SafeDSA: Safeguard Dynamic Spectrum Access against Fake Secondary Users

Dynamic spectrum access (DSA) is the key to solving worldwide wireless spectrum shortage. In a DSA system, unlicensed secondary users can opportunistically use a spectrum band when it is not used by the licensed primary user. The open nature of the wireless medium means that any secondary user can freely use any given spectrum band. Secondary-user authentication is thus essential to ensure the proper operations of DSA systems. We propose SafeDSA, a novel PHY-based scheme for authenticating secondary users in DSA systems. In SafeDSA, the secondary user embeds his spectrum-use authorization into the cyclic prefix of each physicallayer symbol, which can be detected and authenticated by a verifier. In contrast to previous work, SafeDSA achieves robust and efficient authentication of secondary users with negligible impact on normal data transmissions. We validate the efficacy and efficiency of SafeDSA through detailed MATLAB simulations and USRP experiments. Our results show that Safe...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2015
• Where: CCS
• Authors: Xiaocong Jin, Jingchao Sun, Rui Zhang 0007, Yanchao Zhang
• Keywords: CCS 2015, Security Privacy