Mobile station and communication control method

• US 20050257052A1
• Filed: 04/18/2005
• Published: 11/17/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 04/28/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: NTT Docomo Incorporated (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation)
• Original Assignee: NTT Docomo Incorporated (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation)
• Inventors: Shibutani, Akira, Kakuno, Kosuke, Asai, Mao, Oi, Tatsuro, Nakatsuchi, Masaharu
• Granted Patent: US 7,716,475 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 713/166
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/105 Multiple levels of security

Abstract

When an application is activated, a mobile station 10 detects external devices 20, 30, 40 as candidates for a BLUETOOTH connection out of external devices existing in the surrounding area, and presents a list of the devices to a user. When the user selects from the list an external device 20 with which a connection is to be attempted to make, a link is established by a connection procedure according to a security level described in an ADF of the application. Namely, when “high” is described as the security level, an authentication process and an encryption process requiring input of a PIN are executed prior to the establishment of the link. On the other hand, when “low” is described as the security level, a link is established without executing these processes.

Claims

1. A mobile station comprising:

activating means for activating an application to communicate with an external device;

acquiring means for acquiring a security level set in the application activated by the activating means; and

connection means for making a connection with the external device by a procedure according to the security level acquired by the acquiring means.

2. The mobile station according to claim 1, further comprising selecting means for selecting an external device that can undergo an automatic connection using an application with a high security level set therein,

wherein when the security level acquired by the acquiring means is the high security level, the connection means makes the automatic connection with the external device selected by the selecting means.

3. The mobile station according to claim 1, further comprising selecting means for selecting an external device that can undergo a connection using an application with a high security level set therein,

wherein when the security level acquired by the acquiring means is the high security level, the connection means makes the connection with the external device on the occasion of receiving a connection request from the external device selected by the selecting means.

4. A communication control method comprising the following steps carried out by a mobile station:

an activating step of activating an application to communicate with an external device;

an acquiring step of acquiring a security level set in the application activated in the activating step; and

a connection step of making a connection with the external device by a procedure according to the security level acquired in the acquiring step.