Home / Journals / CMC / Online First / doi:10.32604/cmc.2026.069776
Special Issues
Table of Content

Open Access

ARTICLE

Mitigating Sidelobe-Driven Attacks in OFDM-Based Cognitive Radio Networks

Bakhtawar Gul1, Atif Elahi1,2, Tahir Saleem3, Noor Gul1, Fahad Algarni4, Insaf Ullah5,*
1 Department of Electronics, University of Peshawar, Peshawar, Pakistan
2 Govt. College Mathra, Higher Education Archives & Libraries Department, Peshawar, Pakistan
3 Department of Computing, Hamdard University Islamabad Campus, Islamabad, Pakistan
4 College of Computing and Information Technology, University of Bisha, Bisha, Saudi Arabia
5 Institute for Analytics and Data Science, University of Essex, Colchester, UK
* Corresponding Author: Insaf Ullah. Email: email

Computers, Materials & Continua https://doi.org/10.32604/cmc.2026.069776

Received 30 June 2025; Accepted 07 November 2025; Published online 14 February 2026

Abstract

Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) enables efficient Dynamic Spectrum Access (DSA) but suffers from high sidelobe that causes excessive out-of-band (OOB) emissions and expose the system to spectrum-layer cyberattacks such as man-in-the-middle (MITM), eavesdropping, and primary user emulation (PUE) attacks. To address both spectral leakage and its security implications, this paper introduces a secure and intelligent hybrid optimization strategy that combinesan Eigenspace-based Generalized Sidelobe Canceller (ES-GSC) with a Genetic Algorithm (GA), to derive optimally weighted cancellation carriers. The proposed method jointly suppresses sidelobes and reinforces resistance to leakage-based attacks. MATLAB Simulation demonstrate considerable reductions in OOB emissions and higher resilience against spectrum-layer threats compared with existing techniques.

Keywords

Cybersecurity; cognitive radios network; generalized sidelobe canceler; orthogonal frequency division multiplexing; primary user emulation attack; sidelobe suppression
  • 237

    View

  • 16

    Download

  • 0

    Like

Share Link