Dynamic Spectrum Sharing Enforcement

Recent advances in spectrum access technologies, such as software-defined radios, have made dynamic spectrum sharing a viable option for addressing the spectrum shortage problem in smart cities. However, these advances have also contributed to the increased possibility of “rogue” transmitter radios which violate spectrum access rules prescribed by a spectrum regulatory authority, and cause significant interference to other radios. One approach for countering such threats is to employ a transmitter authentication scheme in which an “authentication signal” is generated by the transmitter and embedded into the “message signal” at the physical (PHY) layer. This enables a regulatory enforcement entity to extract the authentication signal from the received signal, uniquely identify the transmitter, and collect verifiable evidence (of any rogue transmission) that can be used later during an adjudication process. In this project, we are developing novel authentication approaches using PHY-layer characteristics, such as inter-symbol interference and carrier frequency offset, at the transmitter.