A Framework for Secure Cooperative Spectrum
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Sensing based with Blockchain and Deep
Learning model in Cognitive Radio
Neelam Dewangan1, Arun Kumar2, R.N. Patel3
1
Chhattisgarh Swami Vivekananda Technical University, Bhilai
2
Bhilai Institute of Technology, Durg
3
National Institute of Technology, Raipur
E-mail : neelam.dewangan28@gmail.com, arun.kumar@gmail.com, rnpatel@gmail.com
Abstract-Today we live in era where not only humans
interact but machines interact too. Internet of Things
has disrupted the communication with an enormous
growth in number of connected devices worldwide.
This resulted in big challenges to meet the spectrum
requirement of these devices such as seamless
connectivity, scalability and accessibility. Cognitive
Radio (CR) is designed to meet the requirement since
it uses spectrum holes in the licensed bands. Security
issues put at risk spectrum sensing, a crucial part of
the Cognitive Radio Network (CRN).A malicious user
(MU) reduces the accuracy of spectrum sensing,
particularly in the situation of cooperative spectrum
sensing where MU transmits fabricated data to the
fusion centre.The performance of cognitive radios may
suffer from the presence of such MU in the system that
create erroneous sensing data. As a result, this paper
proposes a Blockchain-based method for MU detection
in networks.This strategy makes it simple to
distinguish between a trustworthy user and a MU
using cryptographic keys. The effectiveness of the
suggested technique is examined using python tool.
The proposed method detects Malicious user with 100
% efficiency in very less sensing time of 0.6ms. The
results were also compared with adaptive threshold,
FOF and TTA algorithms.
Keywords—cognitive radio, blockchain,
sensing, malicious user
I.INTRODUCTION
Making appropriate use of the spectrum as the
number of communication devices increases, is
today’s fuelled issue. Cognitive Radios (CR) are
composed of inventive systems that can effectively
sense its environment to locate free bands of
licenced user or primary users (PU). Secondary
Users (SUs) can more easily access the spectrum
that Primary Users (PUs) aren't using thanks to
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cognitive radios (PUs). Such access to spectrum can
be provided only when the active SU in the
cooperative network does not interfere with the
transmissions of PU. One of the numerous roles of
CR is spectrum sensing. Other functions include
spectrum sharing, spectrum access, and mobility and
control of the spectrum [1]. There are huge
challenges in the implementation of CRN as it has to
deal with ever changing radioenvironment, the MAC
layer of these users has to handle these tasks
properly. These limits, in contrast to the current
static spectrum laws, make the implementation of
CRN highly complex. Opportunistic spectrum
access (OSA) is a concept that has gained popularity
recently in an effort to drastically increase spectrum
utilisation [2,7]. The SUs must be able to
dynamically seek out and seize chances within the
permissible spectrum in a multitude of dimensions,
including time, frequency, code, and others, in order
to accomplish this. The OSA protocol must therefore
include capabilities for spectrum access and sensing.
The primary components of a low-cost OSA
protocol style are spectrum sensing, allocation,
access, sharing, and quality. Spectrum scarcity has
been alleviated through cognitive radio [3]. SU can
spectrum
use cognitive radio to send data in unlicensed
frequency without obstructing the use of the
operational licenced spectrum. Prior to this,
spectrum was fixedly assigned, preventing fixed
users from utilising anything other than licenced
frequency. Smart spectrum sensing enables this type
of safe network sensing. By moving on to higher
quality channels before potential malicious user
(MU) jamming efforts, it may successfully avoid
them. When less bandwidth is needed, it uses a
power-saving strategy by speaking at a low volume.
This smart radio improves Quality of Service (QoS)
by selecting frequency channels with an acceptable
1
Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR).[6].
Cognitive radio has assisted in addressing the
spectrum shortage, however there are still issues
with its practical use. When CRN is implemented,
the first decision to be made is whether to use a
distributed or centralised architecture. The complex
process of learning, which entails keeping track of
previous actions and using that knowledge to modify
future behaviour, is another problem. CRN's security
issue has received the most attention [4]. This is
because many wireless devices have access to the
licenced spectrum that PU uses, which makes them
vulnerable to MU attacks. CRN faces novel security
issues that are directly tied to cognitive radio
capabilities, in addition to security-related issues
including data forgery, emulation, Journal Pre-proof
Journal Pre-proof assault on PU, eavesdropping,
manipulation, and non-cooperation. h cognitive
radio.The Blockchain concept is used in this paper to
suggest a method for enhancing the security of CR
networks during spectrum sensing.As a result,
security challenges wits have become the most
popular research topic [5]. Following are the main
contributions of the proposed work:
x Blocks of PU and SU’s are created and the
malicious user is detected on the basis of
digital signatures.
x We have employed deep learning model for
spectrum sensing and the efficiency of the
algorithm is validated through results.
II.RELATED WORK
Numerous articles that study this topic have been
published because it is a typical problem to find
rogue users. In [10], a brand-new technique for
identifying malicious users is described. It utilises
the cooperative spectrum sensing outlier detection
feature of cognitive radios. The method suggested in
the article [9] runs independently of any harmful
users that may be present on the network, and
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malicious users are found and eliminated through
cooperative sensing. In a cognitive radio system, a
method for the simultaneous detection and
suppression of risky users is provided [11]. The
spatial correlation of Received Signal Strength
(RSS) close to the SU and outlier detection are used
in a decentralised system in [13] to identify the
malicious user. It is advised to employ a voting
method to assess whether dangerous users are
present close to SUs. In [14], another method for
identifying dishonest and malicious users is
proposed. It makes use of two Hidden Markov
Models (HMM). The discrepancy between the
corresponding HMM parameters allow for this
detection. In a different study [12], a proposed
method is employed to accurately identify intelligent
MUs and SUs.It is based on the concept of friend
and foe detection approach. Some suggested defence
tactics against Primary User Emulation (PUE)
assaults are available. A cooperative system that
may launch assaults while being aware of PUE
damaging attacks is proposed. The likelihood of a
false signal from a PUE attack is assessed in both
the absence and presence of PUE assaults. In order
to lower the overall error probability, threshold is
computed. [14]
III.PROPOSED METHODOLOGY
This section will talk about a Blockchain-based
framework for secure spectrum sensing. To begin
with the model first each and every user i.e., Primary
as well as Secondary users will create blocks to enter
in blockchain system. Structure of the blocks are
described in detail in the previous section. Now, the
spectrum sensing will be done by the deep learning
model which is based on LSTM integrated AlexNet
described in [3,4]. Figure 1 shows schematic of
LSTM integrated AlexNet model for spectrum
sensing. After spectrum sensing malicious nodes
will be detected with the help of Blockchain
technology [5]
 Figure 1. Spectrum sensing with LSTM integrated AlexNet [4]

3.1 System Design of Cognitive based blockchain
The schematic for a blockchain-based cognitive
radio network is shown in Figure 1. Here, we are
assuming a distributed scenario in which all SUs
submit their detection to the fusion centre, which
then determines whether the PU is active or not
according on some rules. Consider a network of
cognitive radios with a sizable PU and SU
population. Figure 2 shows that PUs is still within
their useful transmission range even when they are
dispersed from SUs. In this approach of cooperative
sensing, all nodes work together to get the intended
outcome. The sensing phase starts when the
spectrum sensing starts and lasts until it is decided
by consensus whether the user is genuine or
malicious. Blockchain have been implemented on
CRN, connecting PUs and SUs in a peer-to-peer
topology, making our network completely
decentralised. We only employ one PU and N SUs
for convenience. The Blockchain implementation for
CRNs' spectrum sensing is clearly seen in Figure 6.
The words "PUs" and "SUs" are frequently used to
refer to CR users.Every CR user is connected to
every other user decentralised. They are now hash-
to-hash related to one another. Below is a
description of the four different sorts of information
that each block of CR users contains.

Figure 2 . Schematic of BlockChain based Cognitive radio Network

a) A hash is a unique key created by the SHA256
algorithm. A special key is given to each user;
this key serves as their public key. The users in
the block after them are aware of this key. It is,
to put it simply, a network shared key.
b) Sense Outcome: This part of the block contains
the information. It provides information on the
results of sensing using the energy detection
method.
c) Private Key: Only the CR user has access to the

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 specific identification key for each block. The Algorithm 2: LSTM integrated AlexNet
method we offer generates a 16-bit key that Sl. No. LSTM integrated AlexNet
serves as a private key. 1 Initialize ߠ with random weights
d) Previous Hash: It contains the hash value from 2 Set iteration to 1
the previous node. The nodes are connected and 3 Collect the samples (K,L) according to
sense cooperatively. eqn (2), (3)
4 Whileiter൑ maxiteration do
Steps for proposed methodology has been explained 5 Update ߠ with SGD
below: 6 ݅െ݅൅ͳ
3.2 Blockchain creation 7 End while
First and foremost step is to create blocks for all the 8 Return decision
nodes present in the Cognitive Radio Network
(CRN). The licensed nodes are referred to as
primary user (PU) nodes whereas the opportunistic
ones are called as secondary user (SU) node or
cognitive radio (CR) node.Algorithm 1describes
pseudo code for blocks creations both for PU and
SU. The blocks will contain private key with
information about authentication codes whereas
public key will contain information such as status of
the node, general information etc.

Algorithm 1: Blocks Creation

Algorithm 1: Conversion into blocks
S.No. Input: Nodes in CRN Network, 1
primary node and remaining‫ ܯ‬െ ͳ
secondary nodes
1 Output:Node blocks for each primary
node and secondary node
2 For݅ ൌ ͳ‫ܯ݋ݐ‬
3 IF licenced user
4 Create Primary Node
5 ELSE
Figure3. Flow Chart of BlockChain and Deep
6 Create Secondary Node
Learning model based Cognitive radio Network
7 ELSEIF
3.4Malicious user detection
3.3 LSTM integrated AlexNet Deep Learning model After the creation of blocks and local spectrum
for spectrum sensing
sensing based on CNN, the next step becomes
The Energy and Eigen statistics of the primary Malicious User (MU) detection. They are detected
blocks are extracted through the convolution layers on the basis of digital signatures. The nodes whether
of the AlexNet architecture of Convolutional Neural
it is PU or SU are verified on the basis of private key
Network (CNN) model and then the spectrum and public key associated with each node. It is to be
sensing is done locally at every SU node. Figure 3
noted that whenever the digital signature is verified
shows complete flowchart of secure spectrum then the user will be authenticated and referred to as
sensing based on block chain and LSTM integrated Trusted User (TU) and if the signature is not verified
AlexNet. Here, after the local spectrum sensing
then then the authentication is failed and such
performed at each SU node, the user is validated malevolent node or user is referred to as MU.
with blockchain technology, thereafter the results are
Whenever nodes are identified as MU, the model is
sent to the fusion centre which then applies K-out- evaluated on following parameters [5]:
of-N Rule to decide whether the spectrum is present
or not.Algorithm 2gives the pseudo code of the 1. Probability of False Alarm:It is the ratio of
LSTM integrated ALexNet. number of times the model fails to recognize MU

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and TU with the total number of iterations or it may (TTA)[9] is 0.75 and 0.3 respectively. It is worth to
be also called as missed number of detections of TU be noted that in sensing time 0.9ms the values of the
and MU. Mathematically, proposed method approaches to one whereas for
࡮ ‫׎‬′ࡹࢁ FOF it is 0.5, for TTA is 0.6 (approx), adaptive
च࡮
ሺࡲ࡭ሻ ൌ ૚ െ चሺࡹࢁሻ ൌ (1)
ल threshold also performs better that FOF and TTA
Where, च࡮
ሺࡲ࡭ሻ is the probability of blockchain based and it approches to 0.96.
false alarm, च࡮ ሺࡹࢁሻ is the probability of blockchain
based malicious user detection, ‫׎‬′ࡹࢁ is described as
the number of times malicious user was failed to be
detected and लcan be called as number of iterations.
2. Probability of missed detection:It is the
number of times Trusted user is failed to
authenticate. It is given by,
‫׎‬Ԣ
च࡮ ࢓࢏࢙࢙ࢋࢊሺࡹࢁሻൌ ल
ࢀࢁ
(2)
Ԣ
Where, ‫ ࢁࢀ׎‬is the number of times trusted user is
not predicted.
3. Probability of MU detection : It is the
number of times MU is identified in effective
iterations divided by the total number of iterations.
i.e. Figure 4. Probability of detection vs sensing time for
‫ࢁࡹ׎‬
च࡮ ሺࡹࢁሻൌ ल (3) adaptive threshold, FOF, TTA and proposed method
where, ‫ ࢁࡹ׎‬is count of times when MU is predicted.
4. Probability of TU detection:It is the ratio of
the number of times TU is accurately predicted to
the total number of effective iterations conducted i.e.
‫ࢁࢀ׎‬
च࡮ ሺࢀࢁሻൌ ल (4)
where, ‫ ࢁࢀ׎‬is count of times when TU is predicted.

IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The effectiveness of the suggested strategy was

assessed by extensive simulations.All the
simulations were carried out with python 3.11.0 tool
and implemented in Intel Core i3-2450 M CPU 2.50
GHz laptop having8 GB RAM . The proposed
method is validated using a performance matrix that
includes aspects like the likelihood of a false alarm Figure 5.Trusted User detection probability and
and a missed detection as well as the probabilities of missed detection probability with different values of
detecting MUs and TUs. The method is compared SNR
with Adaptive threshold spectrum energy detection
algorithm described in [7]. We have assumed Figure 5 describes the detection performance of the
rayleigh channel for simulation. proposed algorithm in different SNR environments.
As, it is clear from the graph values that probability
The performance of the proposed method's of TU detection is one for all SNR values whereas
likelihood of detection is shown in Figure 4. It is the probability of missed detection is zero. This
seen from the graph that the detection performance clean graph validates the performance of proposed
is better than adaptive threshold detection and gives method and shows that it is highly effective.
the performance of 0.98 in 0.6 (ms) only whereas the
performance of adaptive is 0.92 as well as for Friend
and foe (FOF)[8] and Tidal Trust Algorithm

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Figure 6 False Alarm probability of proposed
method,FOF, TTA and adaptive threshold method
The plot on False alarm probability is shown in
figure 6. Here, the effect has been studied against
number of users which is varied from 10 to 100. It
can be seen as the proposed algorithm is robust
against number of users comparing to its
counterparts like FOF and TTA. The missed
detection probability is much lowered when
comparing to the adaptive threshold method. The
number of sensing nodes is an important criterion as
it will give measure of performance on a crowded
traffic. From the above analysis it is clear that the
proposed method is robust against number of users
and performs well in noisy environment as
compared to adaptive threshold, TTA and FOF
algorithms.
V. CONCLUSION
This article describes cognitive radio’s spectrum
sensing capabilitywhen there are Malicious user
(MU) present in the system. The idea of blockchains
is used to create a brand-new method utilizing a
suitable recognition approach, where all the users
i.e., primary user (PU) and Secondary user (SU) are
verified by the digital signatures and 100%
efficiently identify the AU and MU. As a result, the
spectrum sensing in CRN does not take into account
the energy detection result of MU. The MU is
indefinitely prevented from participating in any
additional processes or spectrum sensing.
Furthermore, compared to existing models, the
complexity of the blockchain-based approach is
quite minimal.
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