Method of guaranteeing users' anonymity and wireless local area network (LAN) system therefor

• US 20040006642A1
• Filed: 07/07/2003
• Published: 01/08/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 07/06/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: Jang, Kyung-Hun, Park, Jong-Ae, Lee, In-Sun
• Granted Patent: US 7,706,539 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/245
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2101/622 Layer-2 addresses, e.g. medium access control [MAC] addresses
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/5038 for local use, e.g. in LAN or USB networks, or in a controller area network [CAN]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0414 during transmission, i.e. party's identity is protected against eavesdropping, e.g. by using temporary identifiers, but is known to the other party or parties involved in the communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/02 Protecting privacy or anonymity, e.g. protecting personally identifiable information [PII]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 74/00 Wireless channel access
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/26 Network addressing or numbering for mobility support
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/12 WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks]

Abstract

A method of guaranteeing users'"'"' anonymity and a wireless LAN system therefor are provided. In a wireless LAN system, the method of guaranteeing user'"'"' anonymity includes (a) creating a plurality of temporary address sets, each of which corresponds to a unique Media Access Control (MAC) address of a wireless terminal and transmitting the temporary address set to the corresponding wireless terminal, and (b) performing data packet transmission between the wireless terminal and the wireless access node using a temporary address selected from the temporary address set as a source address or a destination address. Therefore, it is possible to guarantee users'"'"' anonymity and improve security of a system by not exposing a MAC address during data packet transmission between a wireless terminal and a wireless access node.

Claims

1. A method of guaranteeing users'"'"' anonymity in a wireless Local Area Network (LAN) system, the method comprising:

(a) creating a plurality of temporary address sets, each of which corresponds to a unique Media Access Control (MAC) address of a wireless terminal, and transmitting each temporary address set to the corresponding wireless terminal; and

(b) performing data packet transmissions between a wireless terminal and a wireless access node using a temporary address selected from the temporary address set corresponding to the wireless terminal as a source address or a destination address.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein in (a), the wireless access node creates the temporary address sets, each of which consists of N (where N is an integer greater than or equal to two) temporary addresses using a MAC address contained in an access or authentication request message transmitted from a corresponding wireless terminal.

3. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein in (a), the wireless access node encodes the temporary address sets using a predetermined encryption key for each temporary address set, and respectively transmits the encoded temporary address sets to the corresponding wireless terminals.

4. The method as claimed in claim 3, wherein each encryption key is created upon authentication of the corresponding wireless terminal.

5. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein (b) further comprises:

(b1) a first addressing, which is performed in the wireless access node, and generates a temporary address as a destination address randomly selected from the temporary address set corresponding to a wireless terminal that is requesting authentication.

6. The method as claimed in claim 5, wherein (b) further comprises:

(b2) a second addressing, which is performed in the wireless terminal, and generates a temporary address as a source address randomly selected from the temporary address set corresponding to the wireless terminal.

7. A computer readable medium having embodied thereon a computer program for the method claimed in claim 1.

8. A computer readable medium having embodied thereon a computer program for the method claimed in claim 3.

9. A computer readable medium having embodied thereon a computer program for the method claimed in claim 6.

10. A wireless Local Area Network (LAN) system of guaranteeing users'"'"' anonymity comprising:

a wireless access node, which creates a plurality of temporary address sets, each of which corresponds to a unique Media Access Control (MAC) address of a wireless terminal, and uses a temporary address selected from each temporary address set as a destination address; and

at least one wireless terminal, which receives a temporary address set corresponding to a unique MAC address thereof from among the plurality of temporary address sets created in the wireless access node, and uses a temporary address selected from the received temporary address set as a source address.

11. The system as claimed in claim 10, wherein the wireless access node creates the temporary address sets, each of which consists of N (where N is an integer greater than or equal to two) temporary addresses, using for each address set the MAC address contained in an access or authentication request message transmitted from the corresponding wireless terminal.

12. The system as claimed in claim 10, wherein the wireless access node encodes the temporary address sets using a predetermined encryption key for each address set, and respectively transmits the encoded temporary address sets to the corresponding wireless terminals.

13. The system as claimed in claim 12, wherein each encryption key is created upon authentication of the corresponding wireless terminal.

14. The system as claimed in claim 10, wherein the wireless access node comprises:

a first memory, which stores the plurality of temporary address sets, each of which consists of N (where N is an integer greater than or equal to two) random addresses and is created corresponding to a unique MAC address;

a first MAC address filter, which filters a unique MAC address from a source address of a data packet received from a corresponding wireless terminal by referring to the temporary address sets stored in the first memory;

a destination address generation unit, which enables a temporary address set corresponding to the unique MAC address of the wireless terminal requesting authentication from among the temporary address sets stored in the first memory, generates a first random selection signal, generates a temporary address randomly selected from the enabled temporary address set, and uses the temporary address as a destination address; and

a first random selection unit which randomly selects a temporary address from the temporary address set enabled in the first memory according to the first random selection signal generated in the destination address generation unit, and outputs the selected temporary address to the destination address generation unit.

15. The system as claimed in claim 10, wherein the wireless terminal comprises:

a second memory which receives a temporary address set from the wireless access node and stores the temporary address set corresponding to a unique MAC address of the wireless terminal;

a second MAC address filter which determines whether a destination address of a data packet received from the wireless access node is included in the temporary address set by referring to the temporary address set stored in the second memory, and generates a receipt enable signal according to a determination result;

a source address generation unit, which generates a second random selection signal according to a source address request signal, generates a temporary address randomly selected from the temporary address set stored in the second memory, and uses the temporary address as a source address; and

a second random selection unit which randomly selects a temporary address from the temporary address set stored in the second memory according to the second random selection signal generated in the source address generation unit, and outputs the selected temporary address to the source address generation unit.