Enforcing Dynamic Spectrum Access with Spectrum Permits
Lei Yang
Zengbin Zhang
Ben Y. Zhao
Christopher Kruegel
Haitao Zheng
Proceedings of the 13th International Symposium on Mobile Ad Hoc Networking and Computing (MobiHoc 2012)
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Paper Abstract
Dynamic spectrum access is a maturing technology that allows next
generation wireless devices to make highly efficient use of wireless
spectrum. Spectrum can be allocated on an on-demand basis for a given
geographic location, time duration and frequency range. However, a
major obstacle to adoption remains. There are no effective solutions to
protect licensed users from spectrum misuse, where users transmit
without properly licensing spectrum, and in doing so, interfere and
disrupt legitimate flows to whom the spectrum is assigned. Given the
flexibility of today's cognitive radios, an application can easily
transmit on frequencies outside of its allocated range, either
accidentally due to misconfiguration, or intentionally to avoid spectrum
licensing costs. In this paper, we propose a system to secure dynamic
spectrum transmissions, where authorized users embed secure spectrum
permits into data transmissions, thus enabling patrolling trusted
devices to detect devices transmitting without authorization. We focus
our attention on the development of spectrum permits, and describe
Gelato, a spectrum misuse detection system that minimizes both
hardware costs and performance overhead on legitimate data
transmissions.