Effect of noisy channels in MAC-based SSDF counter-mechanisms for 5G cognitive radio networks

Cognitive radio, and more concretely cooperative spectrum sensing, has been identified as a promising solution for the spectrum scarcity in 5G cooperative wireless networks, which is envisaged as a fundamental part of the Internet of Everything. Cooperative spectrum sensing, however, is threatened by specific attacks such as Spectrum Sensing Data Falsification (SSDF) and Incumbent Emulation (IE) attacks, which have fostered relevant research works. Among these works, the most recent are based on lightweight cryptography that has shown noticeable efficiency when compared with its non-secure counterparts. In this paper we evaluate the efficiency of a cryptography-based SSDF counter-mechanism, based on message authenticated codes (MAC), under noisy channels, which cater for a more realistic vision than previous studies that consider error-free channels. The paper concludes that the MAC-based approach is still effective under realistic noisy channels, however it may have limitations in harsh wireless environments with high bit error probabilities.