In-band device enrollment without access point support
First Claim
1. A method, comprising:
- broadcasting, from a host computer communicatively coupled to an access point of a wireless network, a series of broadcast packets encoding at least one network configuration parameter as varying lengths of said broadcast packets, the series of broadcast packets comprising a byte stream in which each byte represents a portion of the network configuration parameter, each value represented in the byte stream has an index, and each broadcast packet is formatted relative to a respective base packet length such that each respective value or index is determined by comparing a respective broadcast packet'"'"'s actual length to a length of the respective base packet, so as to enable a wireless device configured to decode the at least one network configuration parameter to join the wireless network upon receiving the series of broadcast packets.
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Accused Products
Abstract
In one embodiment, the invention provides a method for configuring a wireless device, so as to enable the wireless device to join a secured wireless network, by broadcasting a series of broadcast packets encoding a network configuration parameter (e.g., a shared secret key) from a computer coupled to a wireless access point to the wireless device. The information representing the network configuration parameter is encoded, not within the payload portion of the packet, but within the length of each broadcast packet in the series of broadcast packets. Accordingly, a wireless device that has not yet been configured to receive packets from the wireless access point can observe the information encoded in the length of each broadcast packet, and thereby decode the network configuration parameter and join the network.
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Citations
57 Claims
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1. A method, comprising:
- broadcasting, from a host computer communicatively coupled to an access point of a wireless network, a series of broadcast packets encoding at least one network configuration parameter as varying lengths of said broadcast packets, the series of broadcast packets comprising a byte stream in which each byte represents a portion of the network configuration parameter, each value represented in the byte stream has an index, and each broadcast packet is formatted relative to a respective base packet length such that each respective value or index is determined by comparing a respective broadcast packet'"'"'s actual length to a length of the respective base packet, so as to enable a wireless device configured to decode the at least one network configuration parameter to join the wireless network upon receiving the series of broadcast packets.
- View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
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15. A system, comprising:
- a computing device communicatively coupled to a wireless access point of a wireless network, the computing device configured to execute a configuration application to encode a network configuration parameter as varying lengths of a series of broadcast packets, the series of broadcast packets comprising a byte steam in which each byte represents a portion of the network configuration parameter, each value represented in the byte stream has an index, and each broadcast packet is formatted relative to a respective base packet length such that each respective value or index is determined by comparing a respective broadcast packet'"'"'s actual length to a length of the respective base packet, and to communicate the series of broadcast packets to the wireless access point to be broadcast to one or more wireless devices so as to enable a wireless device configured to decode the at least one network configuration parameter to join the wireless network upon receiving the series of broadcast packets.
- View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28)
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29. A method, comprising:
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receiving, at a wireless device, a series of broadcast packets from a wireless access point, the series of broadcast packets encoding at least one network configuration parameter required to join a wireless network, the at least one network configuration parameter being encoded as varying lengths of the broadcast packets, each broadcast packet formatted relative to a respective base packet length such that each respective value or index represented by a respective broadcast packet'"'"'s length is determined by comparing the respective broadcast packet'"'"'s length to a length of a respective base packet; decoding the at least one network configuration parameter; and utilizing the at least one network configuration parameter to join the wireless network. - View Dependent Claims (30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42)
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43. A wireless device, comprising:
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a wireless radio transceiver; a wireless communications module to receive, via the wireless radio transceiver, a series of broadcast packets encoding a network configuration parameter as varying lengths of said broadcast packets, each broadcast packet formatted relative to a respective base packet length such that each respective value or index represented by a respective broadcast packet'"'"'s length is determined by comparing the respective broadcast packet'"'"'s length to a length of a respective base packet; a decoding module to decode the network configuration parameter encoded within the lengths of the broadcast packets; and a configuration application to utilize the network configuration parameter in an operation to join a wireless network. - View Dependent Claims (44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57)
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Specification