A comprehensive survey of security threats, detection, countermeasures, and future directions for physical and network layers in cognitive radio networks

Cognitive radio is providing the solution to the challenges of spectrum scarcity. The central idea behind this technology is to use spectrum without interfering with the rights of primary users, allowing multiple users to use the spectrum at the same time. Thus, the goals are to avoid high-cost spectrum resetting and improving overall spectrum utilization. This technology brings the TCP/IP protocol stack's Physical, Data Link, and Network Layers up to date with reference to Cognitive radio technology. Furthermore, due to the dynamic nature of cognitive radio Networks, these can be easily physically or mentally hurt, influenced, or attacked: to a slew of new security flaws. We concentrated on various attacks that target the Physical, Medium Access Control, and Network layers in this paper. A comparison of current defenses against outside and inside attacks is also included, as is a discussion of the current detection mechanisms and their countermeasures. Moreover, the systematic review is conducted to look into various attack vectors or malicious activities that may degrade the performance of cognitive radio networks. In addition to this, various paper discusses various recent tools and techniques that can be used to diagnose potential threats on wireless ecosystem. This survey also highlights the fundamental security challenges for cognitive radio networks.

Automated summary

Cognitive radio technology provides a solution to spectrum scarcity while introducing new security challenges.