Secure broadcasting in cooperative cognitive radio networks

This paper explores the trade-off between cooperation and secrecy in cognitive radio networks. We consider a scenario consisting of a primary and a secondary system. In the simplest case, each system is represented by a pair of transmitter and receiver. We assume a secrecy constraint on the transmission in the sense that the message of the primary transmitter has to be concealed from the secondary user. Both situations where the secondary transmitter is aware and unaware of the primary message are investigated and compared. Furthermore, we extend our results to the scenario where the secondary system comprises multiple users. For each case we sketch the derivation of the rates that are achievable from an information theoretic perspective. We then investigate the findings by numerical simulations. Our main result is that, in spite of the secrecy constraint, cooperation is beneficial in terms of the achievable rates. The secondary transmitter has the two contradicting tasks of helping the primary system and transmitting its own message. Our results show that both tasks can be accomplished simultaneously, improving both systems´ performance. In particular, the secondary system can achieve a significant rate without decreasing the primary rate below the benchmark rate achievable without the help of the secondary transmitter. In the case of multiple secondary users, the rate region reduces, which results in a lower individual rate. However, the linear increase in sumrate counterbalances this effect.