Method and system of guising communication using a chatter signal

• US 20080297365A1
• Filed: 05/30/2007
• Published: 12/04/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 05/30/2007
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Gainspan Corporation (Telit Communications PLC)
• Original Assignee: Gainspan Corporation (Telit Communications PLC)
• Inventors: Adams, Lewis, Gough, Chris, Welles, Devon, Vondrachek, Chris
• Application Number:
  US11/809,012
• Publication Number:
  US 20080297365A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/670
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/00 Burglar, theft or intruder alarms
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/10 using wireless transmission systems G08B25/009 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0428 wherein the data content is protected, e.g. by encrypting or encapsulating the payload

Abstract

Method and system of guising communication using a chatter signal is disclosed. In one embodiment, a method includes communicating a chatter signal generated by a first node of a network to a second node based on the communication protocol of the network to guise a true signal of the first node communicated to the second node of the network, and processing the true signal communicated to the second node while dispensing with the chatter signal communicated to the second node based on the communication protocol of the network. The method may also include padding the chatter signal and/or the true signal with pseudorandom bits to make a size of the chatter signal equal to a size of the true signal. Moreover, the method may include guising a key exchanged between the first node and the second node with the chatter signal.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

communicating a chatter signal generated by a first node of a network to a second node based on a communication protocol of the network to guise a true signal of the fist node communicated to the second node of the network; and

processing the true signal communicated to the second node while dispensing with the chatter signal communicated to the second node based on the communication protocol of the network.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the chatter signal includes encrypted pseudorandom bits to be decrypted by the second node based on the communication protocol.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the first node is a device and the second node is a control point managing the device.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising guising a heartbeat signal of the device communicated to the control point with the chatter signal, wherein the true signal is the heartbeat signal of the device communicated to the control point indicating that the device is ready to communicate with the control point.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising guising a signal data of the control point to the device with the chatter signal, wherein the signal data is at least one of a configuration data to set up the device and a command data to initiate an action by the device.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the device to include a low power wireless system on chip (SOC) having a real time counter module communicatively coupled to the device to generate at least one of the true signal and the chatter signal to minimize a power consumption of the low power wireless system on chip (SOC).

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising padding at least one of the chatter signal and the true signal with pseudorandom bits to make a size of the chatter signal equal to a size of the true signal.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein a random number of bits are added to the at least one of the chatter signal and the true signal such that the size of the chatter signal and the size of the true signal are random.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising guising a key exchanged between the first node and the second node with the chatter signal, wherein the true signal to convey the key exchanged between the first node and the second node preceding a secure communication between the first node and the second node.

10. The method of claim 1 in a form of a machine-readable medium embodying a set of instructions that, when executed by a machine, causes the machine to perform the method of claim 1.

11. A method, comprising:

monitoring a motion using a wireless motion sensor to generate an activity signal when the motion is detected by the wireless motion sensor; and

communicating at least one chatter signal to disguise the activity signal communicated to a control point managing the wireless motion sensor through a wireless network.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the wireless motion sensor is locally controlled by a low power wireless system on chip (SOC) having a real time counter module communicatively coupled to the wireless motion sensor to periodically generate at least one of the true signal and the chatter signal to minimize a power consumption of the low power wireless system on chip (SOC).

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the chatter signal is at least one of a periodic signal and an aperiodic signal.

14. The method of claim 11, further comprising padding at least one of the chatter signal and the activity signal with pseudorandom bits such that the chatter signal is not recognizable from the activity signal based on a size difference between the chatter signal and the activity signal.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising encrypting the at least one of the chatter signal and the activity signal prior to communicating the at least one of the chatter signal and the activity signal to the control point.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising dispensing with the chatter signal when the control point decrypt the at least one of the activity signal and the chatter signal to process the activity signal.

17. A system, comprising:

a first node of a network to generate at least one chatter signal with a true signal to disguise the true signal; and

a second node to communicate with the first node through processing the true signal while dispensing with the at least one chatter signal.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the first node is a device and the second node is a control point managing the device through a network.

19. The system of claim 18, further comprising a low power wireless system on chip (SOC) having a real time counter module communicatively coupled to the device to periodically generate at least one of the true signal and the at least one chatter signal to minimize a power consumption of the low power wireless system on chip (SOC).

20. The system of claim 17, wherein the first node is a device newly installed to a network and the second node is an authentication server to authenticate the device based on the true signal which is an authentiation request of the device communicated to the authentication server.