Radio frequency communication system with subscribers arranged to authenticate a received message

• US 6,144,949 A
• Filed: 02/12/1998
• Issued: 11/07/2000
• Est. Priority Date: 02/12/1998
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Motorola, Inc. (Motorola Solutions, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Motorola, Inc. (Motorola Solutions, Inc.)
• Inventors: Harris, Michael Gilbert
• Primary Examiner(s): Peeso, Thomas R.
• Application Number:
  US09/023,142
• Time in Patent Office: 999 Days
• Field of Search: 705/1, 705/20, 705/23, 705/30, 705/35, 705/38
• US Class Current: 705/38
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/201 Price look-up processing, e.g. updating
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/208 Input by product or record sensing, e.g. weighing or scanner processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/03 Credit; Loans; Processing thereof
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/12 Accounting
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/123 received data contents, e.g. message integrity
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/0471 Key exchange
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/069 using certificates or pre-shared keys

Abstract

A radio frequency communication system subscriber (110) has a unique identification code, public key and private key, and stores the identification code and public key for other system subscribers in its memory (115). When transmitting, the subscriber includes its identification code in a transmitted message (160) and encodes the transmitted message with its private key. When receiving, the subscriber authenticates a received message (170) by accessing the sending subscriber (120)'"'"'s identification code from the message, retrieving the sending subscriber'"'"'s public key from memory and decoding the message with the retrieved key.

Claims

1. A trunked radio frequency communication system including a trunked system infrastructure and a plurality of subscribers, each subscriber of the plurality of subscribers having an identification code, a public key and a private key,

the trunked system infrastructure including an infrastructure memory and arranged for storing identification codes and public keys for various subscribers of the plurality of subscribers in the infrastructure memory,

the trunked system infrastructure arranged for receiving a channel request from a requesting subscriber of the plurality of subscribers, thus forming a received channel request, the received channel request including the requesting subscriber'"'"'s identification code, and for authenticating the received channel request by accessing the requesting subscriber'"'"'s identification code from the received channel request, retrieving the requesting subscriber'"'"'s public key from the infrastructure memory, thus forming a retrieved key, and decoding the received channel request with the retrieved key.

2. The trunked radio frequency communication system of claim 1, the trunked system infrastructure further arranged for sending a channel grant message to the plurality of subscribers, the channel grant message including the requesting subscriber'"'"'s identification code and public key.

3. The trunked radio frequency communication system of claim 2, each subscriber of the plurality of subscribers including a subscriber memory and arranged for receiving the channel grant message and for building the subscriber memory by accessing the requesting subscriber'"'"'s identification code and public key from the channel grant message and storing the requesting subscriber'"'"'s identification code and public key in the subscriber memory.

4. A subscriber arranged for communicating in the trunked radio frequency communication system of claim 1, the subscriber comprising a memory and arranged for storing identification codes and public keys for at least one of the plurality of subscribers in the memory.

5. The subscriber of claim 4, further arranged for receiving a channel grant message from the trunked system infrastructure, thus forming a received channel grant message, the received channel grant message including a requesting subscriber'"'"'s identification code and public key.

6. The subscriber of claim 5, further arranged for building the subscriber memory by accessing the requesting subscriber'"'"'s identification code and public key from the received channel grant message and storing the requesting subscriber'"'"'s identification code and public key in the subscriber memory.

7. The subscriber of claim 1, the received message including a third subscriber'"'"'s identification code and public key.

8. A trunked system infrastructure arranged to function with a trunked radio frequency communication system, the trunked radio frequency communication system including a plurality of subscribers, each subscriber of the plurality of subscribers having an identification code, a public key and a private key,

the trunked system infrastructure including an infrastructure memory and arranged for storing identification codes and public keys for various subscribers of the plurality of subscribers in the infrastructure memory,

the trunked system infrastructure arranged for receiving a channel request from a requesting subscriber of the plurality of subscribers, thus forming a received channel request, the received channel request including the requesting subscriber'"'"'s identification code, and for authenticating the received channel request by accessing the requesting subscriber'"'"'s identification code from the received channel request, retrieving the requesting subscriber'"'"'s public key from the infrastructure memory, thus forming a retrieved key, and decoding the received channel request with the retrieved key.

9. The trunked system infrastructure of claim 8, further arranged for sending a channel grant message to the plurality of subscribers, the channel grant message including the requesting subscriber'"'"'s identification code and public key.

10. A trunked radio frequency communication system including a trunked system infrastructure and a plurality of subscribers, each subscriber of the plurality of subscribers having an identification code, a public key and a private key,

the trunked system infrastructure including an infrastructure memory and arranged for storing identification codes and public keys for various subscribers of the plurality of subscribers in the infrastructure memory,

the trunked system infrastructure arranged for receiving a message from a first subscriber of the plurality of subscribers, thus forming a received message, the received message including a second subscriber'"'"'s identification code and public key, and for building the infrastructure memory by accessing the second subscriber'"'"'s identification code and public key from the received message and storing the second subscriber'"'"'s identification code and public key in the infrastructure memory.

11. A subscriber arranged for communicating in the trunked radio frequency communication system of claim 10, the subscriber comprising a memory and arranged for storing identification codes and public keys for at least one of the plurality of subscribers in the memory.

12. The subscriber of claim 11, further arranged for receiving a channel grant message from the trunked system infrastructure, thus forming a received channel grant message, the received channel grant message including a requesting subscriber'"'"'s identification code and public key.

13. The subscriber of claim 12, further arranged for building the subscriber memory by accessing the requesting subscriber'"'"'s identification code and public key from the received channel grant message and storing the requesting subscriber'"'"'s identification code and public key in the subscriber memory.

14. The subscriber of claim 10, the received message including a third subscriber'"'"'s identification code and public key.

15. The subscriber of claim 14, further arranged for building the memory by accessing the third subscriber'"'"'s identification code and public key from the received message and storing the third subscriber'"'"'s identification code and public key in the subscriber memory.

16. The subscriber of claim 15, further arranged for building the memory by accessing the third subscriber'"'"'s identification code and public key from the received message and storing the third subscriber'"'"'s identification code and public key in the subscriber memory.