| With the advent of cognitive radios, existing wireless networks are expected to undergo a radical change in how they operate. Traditional wireless devices operate in fixed frequency bands and follow fixed network protocols set at the time of manufacture, unlike the emerging wireless devices based on cognitive radio technology which are expected to operate across multiple frequency bands with a variety of protocols that can change over the life of the device. While the wireless networks in which a cognitive radio device operates may implement device authentication, integrity checks and other higher-layer security mechanisms; the possibility of physical layer attacks, such as jamming attacks, still exists. This research work focuses on identifying potential cognitive radio specific physical layer attacks. In particular, we investigate vulnerabilities that may prevent CR communication in specific bands, completely deny a cognitive radio to communicate or induce it to cause harmful interference to existing users; so called denial-of-service attack. In the process, we identify, analyze, and assess the risk level posed by the potential attacks in the different CR design paradigms proposed by different research groups. Further, this work recommends the most and least susceptible of the CR design paradigms under consideration. More succinctly, this research addresses the potential cognitive radio security related question: "Which potential DoS attacks are cognitive radios susceptible to, what are the risks they represent, which security mechanisms can be employed to forestall the high-priority risk attacks, and which CR designs are the most susceptible to the critical risks?"... |
