Method and apparatuses for network society associating

• US 8,200,819 B2
• Filed: 03/14/2008
• Issued: 06/12/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 03/14/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Industrial Technology Research Institute
• Original Assignee: Industrial Technology Research Institute
• Inventors: Chung, Shen-Ming, Hsu, Fang-Jung
• Primary Examiner(s): Avellino, Joseph
• Assistant Examiner(s): BARON, JAMES T
• Application Number:
  US12/048,345
• Publication Number:
  US 20090234910A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,551 Days
• Field of Search: 709204-206, 709/225, 726/9, 726/20
• US Class Current: 709/225
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0414 during transmission, i.e. party's identity is protected against eavesdropping, e.g. by using temporary identifiers, but is known to the other party or parties involved in the communication
• 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 67/30 Profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/033 of the user plane, e.g. user's traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/10 Integrity
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/75 Temporary identity
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/08 User group management
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/186 Processing of subscriber group data
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/20 Transfer of user or subscriber data
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/26 Network addressing or numbering for mobility support
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/18 Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks

Abstract

The method of the invention applies employing token, public key, private key and ad hoc technology to associate members who are interested to join a specific society, with which the member'"'"'s privacy can be protected and the trust between members can be build. The apparatus is directed to a social network which is responsible for communications and association of a specific society.

Claims

1. A method for associating two mobile devices in a social network database managed by a server, said method comprising at least steps of:

two mobile devices exchange their network address and token with each other by ad hoc connection;

one of said two mobile devices acts as an inviter by sending an initial invitation request message to the server via a network, wherein said initial invitation request message comprising data of the inviter'"'"'s token, a inviter'"'"'s node identification (inviter NID), an identification of the inviter specified society (inviter SID) and the network address of the other mobile device;

said server verifies the initial invitation request message by checking the consistency between the inviter NID and inviter SID and the data stored in the society network database;

if consistent, said server generates and sends an invitation request message to the other mobile device acting as an invitee at the network address via said network, wherein the invitation request message comprising a server token which is generated by said server, the inviter'"'"'s token and a profile of the society specified by said inviter SID;

said invitee checks the consistency between the inviter'"'"'s token in the invitation request message and the token being exchanged during the ad hoc connection;

if consistent, said profile of the society is displayed on the invitee'"'"'s screen and waiting for a invitee'"'"'s user whether to accept the invitation request message;

if said user accepts the invitation request message, said invitee sends an acknowledgement message to said server via said network,

wherein said acknowledgement message comprising the server token and a invitee'"'"'s node identification (invitee NID);

said server checks whether the server token in the acknowledgement message is valid; and

if valid, the server associates the invitee'"'"'s node with the inviter'"'"'s node in the society specified by said inviter SID.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the two mobile devices can be combinations of wireless communication equipments selected from the group consisting of cell phone, smart phone, notebook computer, wireless personal digital assistant (PDA) and walkie-talkie.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the network address is an IP-based network address.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the ad hoc connection can be one of an IrDA connection, RFID connection or Bluetooth connection.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the network can be one of an IP-based network address and telecommunication subscriber identity module (SIM).

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the token is a text-based token with text encoded by formatted characters of ASCII characters.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein said server and the two mobile devices have their own key pair including a public key and a secret key of the Public-key Cryptography, wherein said server'"'"'s public key is advertised to all the mobile devices while the mobile device'"'"'s public key is advertised to said server and is exchanged between said two mobile devices.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the messages sent to the server are encrypted by the server'"'"'s public key.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the initial invitation request message sent to the server further comprises a public key of the invitee and said server encrypts the invitation request message before sending it to the invitee.

10. A server for conducting society association, comprising:

a communication interface used in a communication with at least two mobile devices via a network;

a memory for storing a plurality of instructions; and

a processor used in the communication with the communication interface and the memory, wherein the processor performs actions based at least partially on the plurality of instructions, comprising;

receiving a first message from the mobile device acting as an inviter mobile device if the first message at least comprising a node identification, a token and a network address;

allocating a memory space for temporarily storing the content of the first message;

referring the address of the memory space as a server token;

sending a second message to a mobile device acting as a invitee mobile device at the network address, wherein the second message comprising at least the server token and the token;

receiving a token from the invitee mobile device;

determining whether the token send by the invitee mobile device is consistent with the server token; and

associating the invitee with the inviter'"'"'s society.

11. The server of claim 10, wherein said two mobile devices can be combinations of wireless communication equipments selected from the group of cell phone, smart phone, notebook computer, wireless personal digital assistant (PDA) and walkie-talkie.

12. The server of claim 10, wherein the network can be the combination of an IP network and a telecommunication network.

13. The server of claim 10, wherein the memory can be combinations of hard disk, CD-ROM, RAM and NVRAM.

14. The server of claim 10, wherein the communication interface can be a network interface controller which enables the server to link to said network.

15. The server of claim 10, wherein the network address can be one of a IP-based network address or a telecommunication subscriber identity module (SIM).

16. The server of claim 10, wherein the token from the inviter mobile device is a text-based token with text encoded by formatted characters of ASCII characters.

17. A mobile device for conducting society association, comprising:

a communication interface used in a communication via a network with a server managing social network database, wherein the communication interface is assigned with a network address;

a data exchanging interface for exchanging data with other mobile device in surrounding;

a memory for storing a plurality of instructions and a local token;

a processor used in communication with the communication interface, the data exchanging interface and the memory, wherein the processor performs actions based at least partially on the plurality of instructions, comprising;

enabling the data exchanging interface to exchange the local token and the network address with a mobile device in surrounding;

storing the exchanged token as a remote token in the memory;

as an inviter, sending a first message to said server to start a society association process, wherein the first message comprising a mobile device'"'"'s node identification (NID) as the inviter node identification (inviter NID), the local token and a remote network address;

as an invitee, receiving a second message comprising an inviter'"'"'s local token and a server token from the server;

as an invitee, checking whether the second message is valid by comparing the inviter'"'"'s local token with the remote token;

as an invitee, sending a third message including the server token to the server to complete a society association process.

18. The mobile device of claim 17, wherein the communication interface can be a network interface controller which enables the server to link to said network.

19. The mobile device of claim 17, wherein the network can be an IP network or a telecommunication network.

20. The mobile device of claim 17, wherein the network address can be one of an IP-based network address or a telecommunication subscriber identity module (SIM).

21. The mobile device of claim 17, wherein the mobile device can be selected from the group consisting of cell phone, smart phone, notebook computer, wireless personal digital assistant (PDA) and walkie-talkie.

22. The mobile device of claim 17, wherein the token is a text-based token with text encoded by formatted characters of ASCII characters.