Method for providing secure data transfer in a mesh network

Abstract

A mesh network comprises a plurality of data nodes (a-g, e) configured to make direct data transfers to all other nodes (a-g, e) in the network within transmission range. The invention provides a method for making a secure data transfer from one node to another. Each node has already measured the exact time-of-flight to its neighbours and this information has been supplied to the coordinator node (1) or to the transmitting node (s). The transmitting node (s) can determine the time-of-flight along a number of different routes (A-E) through the mesh. The data to be transmitted is chopped up such that the data taking the longest route (E) is sent first, and the data taking the shortest route (A) is sent last. At the receiving end, the data arrives exactly re-ordered in time, and thus no decoding needs to take place. The benefit of this is that even if the transmitting end (s) is monitored, the data (I-V) has already been chopped up when it is transmitted, and at the receiving end (d), the data cannot be interpreted unless co-located onto the same receiving spot, as that is the only place in which the data arrives at the exact time synchronised moment.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.