Two-Tier Device-Based Authentication Protocol Against PUEA Attacks for IoT Applications

Securing Internet of Things (IoT) applications is complicated by the limited power and processing capabilities of a typical sensor node. This paper proposes a protocol and a method of spectrum management that can guard against common types of security threats despite the limitations of the local processing. With a hierarchical cognitive IoT architecture, this paper incorporates the strengths of cognitive radio and the physical properties of a device to improve the performance of a cognitive radio sensor network (CRSN) and resolve the security problem, considering one of the most destructive attacks in CRSNs called the primary user emulation attack (PUEA). Accordingly, for delivering trustable services, we explore the tradeoff between spectrum management and the successful detection rate of malicious nodes. The proposed distributed secure algorithm allows the sensing sensors and the tasking nodes to perform a detection and identification mechanism such that dynamic spectrum management and correct spectrum decision can be achieved. The experimental results show that the proposed secure system provides a significant protection against the PUEA attacks.