Method and apparatus for anonymous access and control of a service node

• US 10,348,692 B2
• Filed: 09/16/2014
• Issued: 07/09/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 09/16/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nokia Technologies Oy (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Nokia Technologies Oy (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Savolainen, Teemu Ilmari
• Primary Examiner(s): Ly, Anh Vu H
• Application Number:
  US15/510,990
• Publication Number:
  US 20170279775A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,757 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0281 Proxies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0421 Anonymous communication, i.e. the party's identifiers are hidden from the other party or parties, e.g. using an anonymizer
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/02 Protecting privacy or anonymity, e.g. protecting personally identifiable information [PII]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/38 for collecting sensor information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/70 Services for machine-to-machine communication [M2M] or machine type communication [MTC]

Abstract

A method, apparatus and computer program product are provided for anonymous access and control of a service node. In the context of a method, the method includes causing the transmission of a privacy proxy URI in response to the privacy proxy URI request, and establishing a privacy connection with user equipment in response to receiving a request to connect including the URI. The URI is a portion of the privacy enabled URI based at least in part on the privacy proxy URI. The method further includes causing the transmission of a request message to a service node in response to receiving a request message from the user equipment through the privacy connection.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

causing the transmission of a privacy proxy uniform resource identifier;

establishing a privacy connection with a user equipment in response to receiving a request to connect including a uniform resource identifier, wherein the uniform resource identifier is a portion of a privacy enabled uniform resource identifier based at least in part on the privacy proxy uniform resource identifier; and

causing the transmission of a request message to a service node in response to receiving a request message from the user equipment through the privacy connection.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the transmission of the privacy proxy uniform identifier is caused in response to receiving a privacy proxy uniform resource identifier request from the service node.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the privacy enabled uniform resource identifier is further based on a uniform resource identifier of the service node.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

sending a reply message to the user equipment in response to receiving a reply message from the servicing node.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the request messages are received and transmitted using a constrained application protocol.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

connecting to a privacy network in response to receiving a privacy proxy uniform resource identifier request.

7. A method comprising:

receiving a privacy proxy uniform resource identifier from an anonymity proxy;

generating a privacy enabled uniform resource identifier based at least in part on the privacy proxy uniform resource identifier;

causing the transmission of the privacy enabled uniform resource identifier; and

receiving a request message from the anonymity proxy, wherein the anonymity proxy transmits the request message in response to receiving a request message from a user equipment based at least in part on the privacy enabled uniform resource identifier through a privacy connection.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the receiving a privacy proxy uniform resource identifier from an anonymity proxy is in response to transmitting a privacy proxy uniform resource identifier request.

9. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

causing the transmission of a reply message, wherein the reply message is received by the anonymity proxy which transmits the reply message to the user equipment through the privacy connection.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein the request messages or reply messages are received and transmitted using a constrained application protocol.

11. An apparatus comprising at least one processor and at least one memory including computer program code, the at least one memory and computer program code configured to, with the processor, cause the apparatus to at least:

cause the transmission of a privacy proxy uniform resource identifier;

establish a privacy connection with a user equipment in response to receiving a request to connect including a uniform resource identifier, wherein the uniform resource identifier is a portion of a privacy enabled uniform resource identifier based at least in part on the privacy proxy uniform resource identifier; and

cause the transmission of a request message to a service node in response to receiving a request message from the user equipment through the privacy connection.

12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the transmission of the privacy proxy uniform identifier is caused in response to receiving a privacy proxy uniform resource identifier request from the service node.

13. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the privacy enabled uniform resource identifier is further based on a uniform resource identifier of the service node.

14. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are further configured to:

send a reply message to the user equipment in response to receiving a reply message from the servicing node.

15. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the request messages are received and transmitted using a constrained application protocol.

16. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are further configured to:

connect to a privacy network in response to receiving a privacy proxy uniform resource identifier request.

17. An apparatus comprising at least one processor and at least one memory including computer program code, the at least one memory and computer program code configured to, with the processor, cause the apparatus to at least:

receive a privacy proxy uniform resource identifier from an anonymity proxy;

generate a privacy enabled uniform resource identifier based at least in part on the privacy proxy uniform resource identifier;

cause the transmission of the privacy enabled uniform resource identifier; and

receive a request message from the anonymity proxy, wherein the anonymity proxy transmits the request message in response to receiving a request message from a user equipment based at least in part on the privacy enabled uniform resource identifier through a privacy connection.

18. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the receiving a privacy proxy uniform resource identifier from an anonymity proxy is in response to transmitting a privacy proxy uniform resource identifier request.

19. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are further configured to:

cause the transmission of a reply message, wherein the reply message is received by the anonymity proxy which transmits the reply message to the user equipment through the privacy connection.

20. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the request messages or reply messages are received and transmitted using a constrained application protocol.

21. An apparatus comprising at least one processor and at least one memory including computer program code, the at least one memory and computer program code configured to, with the processor, cause the apparatus to at least:

receive a privacy enabled uniform resource identifier comprising a privacy proxy uniform resource identifier;

establish a privacy connection with an anonymity proxy using the privacy enabled uniform resource identifier; and

transmit a request message comprising a portion of the privacy enabled uniform resource identifier based at least in part on the privacy proxy uniform resource identifier to a service node through the privacy connection.