Systems and methods of geo-location based community of interest

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016182452-A1
Application number	US-201414578738-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Dec 22, 2014
Priority date	Dec 22, 2014
Publication date	Jun 23, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

The embodiments described herein recite a geo-location based community of interest (COI) system and method which add the capability to configure Network Connect Devices (NCD) to identify the location of the source and destination IP addresses. The NCDs would then drop any packets that are destined to an IP address outside of its predefined radius. For any sent/received packets, the geo-location position of the remote IP-address on the wide area network (WAN) may be determined. The distance between two points on the earth given their latitudes and longitudes of the devices may be determined. If the distance is greater than the predefined range, the data packets may be denied. If the distance falls within the pre-determined range, the data packets are allowed to reach their destination.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A computer implemented method comprising:
storing, by a host server, a plurality of internet protocol (IP) addresses in a host database; receiving, by the host server, a request to send packets of information to a destination device IP address outside a geo-location surrounding a source device IP address; comparing, by the host server, the destination device IP address with the plurality of IP addresses;
when the destination device IP address matches one of the plurality of IP addresses stored in the host database, sending, by the host server, the destination device IP address to the router to permit the router to send the destination device IP address the packets of information; and
when the destination device IP address does not match one of the plurality of IP addresses stored in the host database, blocking, by the host server, the destination device IP address from the router.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the geo-location is a boundary within a city limit.

3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the geo-location is a radius surrounding the location of the source device IP address.

4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the geo-location is a boundary within a zip code.

5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the source device selected from the group consisting of a first device and a second device, the first device and the second device being different device types.

6 . The method of claim 5 , wherein the device types are selected from a group consisting of a computer, a smartphone, a tablet, a web-cam, a printer, a home appliance, a television, and a thermostat.

7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein blocking does not permit the router to send the destination device IP address packets of information to the source device.

8 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of IP addresses in the host database are stored by user input.

9 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of IP addresses in the host database are automatically stored.

10 . A host server comprising:
a processor configured to:
store a plurality of internet protocol (IP) addresses in a host database;
receive a request to resolve a destination device IP address outside a geo-location surrounding a source device IP address; and
compare the destination device IP address with the plurality of IP addresses;
when the destination device IP address matches one of the plurality of IP addresses stored in the host database, sending the destination device IP address to the router to permit the router to send the destination device IP address packets of information; and
when the destination device IP address does not match one of the plurality of IP addresses stored in the host database, blocking the destination device IP address from the router.

11 . The system of claim 10 , wherein the geo-location is a boundary within a city limit.

12 . The system of claim 10 , wherein the geo-location is a radius surrounding the location of the source device IP address.

13 . The system of claim 10 , wherein the geo-location is a boundary within a zip code.

14 . The system of claim 10 , wherein the source device is selected from the group consisting of a first device and a second device, the first device and the second device being different device types.

15 . The system of claim 10 , wherein the device types are selected from the group consisting of a computer, a smartphone, a tablet, a web-cam, a printer, a home appliance, a television, and a thermostat.

16 . The system of claim 10 , wherein blocking does not permit the router to send the destination device IP address packets of information to the source device.

17 . The system of claim 10 , wherein the plurality of IP addresses in the host database are stored by user input.

18 . The system of claim 10 , wherein the plurality of IP addresses in the host database are automatically stored.

Assignees

• Entezari Mehdi
• Arfvidson Erik
• Beckett Devon Andrew
• Unisys Corp

Inventors

• Entezari Mehdi
• Arfvidson Erik
• Beckett Devon Andrew

Classifications

• H04L61/2007

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04L63/0254 Primary

  Stateful filtering · CPC title

• H04L63/0236

  Filtering by address, protocol, port number or service, e.g. IP-address or URL · CPC title

• H04L67/18

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04L67/52 Primary

  specially adapted for the location of the user terminal · CPC title