Apparatus and method for detecting a cloned base station

• US 10,027,682 B2
• Filed: 12/21/2009
• Issued: 07/17/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 12/21/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Continental Automotive Systems, Inc. (Continental AG)
• Original Assignee: Continental Automotive Systems, Inc. (Continental AG)
• Inventors: Snider, James, D'Avello, Robert F.
• Primary Examiner(s): SCHWARTZ, JOSHUA L
• Application Number:
  US12/643,081
• Publication Number:
  US 20110151833A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,130 Days
• Field of Search: 455410, 455411, 455524, 455525, 726 23, 726 27
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 25/1025 preventing jamming or interference of said signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/126 the source of the received data
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/108 Source integrity
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/122 Counter-measures against attacks; Protection against rogue devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/0061 of neighbour cell information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/08 Access point devices

Abstract

Communications are established between a base station and a mobile unit. The mobile unit analyzes the content of at least some information received from the base station relating to neighboring cells. When the analyzing indicates that the base station is a cloned base station, a warning is initiated to the user.

Claims

1. A method, performed by a wireless mobile communications device, of detecting the presence of a cloned base station, the method comprising:

receiving at the wireless mobile communications device, a Neighbor Cell List, which comprises a list of channels of base stations of neighboring cells, including an expected received signal strength parameter for each base station of a plurality of cells neighboring a current serving cell;

after the expected received signal strength parameters for base stations of neighboring cells are received, establishing and engaging in wireless communications between the wireless mobile communication device and a base station for the current, serving cell;

determining at the wireless mobile communications device, an actual received signal strength parameter for at least one base station of a plurality of base stations for a plurality of neighboring cells;

analyzing at the wireless mobile communications device, the expected and actual received signal strength parameters for the at least one of a plurality of base stations for a plurality of neighboring cells;

when the actual received signal strength parameter for at least one base station of a plurality of base stations for neighboring cells increases at a rate that is greater than a threshold rate, sending a cloned-base-station-detected warning to a user of the wireless mobile communications device, said warning being sent by said wireless mobile communications device;

wherein, determining an actual received signal strength parameter for at least one base station of a plurality of base stations for a plurality of neighboring cells, analyzing the expected and actual received signal strength parameters for the at least one of a plurality of base stations for a plurality of neighboring cells and sending a warning to a user of the wireless mobile communications device, are performed by the wireless mobile communications device on the fly.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining a received signal strength parameter for the base station of the current, serving cell; and

determining the base station of the current, serving cell to be cloned when the received signal strength for said base station exceeds a predetermined threshold value.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

sending a warning to a user of the wireless mobile communications device that the base station for the current serving cell is a base station clone, said warning being sent by said wireless mobile communications device, when determining a power level of a signal received from at least one base station of at least one neighboring cell has increased by more than a predetermined threshold.

4. An apparatus for detecting, at a wireless mobile communications device, the presence of a cloned base station, the apparatus comprising:

a wireless communication interface configured to establish and engage in wireless communications with a base station for a cell in which the wireless mobile communications device is located, said cell in which the wireless mobile communications device is located being a serving cell, the wireless communications being comprised of radio signals on a radio communications channel for said serving cell, the radio communications channel capable of being characterized by operating environment parameters, at least one operating environment parameter being strength of a radio signal received from a base station for the serving cell;

a memory in the wireless mobile communications device coupled to the communication interface, the memory comprising a Neighbor Cell List, which comprises a list of channels of base stations of neighboring cells and an allocation table, the allocation table including expected strengths of signals on communications channels for base stations of cells neighboring the serving cell;

a warning indicator in the wireless mobile communications device;

a controller in the wireless mobile communications device coupled to the wireless communication interface, the memory, and the warning indicator, the controller being configured to analyze expected signal strength information in the allocation table and determine when a first base station is a cloned base station based upon a determination that an actual signal strength for the first base station of a first neighboring cell increases at a rate greater than a threshold rate, the controller further configured to initiate a warning to the user of the wireless mobile communications device via the warning indicator when determining that the base station is a cloned base station;

wherein, determination that at least one expected operating environment is different than an actual operating environment and initiation of a warning to a user, are performed by the controller on the fly.

5. The apparatus of claim 4 wherein the controller is configured to determine that the base station for the serving cell is a cloned base station when no neighboring cell exists in the allocation table.

6. The apparatus of claim 4 wherein the controller is configured to determine when at least one signal strength value associated with at least one neighboring cell is a suspect value.

7. The apparatus of claim 4 wherein the warning indicator comprises an audio speaker.

8. A non-transitory computer usable medium having a computer readable program code embodied therein, said computer readable program code adapted to be executed by a computer in a mobile wireless communications device, to implement a method of detecting, at the wireless mobile communications device, the presence of a cloned base station, the method comprising:

receiving at the wireless mobile communications device, a Neighbor Cell List, which comprises a list of channels of base stations of neighboring cells and an expected received signal strength parameter for each base station of a plurality of cells neighboring a current serving cell;

establishing and engaging in wireless communications between a wireless mobile communications device and a base station for a cell in which the wireless mobile communications device is located, the wireless communications capable of being characterized by a strength of signals received from said base station;

determining strengths of signals actually received from base stations for other cells neighboring the cell in which the wireless mobile communication device is located;

comparing the strengths of signals actually received from base stations for neighboring cells to expected strengths of signals received from the base stations for said neighboring cells;

when the determination of strengths of signals actually received from base stations for neighboring cells includes a strength of signal that increases at a rate that is greater than a threshold rate, initiating a cloned-base-station-detected warning to a user of the wireless mobile communications device, the warning being issued by the wireless mobile communications device;

wherein, determining strengths of signals actually received from base stations for other cells neighboring the cell in which the wireless mobile communication device is located, comparing the strengths of signals actually received from base stations for neighboring cells to expected strengths of signals received from the base stations for said neighboring cells and initiating a warning to a user of the wireless mobile communications device, are performed by the wireless mobile communications device on the fly, as information is received at the wireless mobile communication device.

9. The non-transitory computer usable medium of claim 8 wherein the comparison of strengths of signals actually received from base stations for neighboring cells to expected strengths of signals of base stations for neighboring cells comprises initiating a warning to a user of the wireless device when said comparison indicates that strengths of signals actually received are above a predetermined threshold.