Lightweight key management in distributed multi-channel cognitive radio networks

In this paper, lightweight identity-based and certificate-based distributed key management algorithms are proposed for self-organized multi-channel cognitive radio networks. Both key management schemes use threshold secret sharing. In identity-based scheme, after system initialization, each cognitive radio sends its channel key request to distributed private key generators. Then, it can construct the channel key based on its received shares. In certificate-based scheme, channel certificate can be constructed by receiving certificate authority shares at the cognitive radio. Simulation results show that the proposed identity-based and certificate-based schemes significantly increase the average battery life of cognitive radios and decrease the traffic overhead in multi-channel cognitive radio networks.