Method of Providing a Radio Service at a Remote Terminal

• US 20090015370A1
• Filed: 06/27/2005
• Published: 01/15/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 06/30/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: WSOU Investments, LLC (WSOU Holdings, LLC)
• Original Assignee: Nokia Corporation
• Inventors: Rowse, Graham
• Granted Patent: US 8,680,963 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/5.200
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/28 Arrangements for simultaneous broadcast of plural pieces of information
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/23 using cryptography, e.g. encryption, authentication, key distribution
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/601 Broadcast encryption
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/80 Wireless network architectures or network communication protocols for wireless network security H04W12/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3247 involving digital signatures

Abstract

A method of providing a service at a remote terminal including receiving information broadcast by a commercial radio station in a broadcast radio channel; discriminating an identifier of an application within the received broadcast information; initiating an authentication process for authenticating broadcast information received via the broadcast channel; and in response to a positive authentication, enabling use of information received via the broadcast radio channel by the identified application.

Claims

1. A method of providing a service at a remote terminal comprising:

receiving information broadcast by a commercial radio station in a broadcast radio channel;

discriminating an identifier of an application within the received broadcast information;

initiating an authentication process for authenticating broadcast information received via the broadcast channel; and

in response to a positive authentication, enabling use of information received via the broadcast radio channel by the identified application.

2. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the authentication process comprises:

discriminating a signature within the broadcast information received via the broadcast channel; and

verifying the signature using a digital key.

3. A method as claimed in claim 2, wherein the digital key is associated with the radio station and the authentication process is for authenticating the origin of the received information as the radio station.

4. A method as claimed in claim 2, further comprising providing the digital key to the terminal using means other than the broadcast radio channel.

5. A method as claimed in claim 2, further comprising providing the digital key to the terminal using bi-directional communication.

6. A method as claimed in claim 2, wherein the signature comprises data scrambled using the digital key before it is broadcast in the broadcast radio channel and the step of verifying the signature comprises descrambling the signature using the digital key to recover the data and verifying the data.

7. A method as claimed in claim 6, wherein data comprises a value that changes in time.

8. A method as claimed in claim 6, wherein the data identifies the radio station.

9. A method as claimed in claim 6, wherein the data is for use by the identified application.

10. A method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising downloading the application to the terminal.

11. A method as claimed in claim 10, wherein the authentication process is dependent upon the downloaded application.

12. A method as claimed in claim 11, wherein the authentication process uses a digital key downloaded to the terminal.

13. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the application is a JAVA application and is downloaded within a MIDlet.

14. A method as claimed in claim 13, wherein the MIDlet defines the authentication process.

15. A method as claimed in claim 13, wherein the MIDlet defines a digital key used in the authentication process.

16. A method as claimed in claim 13, wherein the MIDlet is a secure MIDlet comprising a digital certificate of the radio station.

17. A method as claimed in claim 13, wherein the MIDlet is downloaded via a cellular telecommunications network.

18. A method as claimed in claim 17, wherein the MIDlet is pulled via the cellular telecommunications network.

19. A method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising

detecting when the broadcast radio channel changes during the provision of the service to a new broadcast radio channel;

initiating the authentication process for authenticating broadcast information received; and

in response to a positive authentication, enabling use of information received via the new broadcast radio channel by the identified application and

in response to a negative authentication, disabling use of information received via the new broadcast radio channel by the identified application.

20. A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the service is provided via the radio data service (RDS) open data application (ODA) and the identifier of an application within the received broadcast information is the application identifier (AID).

35. A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the service is provided via the radio data service (RDS) open data application (ODA) and the identifier of an application within the received broadcast information is the application identifier (AID).

21. A terminal comprising:

a receiver for receiving information broadcast by a commercial radio station in a broadcast radio channel;

means for discriminating an identifier of an application within the received broadcast information;

authentication means for authenticating broadcast information received via the broadcast channel; and

control means for enabling/disabling the use of information received via the broadcast radio channel by the identified application,

wherein in response to a positive authentication of the broadcast information received via the broadcast channel the control means enables the use of information received via the broadcast channel by the identified application.

22. A method of simultaneously providing a service to a plurality of remote terminals comprising:

broadcasting information in a broadcast radio channel comprising an identifier of an application and information for use by the identified application; and

providing a digital key, for authenticating the broadcast information, to each of the plurality of remote terminals separately from the broadcast radio channel.

23. A method as claimed in any one of claim 22, further comprising including a signature within the broadcast information, wherein the signature comprises data scrambled using the digital key.

24. A method as claimed in claim 23, wherein data comprises a value that changes in time.

25. A method as claimed in claim 23, wherein the data is a secret shared between the plurality of remote terminals.

26. A method as claimed in claim 23, wherein the data reliably identifies the radio station.

27. A method as claimed in claim 23, wherein the data is for use by the identified application.

28. A method as claimed in claim 22, further comprising providing the application separately from the broadcast radio channel.

29. A method as claimed in claim 22, wherein the application is a JAVA application and is downloaded within a MIDlet.

30. A method as claimed in claim 29, wherein the MIDlet defines an authentication process.

31. A method as claimed in claim 29, wherein the MIDlet defines a digital key used in the authentication process.

32. A method as claimed in claim 29, wherein the MIDlet is a secure MIDlet comprising a digital certificate of the radio station broadcasting the information.

33. A method as claimed in claim 29, wherein the MIDlet is downloaded via a cellular telecommunications network.

34. A method as claimed in claim 33, wherein the MIDlet is pulled via the cellular telecommunications network.