Systems and methods for mitigating effects of an unresponsive secure element

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016112159-A1
Application number	US-201414515319-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Oct 15, 2014
Priority date	Oct 15, 2014
Publication date	Apr 21, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

A method is described. The method includes counting a number of successive information frame (I-frame) retransmissions due to a guard timer expiring. A contactless front-end (CLF) transmits the I-frame to a secure element (SE) over a single wire protocol (SWP) interface. The method also includes discontinuing I-frame retransmission when the count equals a retransmission threshold. The method further includes deactivating the SWP interface.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A method, comprising:
counting a number of successive information frame (I-frame) retransmissions due to a guard timer expiring, wherein a contactless front-end (CLF) transmits the I-frame to a secure element (SE) over a single wire protocol (SWP) interface; discontinuing I-frame retransmission when the count equals a retransmission threshold; and deactivating the SWP interface.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein counting the number of successive I-frame retransmissions comprises incrementing the count for each successive I-frame retransmission.

3 . The method of claim 2 , further comprising resetting the count to zero when the SE acknowledges an I-frame.

4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the retransmission threshold is configurable.

5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the guard timer expires when the CLF fails to receive an I-frame acknowledgement from the SE within a guarding time.

6 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
triggering an interrupt of CLF firmware; and notifying the CLF firmware of an unresponsive SE condition.

7 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising maintaining multiple counts associated with multiple I-frames that are transmitted by the CLF to the SE, wherein each I-frame has a separate count for the number of successive I-frame retransmissions due to a guard timer expiring.

8 . The method of claim 7 , further comprising discontinuing I-frame retransmission and deactivating the SWP interface when at least one of the multiple counts equals the retransmission threshold.

9 . The method of claim 7 , further comprising resetting the multiple counts to zero when the SE acknowledges any one of the multiple I-frames.

10 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the CLF comprises a near-field communication (NFC) chip, and wherein the SE comprises at least one of a universal integrated circuit card (UICC) and an embedded SE.

11 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the I-frame is sent over the SWP interface using simplified high level data link control (SHDLC) link layer control (LLC).

12 . An electronic device, comprising:
a processor; memory in electronic communication with the processor; and instructions stored in the memory, the instructions being executable by the processor to:
maintain a counter that counts a number of successive information frame (I-frame) retransmissions due to a guard timer expiring, wherein a contactless front-end (CLF) transmits the I-frame to a secure element (SE) over a single wire protocol (SWP) interface;
discontinue I-frame retransmission when the counter equals a retransmission threshold; and
deactivate the SWP interface.

13 . The electronic device of claim 12 , wherein the instructions executable to maintain the counter that counts the number of successive I-frame retransmissions comprise instructions executable to increment the counter for each successive I-frame retransmission.

14 . The electronic device of claim 13 , further comprising instructions executable to reset the counter to zero when the SE acknowledges an I-frame.

15 . The electronic device of claim 12 , further comprising instructions executable to:
trigger an interrupt of CLF firmware; and notify the CLF firmware of an unresponsive SE condition.

16 . The electronic device of claim 12 , further comprising instructions executable to maintain multiple counters associated with multiple I-frames that are transmitted by the CLF to the SE, wherein each I-frame has a separate counter that counts the number of successive I-frame retransmissions due to a guard timer expiring.

17 . The electronic device of claim 16 , further comprising instructions executable to discontinue I-frame retransmission and deactivate the SWP interface when at least one of the multiple counters equals the retransmission threshold.

18 . The electronic device of claim 16 , further comprising instructions executable to reset the multiple counters to zero when the SE acknowledges any one of the multiple I-frames.

19 . An apparatus, comprising:
means for counting a number of successive information frame (I-frame) retransmissions due to a guard timer expiring, wherein a contactless front-end (CLF) transmits the I-frame to a secure element (SE) over a single wire protocol (SWP) interface; means for discontinuing I-frame retransmission when the count equals a retransmission threshold; and means for deactivating the SWP interface.

20 . The apparatus of claim 19 , wherein the means for counting the number of successive I-frame retransmissions comprise means for incrementing the count for each successive I-frame retransmission.

21 . The apparatus of claim 20 , further comprising means for resetting the count to zero when the SE acknowledges an I-frame.

22 . The apparatus of claim 19 , further comprising means for maintaining multiple counts associated with multiple I-frames that are transmitted by the CLF to the SE, wherein each I-frame has a separate count for the number of successive I-frame retransmissions due to a guard timer expiring.

23 . The apparatus of claim 22 , further comprising means for discontinuing I-frame retransmission and deactivating the SWP interface when at least one of the multiple counts equals the retransmission threshold.

24 . The apparatus of claim 22 , further comprising means for resetting the multiple counts to zero when the SE acknowledges any one of the multiple I-frames.

25 . A computer-program product, the computer-program product comprising a non-transitory computer-readable medium having instructions thereon, the instructions comprising:
code for causing an electronic device to count a number of successive information frame (I-frame) retransmissions due to a guard timer expiring, wherein a contactless front-end (CLF) transmits the I-frame to a secure element (SE) over a single wire protocol (SWP) interface; code for causing the electronic device to discontinue I-frame retransmission when the count equals a retransmission threshold; and code for causing the electronic device to deactivate the SWP interface.

26 . The computer-program product of claim 25 , wherein the code for causing the electronic device to count the number of successive I-frame retransmissions comprises code for causing the electronic device to increment the count for each successive I-frame retransmission.

27 . The computer-program product of claim 26 , further comprising code for causing the electronic device to reset the count to zero when the SE acknowledges an I-frame.

28 . The computer-program product of claim 25 , further comprising code for causing the electronic device to maintain multiple counts associated with multiple I-frames that are transmitted by the CLF to the SE, wherein each I-frame has a separate count for the number of successive I-frame retransmissions due to a guard timer expiring.

29 . The computer-program product of claim 28 , further comprising code for causing the electronic device to discontinue I-frame retransmission and deactivate the SWP interface when at least one of the multiple counts equals the retransmission threshold.

30 . The computer-program product of claim 28 , further comprising code for causing the electronic device to reset the multiple counts to zero when the SE acknowledges any one of the multiple I-

Assignees

• Qualcomm Inc

Inventors

• Banthia Ashish

Classifications

• H04N19/172

  the region being a picture, frame or field · CPC title

• G06F11/0793

  Remedial or corrective actions (recovery from an exception in an instruction pipeline G06F9/3861; by retry G06F11/1402; for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity H04L69/40) · CPC title

• H04L1/08 Primary

  by repeating transmission, e.g. Verdan system {(H04L1/1858 and H04L1/189 take precedence)} · CPC title

• G06Q20/327

  Short range or proximity payments by means of M-devices · CPC title

• H04N19/89

  involving methods or arrangements for detection of transmission errors at the decoder · CPC title