Secure two-message synchronization in wireless networks

Abstract

In a wireless network, secure synchronization may be achieved with two messages. A beacon initiator may provide a beacon timestamp field and a beacon nonce to devices in the network. A device in the network that wishes to synchronize with another device may send a message containing a variety of parameters including the beacon timestamp field and the nonce. Upon receipt, the receiving device can check a key included in the message, the beacon timestamp field and the nonce to determine, not only that the sender has a valid key, but that the message has a valid time so that one can be reasonably sure that the message was not simply copied. The receiving device then sends a message response which contains verifiable parameters to enable the message sender to be sure that the sender is communicating with a valid receiver.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.