VeriEST: Verification via primary user emulation signal-based test for secure distributed spectrum sensing in cognitive radio networks

Secure distributed spectrum sensing (DSS) schemes in cognitive radio networks (CRNs) have been proposed to reliably detect the signals of the primary users (PUs) even when compromised nodes generate forged sensing reports. However, they have limited sensing accuracy for PU signals because of the absence of exact signal patterns of PUs. This is caused by Federal Communications Commission restriction on (no modification of) PUs, and thus, the CRNs cannot communicate with the PUs to obtain such patterns. We propose a verification framework utilizing primary user emulation signals that can be applied to existing DSS schemes to address this challenge. This will reinforce the robustness against forged sensing values. We then develop a concrete verification scheme based on this framework and an existing secure DSS scheme. We evaluate our approach via in-depth simulation and analysis compared with the existing scheme. Results show that our approach improves sensing accuracy and fusion speed in the cases of attack.