Design considerations for a cognitive radio trust and security framework

In cognitive radio (CR) systems communication is not restricted to pre-assigned channels, but is rather able to opportunistically detect and use appropriate portions of spectrum. Although much research effort has been put into this new technology, the technical focus has been mainly directed towards pushing further the attainable spectral efficiency gains. Taking a step back, our work looks into the critical challenges with respect to reliability, robustness and security, which hinder operators from investing in this new technology. We propose a new conceptual framework for trust and security to be integrated with the performance architecture and protocols for CR networks (CRNs). Our target is increasing trustworthiness from users and operators perspective in support of their successful deployment.