Systems and methods for public key exchange employing a peer-to-peer protocol

A system for authenticating a new device to operate in a network, the system comprising:

• a plurality of network nodes forming the network, the network being a peer-to-peer network;
• a network node on the network, the network node configured to:
• exchange public keys with the new device to be authenticated;
• exchange one or more protocol messages with the new device, each protocol message contains a pseudo-random number generated by a pseudo-random number generator of either the network node or the new device being a sender using a common secret root information of each network node on the network and received from a user at a commissioning phase, and at a position concatenated in a previously received protocol message, each protocol message being encrypted using the public key of the other of the network node or the new device being a receiver;
• and
• authenticate the new device to the network responsive to the network node determining that a pseudorandom number in a received protocol message matches the pseudorandom number generated locally by the network node at a position concatenated in a previously sent protocol message.

A method of authenticating a new device to operate in a network, the method comprising:

• commissioning a set of network nodes by providing a common secret root information thereto of each network node on the network and received from a user at a commissioning phase;
• receiving, by a network node of the set of network nodes, a first public key from the new device to be authenticated to the network;
• transmitting, by the network node, a second public key of the network node to the new device;
• receiving, by the network node from the new device, a first protocol message containing a first position for a first pseudo-random number, the first protocol message being encrypted with the second public key;
• transmitting, by the network node to the new device, a second protocol message containing the first pseudo-random number at the first position generated by the second network node using the common secret root information of each network node on the network and received from a user at a commissioning phase, and containing a second position of a second pseudo-random number, the second protocol message being encrypted with the first public key;
• receiving, by the network node from the new device, a third protocol message encrypted using the second public key in response to the second protocol message;
• and
• authenticating, by the network node, the new device to the network responsive to the network node determining that a pseudo-random number in the third protocol message matches a pseudo-random number generated by the network node at the second position using the common secret root information.