Cluster based cooperative spectrum Sensing for cognitive radio networks

Abstract

Recent advances in wireless communication have led to the problem of growing spectrum scarcity. As new wireless applications are emerging, day after another the demand for spectrum augment makes the available spectrum scarcer. However large portion of the allocated spectrum has been underutilized leading to inefficiency. Cognitive Radio (CR) is a new technology that enables an unlicensed Secondary Users (SUs) to coexist with the licensed Primary Users (PUs) in licensed spectrum bands without inducing interference to the licensed PUs communication. This technology can significantly alleviate the spectrum scarcity problem and improve the efficiency of spectrum utilization. Cognitive Radio Networks (CRN) or Dynamic Spectrum Access Networks have been created by several CR nodes and they are often called as NeXt Generation (XG) communication networks. The goal of the XG communication network is to provide high bandwidth to the mobile users via heterogeneous wireless architectures and dynamic spectrum access techniques. The CRNs have attracted immense research interest in the recent years. However, research on the security aspects of CRNs has been inadequate. The CRN is similar to the wireless network and the wireless media is open air, it is more vulnerable to the attacks as compared to that of the wired network. Data in the wireless media may be eavesdropped or altered without notice and the channel might be jammed or worn-out by the adversaries. Consequently it is very crucial to provide a secured spectrum sensing in CRN. The spectrum underutilization issue can be easily resolved in CR, by adjusting the secondary clients without the necessity of any allowance from primary clients. As the secondary clients detect the spectrum opportunistically, they acquire more security issues in CRNs newline