Remote Provisioning of Privacy Settings in a Home Multimedia Network
First Claim
1. A method for provisioning a common PIN to one or more identified subscriber terminals among a plurality of terminals, each terminal in the plurality being coupled to a wide area network for receiving content from a service and connectable to a local area network, the method comprising:
- using information from a subscriber billing database to identify, from the plurality of terminals, one or more terminals associated with a subscriber to the service; and
transmitting, over the wide area network, the common PIN for installation in the one or more identified subscriber terminals whereby the installed common PIN enables media content to be securely shared among the one or more identified subscriber terminals over the local area network.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
An arrangement is provided for remotely provisioning a commonly-utilized PIN from a wide area network (“WAN”) to one or more terminals to thereby enable content to be securely shared over a local area network (“LAN”). The LAN and WAN share portions of a common network infrastructure, but operate at different frequencies. A billing system at the headend of the WAN identifies particular terminals associated with a subscriber who orders a networked DVR service. A PIN server at the headend generates the common PIN that is transmitted to the identified terminals over the WAN. The terminals are able to form a secure LAN through an authentication process utilizing the common PIN. Terminals which are not authenticated are denied access to the LAN thus ensuring that content stored on the DVR is not unintendedly consumed by terminals that are not authorized to receive it.
60 Citations
24 Claims
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1. A method for provisioning a common PIN to one or more identified subscriber terminals among a plurality of terminals, each terminal in the plurality being coupled to a wide area network for receiving content from a service and connectable to a local area network, the method comprising:
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using information from a subscriber billing database to identify, from the plurality of terminals, one or more terminals associated with a subscriber to the service; and
transmitting, over the wide area network, the common PIN for installation in the one or more identified subscriber terminals whereby the installed common PIN enables media content to be securely shared among the one or more identified subscriber terminals over the local area network. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3)
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4. A method for enabling data to be securely shared over a coaxial cable network, the method comprising:
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receiving a PIN from a controller over a first network operating on the coaxial cable network;
storing the PIN in a memory of a terminal;
authenticating the terminal using the PIN for shared-key authentication to thereby grant access to a second network operating on the coaxial cable network; and
communicating with authenticated terminals on the second network to thereby securely share data. - View Dependent Claims (5, 6)
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7. A network controller disposed at a headend of a wide area network that provides a service to a plurality of terminals coupled to the wide area network, comprising:
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a billing system interface arranged to receive billing system data for identifying one or more terminals in the plurality of terminals that are associated with a subscriber to the service; and
a PIN server arranged to transmit a PIN over the wide area network responsively to the billing system data to the identified one or more subscriber terminals so that the identified one or more terminals are authenticated using the PIN to gain access to a local area network used to securely share data between authenticated terminals. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
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14. A multimedia server, comprising:
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a receiver for receiving, from a service provider over a wide area network, multimedia content and a PIN, whereby the PIN is commonly shared with the multimedia server and client terminals disposed on a local area network;
a memory for storing the media content and PIN received from the wide area network;
a network interface arranged for sharing a portion of the multimedia content with one or more authenticated client terminals on the local area network; and
authentication logic for authenticating a client terminal seeking access to the local area network based on the commonly shared PIN. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17, 18, 19)
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20. A computer-readable medium containing instructions which, when executed by one or more processors in an electronic device, performs a method comprising:
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receiving a PIN from a first network;
requesting access to a second network using the received PIN to participate in an authentication process, the first network and second network sharing a portion of a common physical infrastructure and each operating at a different frequency on the shared portion of common physical infrastructure; and
accessing data stored on a device disposed on the second network when the requested access to the second network is granted. - View Dependent Claims (21, 22, 23, 24)
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Specification