Situation aware mobile location ad hoc firewall

• US 7,779,458 B1
• Filed: 09/20/2005
• Issued: 08/17/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 09/20/2005
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Rockwell Collins, Inc. (Raytheon Technologies Corporation d/b/a RTX)
• Original Assignee: Rockwell Collins, Inc. (Raytheon Technologies Corporation d/b/a RTX)
• Inventors: Heiderscheit, David D., Kambhampati, Raja
• Primary Examiner(s): Barron, Jr.; Gilberto
• Assistant Examiner(s): KANAAN, SIMON P
• Application Number:
  US11/230,699
• Time in Patent Office: 1,792 Days
• Field of Search: 726/11
• US Class Current: 726/11
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0227 Filtering policies mail message filtering H04L51/212
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/107 wherein the security policies are location-dependent, e.g. entities privileges depend on current location or allowing specific operations only from locally connected terminals
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/1416 Event detection, e.g. attack signature detection
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/021 Services related to particular areas, e.g. point of interest [POI] services, venue services or geofences
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/50 Service provisioning or reconfiguring

Abstract

The present invention is a wireless communication system and method. In an exemplary embodiment, the wireless communication system includes a destination system and a source network. The source network provides network services to the destination system. Further, a plurality of mobile nodes are communicatively coupled with each other for allowing data packets to be transferred between the source network and the destination system. In addition, at least one firewall is communicatively coupled with the destination system and at least one of the mobile nodes included within the plurality of mobile nodes for monitoring data packet exchange between the source network and the destination system. The at least one firewall utilizes at least location as a controlling parameter for regulating data packet exchange as the at least one mobile end node moves into areas associated with varying degrees of threat.

Claims

1. A wireless communication system, comprising:

a destination system and a source network, the source network providing network services to the destination system;

a plurality of mobile nodes communicatively coupled with each other for allowing data packets to be transferred between the source network and the destination system, each mobile node included within the plurality of mobile nodes includes a positioning system allowing each node to detect their geographical location, each mobile node included within the plurality of mobile nodes is configured to periodically broadcast its geographical location; and

at least one firewall coupled with the destination system, the at least one firewall being communicatively coupled with at least one of the mobile nodes included within the plurality of mobile nodes for monitoring data packet exchange between the source network and the destination system,

wherein the at least one firewall utilizes the broadcast geographical locations of the mobile nodes and a geographical location of the destination system as controlling parameters for regulating data packet exchange as the destination system travels through zones associated with varying degrees of threat, the at least one firewall monitors each received data packet from said plurality of mobile nodes whereby each data packet includes a code which indicates a geographical location from which each data packet is originated, the geographical location from which each data packet is originated being associated with the at least one node included in the plurality of mobile nodes from which the firewall receives said data packet.

2. The wireless communication system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the positioning system is a global positioning system.

3. The wireless communication system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the source network is the Internet.

4. The wireless communication system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the destination system is disposed within at least one of a vehicle, aircraft, or watercraft.

5. The wireless communication system as claimed in claim 1, further comprising an intrusion detection system coupled to the at least one firewall for detecting intrusion.

6. The wireless communication system as claimed in claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of nodes includes a receiver and a transmitter.

7. A method for establishing a wireless network which utilizes a firewall that at least employs geographical location as a controlling parameter for regulating data packet exchange between a source network and a destination system, comprising:

communicatively coupling a plurality of mobile nodes with each other for allowing data packets to be transferred between the source network and the destination system; and

coupling at least one firewall with the destination system and communicatively coupling the at least one firewall with at least one of the mobile nodes included within the plurality of mobile nodes for monitoring data packet exchange between the source network and the destination system, the at least one firewall utilizing a geographical location of the destination system and a geographical location of the at least one mobile node as controlling parameters for regulating data packet exchange as the destination system travels through areas associated with varying degrees of threat, the at least one firewall monitors each received data packet from said plurality of nodes whereby each data packet includes a code which indicates a geographical location from which each data packet is originated, the geographical location from which each data packet is originated being associated with the at least one node included in the plurality of mobile nodes from which the firewall receives said data packet.

8. The method as claimed in claim 7, wherein each mobile node included within the plurality of mobile nodes includes a positioning system for allowing each mobile node to detect their geographical location, and each mobile node included within the plurality of mobile nodes is configured to periodically broadcast its geographical location.

9. The method as claimed in claim 7, wherein the method further comprises communicatively coupling an intrusion detection system coupled to the at least one firewall for detecting intrusion.

10. The method as claimed in claim 7, wherein the source network is the Internet.

11. The method as claimed in claim 7, wherein the destination system is disposed within at least one of a vehicle, aircraft, or watercraft.

12. The method as claimed in claim 7, wherein each of the plurality of nodes includes a receiver and a transmitter.