Changing states of communication links in computer networks in an authenticated manner
AssigneeNtt Docomo, Inc.
InventorsPhilip MacKenzie, Zulfikar Ramzan, Craig Gentry
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A protocol for closing all active communication links between one device (110.1) and one or more other devices in a group provides that the first device sets up the group by generating an input to a predefined function (e.g. one-way function) according to some random distribution, computing the output of the one-way function, and sharing the output value with all other devices in the group. Then to close all communication links, the first device broadcasts the stored input to all other devices in the group. The other devices may check that the one-way function applied to this input results in the shared output value, and if so, close the communication link.
Claims20
A computer-implemented method for securely modifying a state of one or more communication links by a group of computer systems in a computer network, the group comprising a first computer system and one or more other computer systems, the method comprising:
- (1) the first computer system randomly selecting one or more first values;
- (2) the first computer system computing a group value as a first function of the one or more first values;
- (3) the first computer system performing a network transmission for providing the group value but not the one or more first values to the one or more other computer systems;
- (4) after the operation (3), the first computer system obtaining a command for changing a state of one or more of the communication links;
- (5) in response to the command, the first computer system performing a network transmission to the one or more other computer systems for providing an indication to change the state of the one or more of the communication links, the indication comprising authentication data to authenticate the indication to the one or more other computer systems, the authentication data comprising one or more second values which are either (i) one or more first values, or (ii) intermediate values obtained in computing the group value in the operation (2).
A computer-implemented method for securely modifying a state of one or more communication links by a group of computer systems, the group comprising at least a first computer system and a second computer system, the method comprising:
- (1) the second computer system obtaining a group value via a network transmission from the first computer system;
- (2) after the operation (1), the second computer system receiving a network transmission comprising an indication to change the state of the one or more communication links, the indication comprising authentication data to authenticate the indication to the second computer system, the authentication data comprising one or more authenticating values;
- (3) the second computer system computing a predefined function of the one or more authenticating values and determining whether or not the predefined function of the one or more authenticating values is in a predefined relationship to the group value;
- (4) if the predefined function of the one or more authenticating values is in a predefined relationship to the group value, then the second computer system processing the indication as a valid indication, and otherwise the second computer system processing the indication as an invalid indication.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.