MOBILE STATION AND METHOD FOR ANONYMOUS MEDIA ACCESS CONTROL ADDRESSING

• US 20150063205A1
• Filed: 08/29/2013
• Published: 03/05/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 08/29/2013
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Elliott, Brent
• Application Number:
  US14/125,895
• Publication Number:
  US 20150063205A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/328
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2101/622 Layer-2 addresses, e.g. medium access control [MAC] addresses
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/5038 for local use, e.g. in LAN or USB networks, or in a controller area network [CAN]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/5053 Lease time; Renewal aspects
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0421 Anonymous communication, i.e. the party's identifiers are hidden from the other party or parties, e.g. using an anonymizer
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/02 Protecting privacy or anonymity, e.g. protecting personally identifiable information [PII]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/75 Temporary identity
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/26 Network addressing or numbering for mobility support

Abstract

Embodiments including methods and apparatuses for secure wireless communication through use of one or more temporary MAC addresses to identify a mobile station in a WiFi environment are generally described herein. For example, a method is presented for secure wireless communication, which includes generating a temporary media access control (MAC) address in one or more mobile stations, establishing a lifetime period of the temporary MAC address, optionally transmitting the temporary MAC address for service querying or association with an access point, determining that the lifetime period has expired, and replacing the temporary MAC address with a newly generated temporary MAC address upon determining that the lifetime period has expired.

Claims

1. A mobile station (STA) comprising one or more processing elements arranged to:

generate a temporary MAC address for temporary identification of the mobile station;

establish a lifetime period of the temporary MAC address; and

utilize the temporary MAC address during the lifetime of the temporary MAC address instead of a device MAC address for network operations, including Access Network Query Protocol (ANQP) transmissions, in which a MAC address is to be transmitted.

2. The STA of claim 1 wherein the one or more processing elements are further arranged to refrain from transmitting or broadcasting the device MAC address for network operations, including ANQP transmissions, in which a MAC address is to be transmitted.

3. The STA of claim 2 wherein the network operations include at least probe requests, scans, associations and ANQP transmissions, and

wherein the one or more processing elements are further arranged to discard the temporary MAC address between the network operations.

4. The STA of claim 3 wherein the one or more processing elements are further arranged to utilize a first temporary MAC address for active scanning, and utilize a second temporary MAC address for association and authentication with an access point.

5. The STA of claim 3 wherein the lifetime period is selected to be one of a time period of a scan event, a time period of an association and authentication with an access point, a time period of an ANQP transmission, or a predetermined time period.

6. The STA of claim 5 wherein the predetermined time period is 10 milliseconds (ms).

7. The STA of claim 3 wherein the one or more processing elements are further arranged to replace a prior generated temporary MAC address with a newly generated temporary MAC address when the lifetime period for the prior generated temporary MAC address has expired.

8. The STA of claim 1 wherein the temporary MAC address comprises 48 bits, and wherein the one or more processing elements are further arranged to generate 46 of the 48 bits of the temporary MAC address randomly.

9. The STA of claim 1 wherein the temporary MAC address comprises one of a Globally Unique Address or an Organizationally Unique Identifier.

10. The mobile station of claim 1 wherein the one or more processing elements are further arranged to designate the temporary MAC address as a persistent MAC address for association with an access point.

11. A method of wireless communication at a mobile station, comprising:

generating a temporary media access control (MAC) address for temporary identification of the mobile station;

establishing a lifetime period of the temporary MAC address;

determining that the lifetime period has expired; and

replacing the temporary MAC address with a newly generated temporary MAC address upon determining that the lifetime period has expired.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising transmitting the temporary MAC address to one or more access points.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the newly generated temporary MAC address is transmitted for association with one of the one or more access points.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein transmitting the temporary MAC address comprises transmitting the temporary MAC address to the one or more access points via a probe request.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein the lifetime period comprises a time period of a scan event.

16. The method of claim 11, further comprising designating one of the temporary MAC address or the newly generated temporary MAC address as a persistent MAC address associated with an access point.

17. The method of claim 11 further comprising utilizing the temporary MAC address during the lifetime of the temporary MAC address instead of a device MAC address for network operations, including Access Network Query Protocol (ANQP) transmissions, in which a MAC address is to be transmitted in an unsecured manner.

18. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium that stores instructions for execution by one or more processors to perform operations for a mobile station (STA) having a device media-access control (MAC) address, the operations cause one or more processors to:

generate a temporary MAC address for temporary identification of the mobile station;

establish a lifetime period of the temporary MAC address; and

utilize the temporary MAC address during the lifetime of the temporary MAC address instead of the device MAC address for network operations, including Access Network Query Protocol (ANQP) transmissions, in which a MAC address is to be transmitted.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 18 wherein the operations to further cause one or more processors to refrain from transmitting or broadcasting the device MAC address for network operations, including ANQP transmissions, in which a MAC address is to be transmitted.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 18 wherein the network operations include at least probe requests, scans, associations and ANQP transmissions, and

wherein the operations to further cause one or more processors to discard the temporary MAC address between the network operations.

21. A mobile station (STA) arranged for communicating in accordance with an IEEE 802.11 technique, the STA comprising:

memory to store a device media-access control (MAC) address; and

one or more processing elements arranged to;

generate a temporary MAC address for temporary identification of the mobile station;

establish a lifetime period of the temporary MAC address; and

utilize the temporary MAC address during the lifetime of the temporary MAC address instead of the device MAC address for network operations, including Access Network Query Protocol (ANQP) transmissions, in which a MAC address is to be transmitted.

22. The STA of claim 21 wherein the one or more processing elements are further arranged to refrain from transmitting or broadcasting the device MAC address for network operations, including ANQP transmissions, in which a MAC address is to be transmitted,

wherein the network operations include at least probe requests, scans, associations and ANQP transmissions, and

wherein the one or more processing elements are further arranged to discard the temporary MAC address between the network operations.