DYNAMIC TEMPORARY MAC ADDRESS GENERATION IN WIRELESS NETWORKS

• US 20070019609A1
• Filed: 07/11/2005
• Published: 01/25/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 07/11/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Telcordia Legacy Inc.
• Original Assignee: Telcordia Incorporated, Toshiba Corporation
• Inventors: ANJUM, Farooq
• Granted Patent: US 8,009,626 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/349
• 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 61/5092 by self-assignment, e.g. picking addresses at random and testing if they are already in use
• 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 48/10 using broadcasted information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/26 Network addressing or numbering for mobility support
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/08 Access point devices

Abstract

Unique temporary MAC addresses are calculated by mobile devices connected to wireless networks, using access point advertising information in combination with the permanent MAC address of the mobile device. The mobile devices use a hash function to construct a bit sequence from which a temporary MAC address can be extracted. The MAC address is unique over the entire region in which the mobile device can operate, without necessity of any coordination or negotiation between various access points of the region.

Claims

1. A method of creating a temporary identifier that is used to identify a mobile device on a wireless network, comprising the steps of:

receiving information from a network access point to which said mobile device connects to said wireless network;

combining said received information with a permanent identifier assigned to said mobile device;

performing a predetermined mathematical calculation on the combination of said received information and permanent identifier; and

using the result of said calculation to provide a temporary identifier of said mobile device in communications over said wireless network.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said permanent identifier is a MAC address, and said temporary identifier is a temporary MAC address.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said predetermined calculation is a hash function algorithm.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of using the calculation result comprises the step of extracting a predetermined number of bits from said calculation result.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of performing is carried out once per communication cycle of said wireless network such that a new temporary identifier is used in each communication cycle of said mobile device.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of performing is carried out once per network connection session of said mobile device such that a new temporary identifier is used in each network session of said mobile device.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of communicating said permanent identifier to said access point.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein said permanent identifier is used by said access point to verify said temporary identifier as transmitted by said mobile device.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the information received from the network access point includes information indicating specific pieces of information to be used by said mobile device to calculate said temporary identifier.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein said mobile device calculates a new temporary identifier upon being transferred from one access point to a new access point.

11. In a mobile device that is connectable for communication over a wireless network, the improvement wherein said mobile device uses information received from a network access point to calculate a temporary identifier used to identify said mobile device on said network.

12. In a mobile device as set forth in claim 11, wherein said temporary identifier is a temporary MAC address.

13. In a mobile device as set forth in claim 12, wherein said mobile device further uses a permanent MAC address in said calculation.

14. In a mobile device as set forth in claim 11, wherein said mobile device uses a hash function algorithm in said calculation.

15. In a mobile device as set forth in claim 11, wherein said mobile device uses information from said access point specifying the information to be used in said calculation.

16. A wireless network, comprising:

a plurality of network access points, each network access point transmitting advertising information in a region covered by that access point, said advertising information including information specifying a parameter for calculation by a mobile device connectable to said network of a temporary identifier to be used by said mobile device in communications over said network.

17. The wireless network of claim 16, wherein said temporary identifier is a temporary MAC address.

18. The wireless network of claim 16, wherein said parameter is a specific piece of advertising information to be used by said mobile device in said calculation.

19. The wireless network of claim 16, wherein said calculation comprises a hash function algorithm.

20. The wireless network of claim 16, wherein at least one of said network access points receives a permanent identifier of a mobile device connectable to said network.

21. The wireless network of claim 20, wherein said permanent identifier comprises a permanent MAC address of said mobile device and said temporary identifier is a temporary MAC address.

22. The wireless network of claim 21, wherein said at least one network access point uses said permanent MAC address to verify authenticity of said temporary MAC address.