Method and apparatus for MoCA network with protected set-up

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9819698-B2
Application number	US-201514921667-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 23, 2015
Priority date	Jul 24, 2014
Publication date	Nov 14, 2017
Grant date	Nov 14, 2017

Abstract

Systems and methods are disclosed for securing a network, for admitting new nodes into an existing network, and/or for securely forming a new network. As a non-limiting example, an existing node may be triggered by a user, in response to which the existing node communicates with a network coordinator node. Thereafter, if a new node attempts to enter the network, and also for example has been triggered by a user, the network coordinator may determine, based at least in part on parameters within the new node and the network coordinator, whether the new node can enter the network.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A network comprising:
a first node; and
a second node, wherein:
the first node comprises at least one circuit operable to, at least:
send a first message to the second node comprising information that indicates protected setup has been triggered;
receive a second message from the second node indicating when the first node may send a third message comprising a public key;
send the third message to the second node comprising the public key;
receive a fourth message from the second node indicating when the second node will send a fifth message to the first node; and
receive the fifth message from the second node comprising protected setup information; and

the second node comprises at least one circuit operable to, at least:
receive the first message;
send the second message comprising a beacon;
receive the third message;
send the fourth message comprising a beacon; and
send the fifth message.

2. The network of claim 1 , wherein the fifth message comprises a first field, and the at least one circuit of the second node is operable to set the first field to a first value if protected setup is triggered and to a second value if protected setup is not triggered.

3. The network of claim 1 , wherein the first message comprises hashed public key information.

4. The network of claim 1 , wherein the second node is a network coordinator node.

5. A network node comprising:
at least one circuit comprising a processor, memory, and a network communication circuit, wherein the at least one circuit is operable to, at least:
send a first message to the second node comprising information that indicates protected setup has been triggered;
receive a second message from the second node indicating when the first node may send a third message comprising a public key;
send the third message to the second node comprising the public key; and
after sending the third message, receive a fourth message from the second node comprising protected setup information.

6. The network node of claim 5 , wherein the at least one circuit is operable to, prior to receiving the fourth message, receive a fifth message from the second node indicating when the second node will send the fourth message.

7. The network node of claim 5 , wherein the first message comprises hashed public key information.

8. The network node of claim 5 , wherein the at least one circuit is operable to send the first message in response to being triggered by a user to join a network.

9. The network node of claim 5 , wherein the fourth message comprises a protected setup response message.

10. The network node of claim 5 , wherein the at least one circuit is operable to analyze a first field of the fourth message to determine whether admission of the network node to a network of the second node was successful.

11. The network node of claim 5 , wherein the at least one circuit is operable to:
analyze a first field of the fourth message; and
if the first field is a particular value, then analyze a second field of the fourth message to determine how to proceed.

12. The network node of claim 11 , wherein if the determination of how to proceed comprises determining to perform admission using privacy settings, then the at least one circuit operates to continue node admission using one or more privacy settings of the network node.

13. The network node of claim 11 , wherein if the determination of how to proceed comprises determining that a failure has occurred, then the at least one circuit operates to continue searching for a network.

14. The network node of claim 11 , wherein if the determination of how to proceed comprises determining to perform admission without privacy, then the at least one circuit operates to change a privacy setting of a local parameter to indicate no privacy, and to report a change in the privacy setting to a management entity of the network node.

15. The network node of claim 11 , wherein if the determination of how to proceed comprises determining to perform a network coordinator (NC) to new node (NN) password exchange, then the at least one circuit operates to perform a password exchange by which the network node receives a password from the second node.

16. The network node of claim 11 , wherein if the determination of how to proceed comprises determining to perform a new node (NN) to network coordinator (NC) password exchange, then the at least one circuit operates to perform a password exchange by which the network node transmits a password to the second node.

17. A network node comprising:
at least one circuit comprising a processor, memory, and a network communication circuit, wherein the at least one circuit is operable to, at least:
receive a first message from a second node comprising information that indicates protected setup has been triggered;
in response to at least the received first message, transmit a second message indicating when the second node may transmit a third message comprising a public key;
receive the third message from the second node; and
in response to at least the received third message, transmit a fourth message to the second node comprising protected setup information.

18. The network node of claim 17 , wherein the at least one circuit is operable to transmit a fifth message in response to at least the received third message indicating when the second node may transmit the fourth message.

19. The network node of claim 17 , wherein the fourth message comprises a first field, and the at least one circuit of the network node operates to set the first field to a first value if protected setup is triggered and to a second value if protected setup is not triggered.

20. The network node of claim 17 , wherein the fourth message comprises a first field, and the at least one circuit of the network node operates to determine a value of the first field based, at least in part, on a hashed public key value received from the second node in the first message and on a public key received from the second node in the third message.

21. The network node of claim 20 , wherein the at least one circuit of the network node operates to determine the value of the first field based also, at least in part, on an address of the second node.

22. The network node of claim 17 , wherein the network node is a beaconing node.

23. The network node of claim 17 , wherein the network node is a network coordinator node.

Assignees

• Maxlinear Inc

Inventors

• Hebron Yoav
• Chen Na
• Wu Zong Liang
• Lee Ronald

Classifications

• H04L9/0841

  involving Diffie-Hellman or related key agreement protocols · CPC title

• H04L9/3239

  involving non-keyed hash functions, e.g. modification detection codes [MDCs], MD5, SHA or RIPEMD · CPC title

• H04L63/20 Primary

  for managing network security; network security policies in general (filtering policies H04L63/0227) · CPC title

• H04W12/50

  Secure pairing of devices · CPC title