Authenticating hard decision sensing reports in cognitive radio networks

Cognitive radio networks sense spectrum occupancy and manage themselves to operate in unused bands without disturbing licensed users. Spectrum sensing can be more accurate if jointly performed by several nodes. In order to get a successful result, avoiding fake nodes’ inputs is required and so, it is necessary to authenticate their local sensing reports. A few authentication algorithms have been proposed up to now. However, they introduce a notable overhead in lightweight hard decision systems. In this paper we present an efficient protocol based on symmetric cryptography and one-way functions, and an analysis of its security features. The system allows determining a final sensing decision from multiple sources in a quick and secure way.