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Privacy-Preserving and Secure Spectrum Sharing for Database-Driven Cognitive Radio Networks

Saleh Darzia, Gökcan Cantalib, Attila Altay Yavuza, Gürkan Gür

TL;DR

DB-CRNs enable dynamic spectrum sharing but raise privacy and availability concerns due to mandatory location disclosure and centralized databases. SLAPX integrates Delegatable Anonymous Credentials, Revocable-iff-linked Ring Signatures, Distance Bounding Protocols, and Verifiable Delay Functions to deliver anonymous spectrum querying, verifiable proximity, and proactive DoS resistance within regulatory constraints. The framework is supported by formal security definitions, cryptographic benchmarking, and network simulations, showing substantially lower latency and communication overhead than prior approaches while resisting location spoofing and DoS attacks. Practically, SLAPX offers a regulation-compliant, scalable solution for secure next-generation DB-CRN deployments with potential for future quantum-safe extensions.

Abstract

Database-driven cognitive radio networks (DB-CRNs) enable dynamic spectrum sharing through geolocation databases but introduce critical security and privacy challenges, including mandatory location disclosure, susceptibility to location spoofing, and denial-of-service (DoS) attacks on centralized services. Existing approaches address these issues in isolation and lack a unified, regulation-compliant solution under realistic adversarial conditions. In this work, we present a unified security framework for DB-CRNs that simultaneously provides location privacy, user anonymity, verifiable location, and DoS resilience. Our framework, denoted as SLAPX, enables privacy-preserving spectrum queries using delegatable anonymous credentials, supports adaptive location verification without revealing precise user location, and mitigates DoS attacks through verifiable delay functions (VDFs) combined with RLRS-based rate limiting. Extensive cryptographic benchmarking and network simulations demonstrate that SLAPX achieves significantly lower latency and communication overhead than existing solutions while effectively resisting location spoofing and DoS attacks. These results show that SLAPX is practical and well-suited for secure next-generation DB-CRN deployments.

Privacy-Preserving and Secure Spectrum Sharing for Database-Driven Cognitive Radio Networks

TL;DR

DB-CRNs enable dynamic spectrum sharing but raise privacy and availability concerns due to mandatory location disclosure and centralized databases. SLAPX integrates Delegatable Anonymous Credentials, Revocable-iff-linked Ring Signatures, Distance Bounding Protocols, and Verifiable Delay Functions to deliver anonymous spectrum querying, verifiable proximity, and proactive DoS resistance within regulatory constraints. The framework is supported by formal security definitions, cryptographic benchmarking, and network simulations, showing substantially lower latency and communication overhead than prior approaches while resisting location spoofing and DoS attacks. Practically, SLAPX offers a regulation-compliant, scalable solution for secure next-generation DB-CRN deployments with potential for future quantum-safe extensions.

Abstract

Database-driven cognitive radio networks (DB-CRNs) enable dynamic spectrum sharing through geolocation databases but introduce critical security and privacy challenges, including mandatory location disclosure, susceptibility to location spoofing, and denial-of-service (DoS) attacks on centralized services. Existing approaches address these issues in isolation and lack a unified, regulation-compliant solution under realistic adversarial conditions. In this work, we present a unified security framework for DB-CRNs that simultaneously provides location privacy, user anonymity, verifiable location, and DoS resilience. Our framework, denoted as SLAPX, enables privacy-preserving spectrum queries using delegatable anonymous credentials, supports adaptive location verification without revealing precise user location, and mitigates DoS attacks through verifiable delay functions (VDFs) combined with RLRS-based rate limiting. Extensive cryptographic benchmarking and network simulations demonstrate that SLAPX achieves significantly lower latency and communication overhead than existing solutions while effectively resisting location spoofing and DoS attacks. These results show that SLAPX is practical and well-suited for secure next-generation DB-CRN deployments.
Paper Structure (28 sections, 1 theorem, 13 figures, 5 tables, 3 algorithms)

This paper contains 28 sections, 1 theorem, 13 figures, 5 tables, 3 algorithms.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Preliminaries and Building Blocks
  3. System Architecture: DB-CRN
  4. Cryptographic Building Blocks
  5. Threat and Security Models and Attack Scenarios
  6. Threat Model and Scope
  7. Security Model
  8. Attack Scenarios
  9. DoS Attack Scenarios
  10. Location Spoofing Attack Scenarios
  11. ${\texttt{SLAPX}{\xspace}}$: Design and Instantiation
  12. ${\texttt{SLAPX}{\xspace}}$ Framework Initial Setup
  13. ${\texttt{SLAPX}{\xspace}}$ Framework Main Operations
  14. Proof of Location Acquisition and Validation
  15. Querying Spectrum Availability and Services
  16. ...and 13 more sections

Key Result

Theorem 1

The ${\texttt{SLAPX}{\xspace}}$ framework achieves the following security guarantees: (i) anonymous user authentication, ensured by the anonymity, soundness, and unforgeability of the underlying ZKPoK and SPSEQ-UC signature schemes; (ii) location privacy, provided by the unlinkability of credential-

Figures (13)

  • Figure 1: Overview of DB-CRN system architecture
  • Figure 2: ${\texttt{SLAPX}{\xspace}}$ DoS attack scenarios
  • Figure 3: Distance hijacking flow using benign UE as a relay
  • Figure 4: High-level flow of the ${\texttt{SLAPX}{\xspace}}$ protocol
  • Figure 5: Fragmentation analysis for SLAPX protocol messages with varying MTU sizes
  • ...and 8 more figures

Theorems & Definitions (11)

  • Definition 1
  • Definition 2
  • Definition 3
  • Definition 4
  • Definition 5: Credential Unforgeability
  • Definition 6: Credential Anonymity
  • Definition 7: Credential Unlinkability
  • Definition 8: Correctness and Soundness of Location Verification
  • Definition 9: Counter-DoS
  • Theorem 1
  • ...and 1 more