System and method for wireless interface selection and for communication and access control of subsystems, devices, and data in a vehicular environment

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10117066-B2
Application number	US-201414485050-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 12, 2014
Priority date	Jan 14, 2011
Publication date	Oct 30, 2018
Grant date	Oct 30, 2018

Abstract

A method in one embodiment includes intercepting a message in an on-board unit (OBU) of a vehicular network environment between a source and a receiver in the vehicular network environment, verifying the message is sent from the source, verifying the message is not altered, evaluating a set of source flow control policies associated with the source, and blocking the message if the set of source flow control policies indicate the message is not permitted. In specific embodiments, the message is not permitted if a level of access assigned to the source in the set of source flow control policies does not match a level of access tagged on the message. In further embodiments, the method includes evaluating a set of receiver flow control policies associated with the receiver, and blocking the message if the set of receiver flow control policies indicates the message is not permitted.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
intercepting a message in an on-board unit (OBU) of a vehicular network environment between a source and a receiver in the vehicular network environment;
verifying the source is authorized to send the message;
verifying the message is not altered;
evaluating a set of source flow control policies associated with the source; and
blocking the message if at least one policy of the set of source flow control policies indicates the message is not permitted, wherein the message is not permitted if a level of access assigned to the source in the set of source flow control policies does not match a level of access tagged on the message.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
evaluating a set of receiver flow control policies associated with the receiver; and
blocking the message if the set of receiver flow control policies indicates the message is not permitted.

3. The method of claim 2 , further comprising:
identifying a type of access required by the message, wherein the message is not permitted if a level of access tagged on the message is not allowed by the set of receiver flow control policies for the type of access required by the message.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein, when the message includes data tagged by an owner of the data other than the source, the message is not permitted if one or more tags of the data indicate the receiver does not have permission to read the data.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein if the message is not blocked, the receiver sends data to the source in response to the message, wherein the data is tagged with at least a portion of a set of receiver flow control policies associated with the receiver.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the source is an application process of a third party application installed on the OBU.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the receiver is one of a machine device of one of a plurality of subsystems of the vehicle, a network interface of the OBU, or a second application process of a second application installed on the OBU.

8. The method of claim 6 , further comprising:
downloading the third party application to the OBU;
establishing a network connection to a datacenter associated with an authorized entity;
authenticating the OBU to the datacenter; and
downloading from the datacenter the set of source flow control policies for the third party application if the third party application is registered with the authorized entity.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the set of source flow control policies is applied to a group of applications on the OBU, each application in the group of applications authorized for a same level of access to the receiver.

10. An on-board unit (OBU) of a vehicular network environment, the OBU comprising:
at least one processor; and
an information flow control monitoring module adapted, when executed by the at least one processor, to:
intercept a message in the OBU between a source and a receiver in the vehicular network environment;
verify the source is authorized to send the message;
verify the message is not altered;
evaluate a plurality of flow control policies associated with the source and the receiver; and
block the message if one or more of the plurality of flow control policies indicate the message is not permitted, wherein the message is not to be permitted if a level of access assigned to the source in the plurality of flow control policies does not match a level of access tagged on the message.

11. The OBU of claim 10 , wherein the evaluation of the plurality of flow control policies is to include:
identifying a type of access requested by the message;
identifying a level of access tagged on the message; and
determining whether the type of access requested by the message is permitted based on the level of access tagged on the message.

12. The OBU of claim 10 , wherein the evaluation of the plurality of flow control policies is to include a determination of whether the message is permitted to access data from the receiver, wherein the determination is based on a secrecy tag of the data and a level of access tagged on the message.

13. The OBU of claim 10 , wherein the message is verified as being sent from the source based on an ownership tag associated with the message, and wherein the message is verified as not being altered based on an integrity tag associated with the message.

14. At least one non-transitory computer readable storage medium having instructions stored thereon that, when executed by at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to:
intercept a message in an on-board unit (OBU) of a vehicular network environment between a source and a receiver in the vehicular network environment;
verify the source is authorized to send the message;
verify the message is not altered;
evaluate a set of source flow control policies associated with the source; and
block the message if at least one policy of the set of source flow control policies indicates the message is not permitted, wherein the set of source flow control policies is to be applied to a group of applications on the OBU if each application in the group of applications is authorized for a same level of access to the receiver.

15. The at least one non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 14 , wherein the evaluation of the set of source flow control policies is to include a determination of whether the message is permitted to access data from the receiver, wherein the determination is based on a secrecy tag of the data and a level of access tagged on the message.

16. The at least one non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 14 , wherein the source is an application process of a third party application installed on the OBU.

17. A system, comprising an electronic device in a vehicular network environment of a vehicle, the electronic device including at least one processor for:
detecting a trigger on an electronic device in a vehicular network environment of a vehicle;
identifying an interface usage policy for an agent and a corresponding application on the electronic device;
selecting a first wireless interface of a plurality of wireless interfaces on the electronic device for a network session between an application process of the application and a remote node, wherein the first wireless interface is selected based, at least in part, on one or more criteria in the interface usage policy;
associating the electronic device with a controller in a network environment;
associating the first wireless interface of the electronic device with a first wireless infrastructure device in the network environment;
providing Internet Protocol (IP) mapping information to the controller;
establishing a network session between the electronic device and the remote node through the first wireless interface, wherein packets of the network session are routed through the controller;
intercepting a first message in the electronic device being sent from a first source to a first receiver;
evaluating one or more predefined policies to determine whether the first source is permitted to communicate with the first receiver;
blocking the first message if the first source is not permitted to communicate with the first receiver, wherein a first subsystem of the vehicular network environment includes one of the first source and the first receiver;
intercepting a second message in the electronic device being sent from a second source to a second receiver in the vehicular network environment;
verifying the second source is author

Assignees

• Cisco Tech Inc

Inventors

• Addepalli Sateesh K
• Dai Lillian Lei
• Bonomi Flavio
• Zhu Xiaoqing
• Maino Fabio R
• Monclus Pere
• Pan Rong
• Natarajan Preethi
• Ermagan Vina
• Loukissas Alexander

Classifications

• H04W52/0264

  by selectively disabling software applications · CPC title

• H04W4/00

  Services specially adapted for wireless communication networks; Facilities therefor · CPC title

• H04W36/0009

  for a plurality of users or terminals, e.g. group communication or moving wireless networks (user group management H04W4/08; processing of subscriber group data H04W8/186) · CPC title

• H04L45/12

  Shortest path evaluation · CPC title

• H04W84/12

  WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks] · CPC title