A Novel Physical Layer Security Scheme in OFDM-Based Cognitive Radio Networks

In this paper, a physical-layer-security scheme for an underlay relay-based cognitive radio network (CRN) that uses orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) as the medium access technique is proposed. Resource allocation in relay-aided CRNs becomes a hard problem especially if it is under security threat. Different from conventional relay-based OFDM schemes, in the paper, we consider the relay network which has two dedicated relay nodes; one relay which is capable of subcarrier mapping forward the received signal to the destination and the other sends a jamming signal to add noise to the signal received by the eavesdropper. Optimization is performed under a unified framework where power allocation at the source node, power allocation, and subcarrier mapping in the relay network are optimized to maximize the secrecy rate of the CRN while satisfying the maximum transmission power constraints and the interference threshold of the PU. The power allocation problem at the forwarding relaying node is a nonconvex optimization problem. Therefore, at first, the optimization problem is simplified and a closed-form solution is obtained which satisfies the maximum PU interference constraint. Afterward, the optimization problem is solved for satisfying the maximum transmission power constraint. An algorithm is also proposed for subcarrier mapping at the forwarding relaying node. The proposed power allocation method and a subcarrier mapping scheme have low complexity, compared with the baseline schemes. Finally, simulation results are provided for different parameters to show the performance improvement of the proposed scheme in terms of secrecy rate.