Location source authentication

• US 20090100260A1
• Filed: 05/07/2008
• Published: 04/16/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 05/09/2007
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Gunasekaran Govindarajan
• Original Assignee: Gunasekaran Govindarajan
• Inventors: Govindarajan, Gunasekaran
• Application Number:
  US12/151,476
• Publication Number:
  US 20090100260A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 713/155
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/80 Wireless network architectures or network communication protocols for wireless network security H04W12/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/0872 using geo-location information, e.g. location data, time, relative position or proximity to other entities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3226 using a predetermined code, e.g. password, passphrase or PIN network architectures or network communication protocols for supporting authentication of entities using passwords in a packet data network H04L63/083
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3271 using challenge-response

Abstract

A method and system to validate the source of the location data, such that access to location based service is protected based on a location. When the source of the location data is verified, an authentication, and/or a temporary key pair are generated for the computational device to successfully get the location based service. Moreover, the Location Based Service is assured of providing service to the computational device only at the authorized location. A method and system for managing access to the location based service is also disclosed. A request is received to authenticate the source of the location either by the computational device or by the location based service provider. Access to the location based service is granted when the location is an authorized location. Once access is granted, the temporary key pair is used for successful transactions. Moreover, the validity of the location source is constantly validated by expiring the temporary key pair with time duration.

Claims

1. A method for validating the source of the location used by a computational device, the method comprising the steps of:

a) receiving a request to authenticate and validate the source of the location data, the request being received from a computational device;

b) collecting additional location data from the computational device and the location provider;

c) collecting reference location data from trusted and previously authenticated location sources;

d) collecting signal strengths and time sensitive data from computational device, location source and the reference stations;

e) estimating the location of the location source for computational device by cross referring with trusted resources and programmatic calculations;

f) authorizing the source of the location to the computational device to get any location based service; and

g) preventing the unauthorized location based services to location compromised computational devices.

2. The method according to claim 1 further comprising the step of managing trusted location sources by adding newly authenticated location sources.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the location of the computational device is retrieved by using a Global Positioning System (GPS).

4. The method according to claim 1 further comprising the step of re-retrieving the location of the reference stations by using a Global Position System (GPS).

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the location data provided by the computational device is verified against the location data obtained from the reference stations.

6. A method according to claim 1, for generating temporary key pairs for a computational device to against a validated location source to obtain location based services.

7. A geo verification system for validating and authenticating the source of the location data for a first computational device, the system comprising:

a) a request receiving module, the request receiving module receiving a request from a computational device to validate the source of the location data;

b) a data retrieving module, the data-retrieving module retrieving the payload of the request;

c) an encryption-decryption module, the encryption-decryption module decrypting and encrypting the payload of the request and response respectively;

d) a control module, the control module enabling reference data collection, location validation, and key pair generation;

e) a query module, the query module communicates with computational device and reference stations to collect data;

f) a key-pair generating module, the key-pair generating module randomly creates key pairs for authenticated location sources and the location based service for a particular instance of the location based service; and

g) means for preventing location based service from an unauthorized location by a computational device.

8. The system according to claim 7, wherein the computational device and the source of location data are the same.

9. The system according to claim 7, wherein the Wireless module and the source of location data are the same.

10. The geo verification system according to claim 7, wherein the control module and the query module collects location data from the source of the location.

11. The geo verification system according to claim 7, wherein the control module and the query module collects location data from trusted reference stations and systems.

12. The geo verification system according to claim 7, wherein the encryption-decryption module further encrypts the data between computational device, location based service provider and the geo verification system for data security.

13. The geo verification system according to claim 7, wherein the control module further estimates the location of the source by cross referencing and calculating with reference data.

14. The geo verification system according to claim 7, wherein the verification and authentication module further checks whether the source of the location for the computational device is valid or not.

15. The geo verification system according to claim 7, wherein the Temp Key pair generating module further generates at least one authorized location key corresponding to at least one authorized location.

16. The geo verification system according to claim 7, wherein the control system uses challenge protocols to obtain valid keys passed to trusted reference systems.

17. A computer program product for use with a computer stored program, the computer program product comprising a computer readable medium having a computer readable program code embodied therein for validating source of the location from a computational device or from a location based service provider, the computer readable program code including instructions for:

a) receiving a request to validate the source of the location from a computational device or from a location based service provider;

b) retrieving data from the request by decrypting and sending data encrypting;

c) collecting location data from source of the location;

d) collecting location data from the trusted reference stations; and

e) validating the source of the location and preventing access from unauthorized locations to location based service.

18. The computer program code according to claim 17, wherein the program code manages creating temporary key pair for the computational device against a location source, provided by the computational device.