, as a fundamental functionality of Cognitive Radio (CR), enables Secondary Users (SUs) to monitor the spectrum and detect spectrum holes that could be used. Recently, the security issues of Cognitive Radio Networks (CRNs) have attracted increasing research attention. As one of the attacks against CRNs, a Primary User Emulation (PUE) attack compromises the spectrum sensing of CR, where an attacker monopolizes the spectrum holes by impersonating the Primary User (PU) to prevent SUs from accessing the idle frequency bands. Energy detection is often used to sense the spectrum in CRNs, but the presence of PUE attack has not been considered. This study examined the effect of PUE attack on the performance of energy detection-based spectrum sensing technique. In the proposed protocol, the stationary helper nodes (HNs) are deployed in multiple stages and distributed over the coverage area of the PUs to deliver spectrum status information to the next stage of HNs and to SUs. On the other hand, the first stage of HNs is also responsible for inferring the existence of the PU based on the energy detection technique. In addition, this system provides the detection threshold under the constraints imposed on the probabilities of a miss detection and false alarm.