Method of constructing domain based on public key and implementing the domain through universal plug and play (UPnP)

• US 20050086514A1
• Filed: 09/30/2004
• Published: 04/21/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 10/02/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: Han, Sung-hyu, Choi, Yang-lim, Kim, Myung-sun, Cho, Jung-yon
• Granted Patent: US 7,424,613 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 726/26
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2803 Home automation networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2807 Exchanging configuration information on appliance services in a home automation network arrangements for maintenance or administration involving network analysis for automatically determining the actual topology of a network H04L41/12; hardware or software tools for network management using graphical user interfaces H04L41/22; address allocation H04L61/50
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0435 wherein the sending and receiving network entities apply symmetric encryption, i.e. same key used for encryption and decryption cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for symmetric key encryption H04L9/06
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0823 using certificates cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication involving certificates H04L9/3263

Abstract

A method of constructing a unique domain for preventing content from being illegally used by an unauthorized third person in a public key-based architecture and applying the constructed domain to a home network using universal plug and play (UPnP). The method of the present invention includes selecting one of controlled devices that are operable as a master device and determining the selected device as the master device; performing device authentication in such a manner that other controlled devices receive a secret information block from the determined master device and create certificates; and determining slave devices by selecting one or more devices among the authenticated controlled devices.

Claims

1. A method of constructing a domain based on a public key and implementing the domain using universal plug and play (UPnP) so that a unique domain can be constructed to allow only an authorized user to use content in a public-key based architecture in a home network, comprising:

(a) selecting one of controlled devices that are operable as a master device and determining the selected one of the controlled devices, as the master device;

(b) performing device authentication in such a manner that other controlled devices receive a secret information block from the determined master device and create certificates; and

(c) determining slave devices by selecting one or more devices among authenticated controlled devices.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the step (a) comprises:

notifying a control point that the controlled devices are connected;

obtaining, by the control point, device information and digital rights management (DRM) information of the controlled devices;

selecting the master device among the controlled devices by using the DRM information; and

setting the one of the controlled devices selected as the master device, to a master mode and providing a list of devices to the controlled devices.

3. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the step (b) comprises:

receiving, by the determined master device, the secret information block from an external server;

delivering the received secret information block to the controlled devices except the master device;

extracting secret values and creating the certificates using the delivered secret information block; and

verifying the certificates and preparing a list of authenticated devices by using the created certificates, device IDs and public keys.

4. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the step (c) comprises:

if the devices authenticated in the (b) step have no domain attributes, displaying a list of the devices authenticated in the step (b), to the user;

selecting the slave devices among the listed devices;

receiving a list of the selected slave devices and creating a domain ID and a domain key; and

encrypting the domain ID and the domain key using public keys.

5. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein one or more functions of the control point in UPnP are taken over by the master device and the control point relates to tasks related to user interfaces.

6. The method as claimed in claim 2, where the control point takes over important ones of said one or more functions.

7. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the master device and the slave devices are determined after manager authentication is performed by obtaining manager authentication information from the master device.

8. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein selecting the master device and the slave devices are performed by means of user selection through user interfaces.