Systems and methods to enable network coordinated mac randomization for wi-fi privacy

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016269359-A1
Application number	US-201514859023-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Sep 18, 2015
Priority date	Mar 13, 2015
Publication date	Sep 15, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

This disclosure describes systems, methods, and apparatus related to receiving, at an access point and from a wireless communication station, a media access control (MAC) address of the wireless communication station; assigning, at the access point, a prefix to the MAC address of the wireless communication station; receiving, at the access point and from the wireless communication station, a frame comprising the prefix and a random MAC address; replacing, at the access point and using the prefix, the random MAC address in the frame with the MAC address of the wireless communication station, thereby resulting in a processed frame; and transmitting, at the access point and to a destination device, the processed frame.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A non-transitory computer readable medium including instructions stored thereon, which when executed by one or more processor(s) of an access point, cause the device to perform operations of:
identifying a media access control (MAC) address of a wireless communication station received from the wireless communication station; assigning a prefix to the MAC address of the wireless communication station; identifying a frame received from the wireless communication station, wherein the frame comprises the prefix and a random MAC address; replacing, using the prefix, the random MAC address in the frame with the MAC address of the wireless communication station, thereby resulting in a processed frame; and causing to transmit the processed frame to a destination device.

2 . The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1 , wherein assigning the prefix to the MAC address of the wireless communication station comprises:
causing to transmitting to the wireless communication station a plurality of prefixes assigned to the MAC address of the wireless communication station, wherein the prefix included in the plurality of prefixes.

3 . The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1 , wherein assigning the prefix to the MAC address of the wireless communication station comprises:
generating a mapping table in a database; and storing the MAC address of the wireless communication station in the mapping table; and assigning a plurality of prefixes to the MAC address of the wireless communication station in the mapping table, wherein the plurality of prefixes comprises the prefix.

4 . The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 3 , wherein replacing the random MAC address in the frame with the MAC address of the wireless communication station comprises:
identifying the prefix in the frame; identifying the prefix in the mapping table based on comparing the prefix to the plurality of prefixes in the mapping table; and identifying the MAC address of the wireless communication station in the mapping table using the prefix in the mapping table.

5 . The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1 , wherein assigning the prefix to the MAC address of the wireless communication station comprises:
authenticating the wireless communication station using one or more Diffie-Hellman (DH) parameters of at least one of the access point or the wireless communication station.

6 . The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the frame comprises a prefix portion and a random MAC address portion, wherein the prefix portion comprises the prefix, a locally-administered bit that indicates whether the random MAC address portion of the frame includes a random MAC address, and a unicast/multicast bit that indicates whether the frame is destined to be transmitted outside of a network domain associated with the access point.

7 . The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1 , wherein identifying the frame comprises:
receiving a first frame comprising the prefix and a first random MAC address; and receiving a second frame comprising a second random MAC address different than the first random MAC address; and determining the first random MAC address and the second random MAC address were generated using the prefix.

8 . An access point, comprising:
one or more processors in communication with the transceiver; at least one memory that stores computer-executable instructions; and at least one processor of the one or more processors configured to access the at least one memory, wherein the at least one processor of the one or more processors is configured to execute the computer-executable instructions for: receiving, from a wireless communication station, a media access control (MAC) address of the wireless communication station received; assigning, at the access point, a prefix to the MAC address of the wireless communication station; receiving, from the wireless communication station, a frame comprising the prefix and a random MAC address; replacing, using the prefix, the random MAC address in the frame with the MAC address of the wireless communication station, thereby resulting in a processed frame; and transmitting, at the access point and to a destination device, the processed frame.

9 . The access point of claim 8 , wherein assigning the prefix to the MAC address of the wireless communication station comprises:
transmitting to the wireless communication station a plurality of prefixes assigned to the MAC address of the wireless communication station, wherein the prefix included in the plurality of prefixes.

10 . The access point of claim 8 , wherein assigning the prefix to the MAC address of the wireless communication station comprises:
generating a mapping table in a database; and storing the MAC address of the wireless communication station in the mapping table; and assigning a plurality of prefixes to the MAC address of the wireless communication station in the mapping table, wherein the plurality of prefixes comprises the prefix.

11 . The access point of claim 10 , wherein replacing the random MAC address in the frame with the MAC address of the wireless communication station comprises:
identifying the prefix in the frame; identifying, the prefix in the mapping table based on comparing the prefix to the plurality of prefixes in the mapping table; and identifying the MAC address of the wireless communication station in the mapping table using the prefix in the mapping table.

12 . The access point of claim 8 , wherein assigning the prefix to the MAC address of the wireless communication station comprises:
authenticating the wireless communication station using one or more Diffie-Hellman (DH) parameters of at least one of the access point and the wireless communication station.

13 . The access point of claim 8 , wherein the frame comprises a prefix portion and a random MAC address portion, wherein the prefix portion comprises the prefix, a locally-administered bit that indicates whether the random MAC address portion of the frame includes a random MAC address, and a unicast/multicast bit that indicates whether the frame is destined to be transmitted outside of a network domain associated with the access point.

14 . The access point of claim 8 , wherein receiving the frame comprises:
receiving a first frame comprising the prefix and a first random MAC address; and receiving a second frame comprising a second random MAC address different than the first random MAC address; and determining the first random MAC address and the second random MAC address were generated using the prefix.

15 . A non-transitory computer readable medium including instructions stored thereon, which when executed by one or more processor(s) of an access point, cause the device to perform operations of:
identifying a beacon from an access point; generating a response to the beacon that includes a media access control (MAC) address and an indication that access point-administered MAC address randomization is supported; identifying a prefix or ranges of prefixes that includes the prefix received from the access point; generating a frame using the prefix and a randomly generated MAC address; and causing to send the frame to the access point.

16 . The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 15 , wherein the frame comprises a prefix portion and a random MAC address portion, wherein the prefix portion comprises the prefix, a locally-administered bit that indicates whether the random MAC address

Assignees

• Intel Ip Corp

Inventors

• Adrangi Farid
• Johnston David

Classifications

• H04L61/5092

  by self-assignment, e.g. picking addresses at random and testing if they are already in use · CPC title

• H04L61/2596 Primary

  Translation of addresses of the same type other than IP, e.g. translation from MAC to MAC addresses · CPC title

• H04W12/06

  Authentication · CPC title

• H04W72/04

  Wireless resource allocation · CPC title

• H04L45/745

  Address table lookup; Address filtering · CPC title