Access point information for wireless access

• US 10,212,598 B2
• Filed: 12/04/2013
• Issued: 02/19/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 12/04/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nokia Technologies Oy (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Nokia Technologies Oy (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Marin, Janne, Kiukkonen, Niko
• Primary Examiner(s): Vu, Michael T
• Application Number:
  US15/039,813
• Publication Number:
  US 20160381559A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,903 Days
• Field of Search: 455411-414
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/107 wherein the security policies are location-dependent, e.g. entities privileges depend on current location or allowing specific operations only from locally connected terminals
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/083 involving central third party, e.g. key distribution center [KDC] or trusted third party [TTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/062 Pre-authentication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/068 using credential vaults, e.g. password manager applications or one time password [OTP] applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/08 Access security
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/63 Location-dependent; Proximity-dependent
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/16 Discovering, processing access restriction or access information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/20 Selecting an access point

Abstract

An apparatus (121) including a connectivity management unit (350) configured to provide wireless network access; a local secure storage (330) configured to securely store access point information; and a processor (240) configured to control the local secure storage to selectively provide a subset of the access point information to the connectivity management unit of the apparatus.

Claims

1. An apparatus, comprising:

at least one processor; and

at least one non-transitory computer-readable memory medium comprising computer code, the at least one non-transitory computer-readable memory medium and the computer code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to;

provide wireless network access;

store access point information in encrypted form in a local secure storage of a device;

obtain contextual information relating to the device, wherein the contextual information comprises at least one of;

date, time, location of the device, or an anticipated location of the device;

selectively provide a subset of the access point information from the local secure storage based on the obtained contextual information to the device, wherein to selectively provide the subset of the access point information comprises adding, updating, or removing the access point information when the contextual information changes;

provide the subset of the access point information in unencrypted form to a connectivity management unit of the device; and

determine an anticipated regional location of the device and to control the local secure storage to obtain from a global access point information storage regional access point information relating to the anticipated regional location of the device.

2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the at least one non-transitory computer-readable memory medium and the computer code are further configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to provide the subset of the access point information to a connectivity management unit of the device based on connectivity requirements of the device.

3. The apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the at least one non-transitory computer-readable memory medium and the computer code are further configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to provide the subset of the access point information to the connectivity management unit of the device so that the connectivity management unit is provided with access point information that is needed in the connectivity management unit at each time.

4. The apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the at least one non-transitory computer-readable memory medium and the computer code are further configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to:

receive from the connectivity management unit a request for certain access point information; and

control the local secure storage to provide to the connectivity management unit the requested access point information.

5. The apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the at least one non-transitory computer-readable memory medium and the computer code are further configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to:

scan availability of access networks; and

check whether results from the scan include an access point associated with the requested access point information before providing the requested access point information.

6. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the access point information comprises at least one of the following:

mac address, ssid, credentials, or location of the respective access point.

7. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the local secure storage resides on a trusted platform.

8. The apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the at least one non-transitory computer-readable memory medium and the computer code are further configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to obtain the access point information from a global access point information storage.

9. The apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the obtained access point information from the global access point information storage comprises a subset of all available access point information available in a global database, the subset of all available access point information comprising access point information relating to all access points in a certain geographical region, continent, country, county or city.

10. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said subset comprises access point information of one access point.

11. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said subset comprises access point information of at least one access point.

12. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the anticipated regional location of the device is based on calendar application entries of the device.

13. A method, comprising:

providing wireless network access;

securely storing access point information in encrypted form in a local secure storage of a device;

obtaining contextual information relating to the device, wherein the contextual information comprises at least one of;

date, time, location of the device, or an anticipated location of the device;

selectively providing a subset of the access point information from the local secure storage based on the obtained contextual information, wherein selectively providing the subset of the access point information comprises adding, updating, or removing the access point information when the contextual information changes;

providing the subset of the access point information in unencrypted form to a connectivity management unit of the device; and

determining an anticipated regional location of the device and to control the local secure storage to obtain from a global access point information storage regional access point information relating to the anticipated regional location of the device.

14. The method according to claim 13, further comprising providing the subset of the access point information to the connectivity management unit of the device based on connectivity requirements of the device.

15. The method according to claim 13, further comprising providing the subset of the access point information to the connectivity management unit of the device so that the connectivity management unit is provided with access point information that is needed in the connectivity management unit at each time.

16. The method according to claim 13, further comprising

receiving a request for certain access point information;

and

providing to the connectivity management functionality the requested access point information.

17. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer-readable medium encoded with instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause an apparatus to perform:

providing wireless network access;

securely storing access point information in encrypted form in a local secure storage of a device;

obtaining contextual information relating to the device, wherein the contextual information comprises at least one of;

date, time, location of the device, or an anticipated location of the device;

selectively providing a subset of the access point information from the local secure storage based on the obtained contextual information, wherein selectively providing the subset of the access point information comprises adding, updating, or removing the access point information when the contextual information changes;

providing the subset of the access point information in unencrypted form to a connectivity management unit of the device; and

determining an anticipated regional location of the device and to control the local secure storage to obtain from a global access point information storage regional access point information relating to the anticipated regional location of the device.