The detection of the spectrum sensing data falsification attack in cognitive radio ad hoc networks

Cognitive radio technology addresses the spectrum scarcity challenges by allowing unlicensed cognitive devices to opportunistically utilize spectrum band allocated to licensed devices. However, the openness of the technology has introduced several attacks to cognitive radios, one which is the spectrum sensing data falsification attack. In spectrum sensing data falsification attack, malicious devices share incorrect spectrum observations to other cognitive radios. This paper investigates the spectrum sensing data falsification attack in cognitive radio networks. We use the modified Z-test to isolate extreme outliers in the network. The q-out-of-m rule scheme is implemented to mitigate the spectrum sensing data falsification attack, where a random number m is selected from the sensing results and q is the final decision from m. The scheme does not require the services of a fusion Centre for decision making. This paper presents the theoretical analysis of the proposed scheme.