Hammer Model Threat Assessment of Cognitive Radio Denial of Service Attacks

With the advent of cognitive radios, existing wireless networks are expected to undergo a radical change in how they operate. Traditional wireless devices operate in fixed frequency bands and follow fixed network protocols set at the time of manufacture, unlike the emerging wireless devices based on cognitive radio technology which are expected to operate across multiple frequency bands with a variety of protocols that can change over the life of the device. While the wireless networks in which a cognitive radio device operates may implement device authentication, integrity checks and other higher-layer security mechanisms; the possibility of physical layer attacks, such as jamming attacks, still exists. This research work focuses on assessing potential cognitive radio specific physical layer attacks using the so-called Hammer model. In particular, we investigate vulnerabilities that may prevent CR communication in specific bands, completely deny a cognitive radio to communicate or induce it to cause harmful interference to existing users; so called denial-of-service attacks. In the process, we identify, analyze, and assess the risk level posed by the potential attacks in the different CR design paradigms proposed by different research groups. Further, this work recommends the most and least susceptible of the CR design paradigms under consideration.