Cognitive radio: Primary user emulation attacks and remedies

As the proliferation of wireless handheld devices such as laptops, smart phones, tablets grows exponentially, new technologies have to be adopted to efficiently use the Radio Frequency Spectrum. Opportunistic Spectrum Access (OSA) network offers a promising solution to improve spectrum utilization and efficiency by harnessing the available spectrum resources in real-time. However, participants in the OSA network can comprise of malicious adversaries who adopt dishonest and non-cooperative strategies to attack the network. In this paper, we focus on a critical attack on the OSA network: Primary User Emulation (PUE). In a PUE attack, the malicious adversary violates spectrum sharing etiquette by impersonating the primary user at the expense of other unselfish secondary users. We present the various strategies and countermeasures to mitigate the effects of PUE Attack. Relevant patents are also discussed.