Cellular telephone fraud prevention system using RF signature analysis

• US 5,905,949 A
• Filed: 12/21/1995
• Issued: 05/18/1999
• Est. Priority Date: 12/21/1995
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Authorize Net LLC (Visa, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Corsair Communications, Inc. (Visa, Inc.)
• Inventors: Talbot, Kenneth Irwin, Hawkes, Kelly Davidson, McKinley, Michael Shaw
• Primary Examiner(s): Hudspeth, David R.
• Assistant Examiner(s): RICHARDSON, SCO
• Application Number:
  US08/576,116
• Time in Patent Office: 1,244 Days
• Field of Search: 379/59, 379/60, 379/57, 342/13, 455/33.1, 455/410, 455/411, 455/423, 455/67.1, 380/23
• US Class Current: 455/410
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/06 Authentication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/12 Detection or prevention of fraud
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/122 Counter-measures against attacks; Protection against rogue devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/79 Radio fingerprint

Abstract

Apparatus for identifying wireless subscriber units and for determining if access to a communications network should be granted. A plurality of wireless subscriber units each generates a wireless subscriber signal including internal data traits and external signal traits. The internal data traits include an identification code. A RF downconverter is located remote from the wireless subscriber units and receives the wireless subscriber signal. A characterizing device is connected to the RF downconverter and extracts parameters that characterize the external signal traits of the wireless subscriber units. A decision device computes the likelihood that the observed parameters belong to the validated wireless subscriber unit to determine if access to the wireless subscriber service should be granted. The apparatus may be used to prevent cellular telephone cloning fraud.

Claims

1. A transmitter identification system including a plurality of transmitters, each transmitter broadcasting a transmitter signal having an identification code where the plurality of transmitters in include a plurality of authorized transmitters and one or more unauthorized transmitters where at times,

each authorized transmitter has an authorized identification code and transmits an authorized-transmitter signal having authorized-transmitter modulation characteristics and containing said authorized identification code,

each unauthorized transmitter transmits an unauthorized-transmitter signal having unauthorized-transmitter modulation characteristics and containing an unauthorized identification code identical to an authorized identification code of an authorized transmitter,

said transmitter identification system comprising:

receiving means including two or more antennas, each antenna receiving a particular transmitter signal and providing a corresponding antenna output signal and including two or more RF downconverters, each RF downconverter processing a different antenna output signal to provide a downconverted signal, whereby two or more single downconverted signals are formed,

combining means for combining said two or more single downconverted signals to form a combined signal representing said particular transmitter signal, said combined signal having a signal-to-noise power ratio greater than a signal-to-noise power ratio of any single downconverted signal,

demodulating means for demodulating said combined signal to recover a particular identification code contained within said particular transmitter signal,

extraction means for extracting parameters representng said modulation characteristics from said combined signal, and

determining means for determining the likelihood, based on said parameters, that said particular transmitter signal is not from an authorized transmitter having an authorized identificaton code the same as said particular identification code.

2. A transmitter identification system including a plurality of transmitters, each transmitter broadcasting a transmitter signal having an identification code unique to said transmitter comprising:

receiving means including two or more antennas, each antenna for receiving said broadcast transmitter signal and providing a corresponding antenna output signal and including two or more RF downconverters, each RF downconverter processing a different antenna output signal to provide a downconverted signal, whereby two or more downconverted signals are formed, each RF downconverter including a digital filter with coefficients that cause the impulse response of said downconverter and included digital filter to be substantially the same as the impulse response of other downconverters and included digital filters,

combining means for combining said two or more downconverted signals to form a combined signal representing said transmitter signal,

demodulating means for demodulating said combined signal to recover the identification code corresponding to the said transmitter,

extraction means for extracting parameters from said combined signal, and

means for determining the likelihood that said parameters are typical for said transmitter having the identification code recovered for said transmitter.

3. A transmitter identification system including a plurality of transmitters, each transmitter broadcasting a transmitter signal having an identification code where the plurality of transmitters include a plurality of authorized transmitters and one or more unauthorized transmitters where at times,

each authorized transmitter has an authorized identification code and transmits an authorized-transmitter signal having authorized-transmitter modulation characteristics and containing said authorized identification code,

each unauthorized transmitter transmits an unauthorized-transmitter signal having unauthorized-transmitter modulation characteristics and containing an unauthorized identification code identical to an authorized identification code of an authorized transmitter,

said transmitter identification system comprising:

receiving means for receiving a particular transmitter signal and providing a corresponding received signal,

demodulating means for demodulating said received signal to recover a particular identification code contained within said particular transmitter signal,

extraction means for extracting parameters from said received signal, said extraction means including means for measuring one or more modulation characteristics to form said parameters, and

determining means for determining the likelihood, based on said parameters, that said particular transmitter signal is not from an authorized transmitter having an authorized identification cod the same as said particular identification code.

4. A transmitter identification system including a plurality of transmitters, each transmitter broadcasting a transmitter signal having an identification code where the plurality of transmitters include a plurality of authorized transmitters and one or more unauthorized transmitters where at times,

each authorized transmitter has an authorized identification code and transmits an authorized-transmitter signal having authorized-transmitter signal characteristics and containing said authorized identification code,

each unauthorized transmitter transmits an unauthorized-transmitter signal having unauthorized-transmitter signal characteristics and containing an unauthorized identification code identical to an authorized identification code of an authorized transmitter,

said transmitter identification system comprising:

receiving means for receiving a particular transmitter signal and providing a corresponding received signal,

demodulating means for demodulating said received signal to recover a particular identification code contained within said particular transmitter signal,

extraction means for extracting parameters from said received signal, said extraction means including processing means for processing a plurality of signal characteristics to form said parameters, and

determining means for determining the likelihood based on said parameters, that said particular transmitter signal is not from an authorized transmitter having an authorized identification code the same as said particular identification code.

5. A transmitter identification system of claim 4 wherein said processing means includes means for frequency demodulating said received signal to form a frequency waveform, means for selecting portions of said frequency waveform, and means for measuring the similarity between one or more of said portions and one or more reference signals.

6. A transmitter identification system of claim 4 wherein said processing means includes:

means for phase demodulating said received signal to form a phase waveform which is related to the instantaneous phase of the received signal,

comparison means for comparing a portion of the phase waveform with a reference waveform, said comparison being insensitve to the time average of the difference between the phase waveform and the reference waveform,

means for calculating one of said parameters based upon the output of said comparison means.

7. A transmitter identification system of claim 5 wherein a transmitter that transmits said particular transmitter signal has a modulator having a transient that starts when an information signal to said modulator ceases and said processing means includes means for measuring said transient.

8. A transmitter identification system of claim 4 wherein said authorized-transmitter and said unauthorized-transmitter signals are formed of bits of information that are encoded by modulating a radio-frequency carrier, wherein said identification code is represented by some of said bits and wherein said demodulating means recovers said bits and said processing means includes means for extraction of one or more parameters that are linear combinations of said bits.

9. A transmitter identification system of claim 4 wherein said demodulation means recovers bits that occur in bit sequences encoded in said received signal and said processing means includes means for synchronous integration of portions of the received signal which have the same bit sequence, thereby forming a synchronous signal.

10. A transmitter identification system of claim 4 wherein said processing means includes means to make said parameter extraction insensitive to any one or more of the following characteristics of the particular transmitter signal received by said receiving means, signal-to-noise ratio, signal amplitude, signal center frequency offset, data content of the modulation, time of intercept, multipath RF propagation, co-channel interference, or signal fading.

11. A transitter idenification system of claim 4 wherein said determining means includes:

means for computing a current distance between said parameters and stored parameter statistics for an authorized transmitter having an identification code the same as said particular identification code,

means for retrieving a previous probability that a transmitter previously using said particular identification code was not an authorized transmitter, and

means for calculating the likelihood, based on the current distance and the previous probability, that said particular transmitter signal is not from an authorized transmitter.

12. A transmitter identification system of claim 4 including means for detecting when said particular transmitter signal is present or absent.

13. A transmitter validation system of claim 9 wherein said processing means also includes:

means for phase demodulating said synchronous signal to form a phase waveform, and

means for calculating one of said parameters based upon a comparison of the phase waveform with a reference waveform, said comparison being insensitive to the time average of the difference between the phase waveform and the reference waveform.

14. A transmitter identification system of claim 4 wherein said receiving means includes two or more RF downconverters and two or more digital filters with coefficients that cause the combined impulse response of a first digital filter and a first downconverter to be substantially the same as the combined impulse response of a second digital filter and a second downconverter.

15. A transmitter identification system of claim 4 wherein said receiving means includes two or more RF downconverters where an impulse response of a first one of said downconverters is substantially the same as an impulse response of a second one of said downconverters.