Establishing a collaborative domain among communication terminals responsive to authentication

• US 20070287471A1
• Filed: 06/08/2006
• Published: 12/13/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 06/08/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Bellsouth Intellectual Property Corporation (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Bellsouth Intellectual Property Corporation (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Wood, James
• Granted Patent: US 7,620,386 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/456.100
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/08 for authentication of entities cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication H04L9/32
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0853 using an additional device, e.g. smartcard, SIM or a different communication terminal cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication involving additional secure or trusted devices H04L9/3234
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/107 wherein the security policies are location-dependent, e.g. entities privileges depend on current location or allowing specific operations only from locally connected terminals

Abstract

A method of establishing a collaborative domain among a plurality of communication terminals can include having a communication terminal authenticate one or more other communication terminals based on personal information, which can be stored on a removable memory card in the other terminals, and/or based on the geographic location of the other terminals. A first communication terminal can determine the geographic location of a second communication terminal and can authenticate the second communication terminal in response to both the determined geographic location and personal information defined in the second communication terminal. In response to the authentication by the first communication terminal, communication of user and/or program information, which is unrelated to authentication, is allowed between at least the first and second communication terminals.

Claims

1. A method of establishing a collaborative domain among a plurality of communication terminals:

at a first communication terminal, determining the geographic location of a second communication terminal and authenticating the second communication terminal in response to both the determined geographic location and personal information defined in the second communication terminal; and

enabling communication of user and/or program information, which is unrelated to authentication, between at least the first and second communication terminals in response to the authentication by the first communication terminal.

2. The method of establishing a collaborative domain of claim 1, further comprising:

at the second communication terminal, determining the geographic location of a first communication terminal and authenticating the first communication terminal in response to both the determined geographic location and personal information defined in the first communication terminal, and wherein enabling of communication of user and/or program information between at least the first and second communication terminals is responsive to both the authentication by the first communication terminal and the authentication by the second communication terminal.

3. The method of establishing a collaborative domain of claim 1, wherein:

at the first communication terminal, determining the geographic location of the second communication terminal comprises determining whether the second communication terminal is within a defined geographic range of the first communication terminal.

4. The method of establishing a collaborative domain of claim 3, wherein the determination of whether the second communication terminal is within a defined geographic range of the first communication terminal is carried out in response to a comparison of signal strength of a communication signal received by the first communication terminal from the second communication terminal to at least one threshold value.

5. The method of establishing a collaborative domain of claim 3, wherein:

the personal information is communicated from the second communication terminal to the first communication terminal through at least one intervening base station transceiver during the authentication of the second communication terminal by the first communication terminal; and

the determination of whether the second communication terminal is within a defined geographic range of the first communication terminal for purposes of authentication comprises determining whether the first communication terminal can sense the presence of the second communication terminal through an attempted direct point-to-point communication interface between the first and second communication terminals.

6. The method of establishing a collaborative domain of claim 5, wherein:

communication of the personal information from the second communication terminal to the first communication terminal through the at least one intervening base station transceiver during the authentication of the second communication terminal by the first communication terminal includes communicating the personal information through a cellular communication interface indirectly between the second and first communication terminals via at least one intervening cellular base station; and

determining whether the first communication terminal can sense the presence of the second communication terminal through a short range communication interface includes utilizing a wireless local area network protocol and/or a Bluetooth communication protocol at the first communication terminal to attempt to sense the presence of the second communication terminal.

7. The method of establishing a collaborative domain of claim 1, wherein:

at the first communication terminal, determining the geographic location of the second communication terminal comprises determining whether the second communication terminal is within a defined geographic region.

8. The method of establishing a collaborative domain of claim 7, wherein:

at the first communication terminal, determining the geographic location of the second communication terminal comprises determining whether the second communication terminal is within a geographic region defined for a user'"'"'s house, work place, and/or other known location where the user is authorized and/or available for inclusion in the collaborative domain 110.

9. The method of establishing a collaborative domain of claim 7, wherein determining whether the second communication terminal is within a defined geographic region comprises:

at the second communication terminal, determining the geographic location of the second communication terminal based on triangulation of GPS signals from a constellation of GPS satellites and/or based on triangulation of cellular signals from a plurality of cellular base stations, and communicating the determined geographic location from the second communication terminal to the first communication terminal.

10. The method of establishing a collaborative domain of claim 1, further comprising:

communicating an application program from the first communication terminal to the second communication terminal in response to the authentication of the second communication terminal by the first communication terminal.

11. The method of establishing a collaborative domain of claim 10, wherein the second communication terminal comprises at least one of a laptop computer, tablet computer, personal data assistant, and/or other mobile computing device, and the first communication terminal comprises a file storage server device.

12. A method of establishing a collaborative domain among a plurality of communication terminals:

reading personal information from a removable memory card in the first communication terminal;

communicating the personal information from the first communication terminal to the second communication terminal;

at the second communication terminal, authenticating the first communication terminal in response to the personal information received from the first communication terminal;

reading personal information from a removable memory card in the second communication terminal;

communicating the personal information from the second communication terminal to the first communication terminal;

at the first communication terminal, authenticating the second communication terminal in response to the personal information received from the second communication terminal; and

enabling communication of user and/or program information, which is unrelated to authentication, between at least the first and second communication terminals in response to the authentication by the first and second communication terminals.

13. The method of establishing a collaborative domain of claim 12, wherein the personal information is read from a removable SIM card in each of the first and second communication terminals.

14. The method of establishing a collaborative domain of claim 13, wherein the personal information is communicated between the first and second communication terminals through a direct point-to-point wireless communication interface.

15. The method of establishing a collaborative domain of claim 13, wherein the personal information is communicated between the first and second communication terminals through a cellular wireless communication interface via at least one cellular base station transceiver.

16. The method of establishing a collaborative domain of claim 12, further comprising initiating each of the reading of the personal information from the removable memory cards, communication of the personal information between the first and second communication terminals, and authentication of the first and second communication terminals in response to occurrence of a scheduled time of day event.

17. The method of establishing a collaborative domain of claim 12, further comprising initiating each of the reading of the personal information from the removable memory cards, communication of the personal information between the first and second communication terminals, and authentication of the first and second communication terminals in response to the first communication terminal receiving a message from the second communication terminal.

18. The method of establishing a collaborative domain of claim 17, wherein:

the message is received by the first communication terminal from the second communication terminal through a cellular wireless communication interface via at least one cellular base station transceiver; and

the personal information is communicated between the first and second communication terminals through a direct point-to-point wireless communication interface.

19. The method of establishing a collaborative domain of claim 12, further comprising displaying information generated by an application hosted by the second communication terminal on a display device of the first communication terminal in response to the authentication by the first communication terminal of the second communication terminal.

20. The method of establishing a collaborative domain of claim 12, further comprising inputting data into an application hosted by the first communication terminal that is generated by a user interface of the second communication terminal in response to the authentication by the first communication terminal of the second communication terminal.