Techniques enabling efficient synchronized authenticated network access

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9521108-B2
Application number	US-201113074166-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 29, 2011
Priority date	Mar 29, 2011
Publication date	Dec 13, 2016
Grant date	Dec 13, 2016

Abstract

An embodiment of the present invention provides a method of accelerating a network connection to a wireless network and avoiding unnecessary wait intervals, comprising synchronizing DHCP discover or request packets with an authentication mechanism utilized by the wireless network. In an embodiment of the present invention the wireless network may conform to Institute for Electrical and Engineers (IEEE) 802.1x standards and specific 802.1x states may trigger a DHCP request to ensure a DHCP process will start in a synchronized way, on-time when needed and capable to provide network access.

First claim

We claim:

1. A method of accelerating a network connection by a mobile device to a wireless network and avoiding unnecessary wait intervals, comprising:
dropping at the wireless network all DHCP requests from the mobile device until an authentication process of the network connection is completed successfully;
causing an authentication mechanism to generate a direct trigger to indicate that an authentication process completed successfully at a host, wherein the direct trigger is based on specific 802.1x states to ensure the DHCP process will start in a synchronized way, on-time when needed and capable to provide network access;
in response to the direct trigger from the authentication mechanism, initiating a DHCP request since the host has been authenticated and access to said wireless network has been granted security wise and thus the host can begin an address acquirement process;
amending a DHCP process to only start if 802.1x authentications have ended by identifying EAP success state, or if no authentication is present by following EAP challenge requests, or the absence of them to signify a secured state is not necessary identifying EAP supplicant state;
amending a behavior of a network driver allowing it to trigger a DHCP request packet, once the authentication is in passed state;
wherein at the mobile device a DHCP process to facilitate the network connection is started after receiving the direct trigger from the authentication mechanism.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein said wireless network conforms to Institute for Electrical and Engineers (IEEE) 802.1x standards.

3. An apparatus in a mobile device to accelerate network connection to a wireless network, comprising:
dropping at the wireless network all DHCP discover requests from the mobile device until the authentication process of the network connection is completed successfully;
generating a direct trigger after successful completion of an authentication process, wherein the direct trigger is based on specific 802.1 x states to ensure the DHCP process will start in a synchronized way, on-time when needed and capable to provide network access;
amending a DHCP process to only start if 802.1x authentications have ended by identifying EAP success state, or if no authentication is present by following EAP challenge requests, or the absence of them to signify a secured state is not necessary identifying EAP supplicant state;
wherein behavior of a network driver is configured to in response to the generated direct trigger have the mobile device issues a DHCP discover request since a host has been authenticated and access to said wireless network has been granted security wise and thus the host can begin an address acquirement process;
wherein at the mobile device a DHCP process to facilitate the network connection is started after receiving the direct trigger from the authentication mechanism.

4. The apparatus of claim 3 , wherein said wireless network conforms to Institute for Electrical and Engineers (IEEE) 802.1x standards.

5. The apparatus of claim 4 , wherein a network driver associated with said mobile device allows said mobile device to trigger a DHCP discover or request packet once the 802.1x authentication is in passed state.

6. An apparatus, comprising:
a host adapted for wireless communication with a mobile device, said mobile device adapted for accelerating a network connection to said host via a wireless network and avoiding unnecessary wait intervals by synchronizing DHCP discover or request packets;
dropping at the wireless network all DHCP discovery requests from the mobile device until the authentication process of the network connection is completed successfully;
generating a direct trigger after successful completion of an authentication process, wherein the direct trigger is based on specific 802.1x states to ensure the DHCP process will start in a synchronized way, on-time when needed and capable to provide network access;
in response to the direct trigger initiating a DHCP process at the mobile device to facilitate the network connection;
amending a DHCP process to only start if 802.1x authentications have ended by identifying EAP success state, or if no authentication is present by following EAP challenge requests, or the absence of them to signify a secured state is not necessary identifying EAP supplicant state;
wherein a network addressing process will only begin after a host has been authenticated, and access to said wireless network has been granted security wise and thus a host will not attempt to begin address acquirement process until an exchange can actually be carried out.

7. The apparatus of claim 6 , wherein said wireless network conforms to Institute for Electrical and Engineers (IEEE) 802.1x standards.

8. The apparatus of claim 7 , wherein a network driver associated with said mobile device allows said mobile device to trigger a DHCP discover or request packet once the 802.1x authentication is in passed state.

9. A system, comprising:
a mobile device; and
a host adapted for wireless communication with said mobile device, said mobile device adapted for accelerating a network connection to said host via a wireless network and avoiding unnecessary wait intervals by synchronizing DHCP discover or request packets with an authentication mechanism according to states of a communication protocol utilized by said wireless network;
wherein the authentication mechanism is adapted to accelerate a network connection to the wireless network by:
generating a direct trigger after successful completion of an authentication process;
in response to the direct trigger initiating a DHCP process at the mobile device to facilitate the network connection;
dropping at the wireless network all DHCP discover requests from the mobile device until the authentication process of the network connection is completed successfully;
wherein a DHCP process to facilitate the network connection can be started after receiving the direct trigger from the authentication mechanism;
wherein said wireless network conforms to Institute for Electrical and Engineers (IEEE) 802.1x standards;
wherein the direct trigger is based on specific 802.1x states to ensure the DHCP process will start in a synchronized way, on-time when needed and capable to provide network access;
wherein a network driver associated with said mobile device allows said mobile device to trigger a DHCP discover or request packet once the 802.1x authentication is in passed state;
amending a DHCP process to only start if 802.1x authentications have ended by identifying EAP success state, or if no authentication is present by following EAP challenge requests, or the absence of them to signify a secured state is not necessary identifying EAP supplicant state;
wherein a network addressing process will only begin after a host has been authenticated, and access to said wireless network has been granted security wise and thus a host will not attempt to begin address acquirement process until an exchange can actually be carried out.

10. A non-transitory non-volatile machine-accessible medium that provides instructions, which when accessed, cause a machine to perform operations comprising:
accelerating a network connection to a wireless network and avoiding unnecessary wait intervals by synchronizing DHCP discover or request packets by:
causing an authentication mechanism to generate a direct trigger to indicate that an authentication process completed successfully, wherein the direct trigger is based on specific 802.1x states to ensure the DHCP process will start in a synchronized way, on-time when needed and capable to provide network access;
dropping at the wireless network all D

Assignees

• Barkay Omri
• Levi Shachaf
• Intel Corp

Inventors

• Barkay Omri
• Levi Shachaf

Classifications

• H04W84/12

  WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks] · CPC title

• H04L61/2015 Primary

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04L63/08 Primary

  for authentication of entities (cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication H04L9/32) · CPC title

• H04W12/06

  Authentication · CPC title

• H04L61/5014 Primary

  using dynamic host configuration protocol [DHCP] or bootstrap protocol [BOOTP] · CPC title