US 2009/0153290 A1Published application

Secure interface for access control systems

AssigneeFarpointe Data, Inc., a California Corporation

InventorKirk B. Bierach

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Abstract

An access control system and methods utilizing secure Wiegand communication interface are disclosed. In one example embodiment, an access control system includes an a plurality of RFID cards, a RFID reader and an access controller. The RFID reader collects user identification information communicated thereto via RFID cards and forwards it to the remote access controller. The access controller process the received identification information and determines whether to grant RFID card holder access to a restricted area or service. The RFID reader communicates with the access controller via a secure Wiegand interfaces, which utilized RFID reader identifiers, message sequence numbers and data encryption techniques to secure data transmissions between the RFID reader and access controller from various types of attacks.

Claims20

Dependent claims

An access control system, comprising:

an RFID reader, including
an RFID card interface configured to receive an RFID signal including at least some identification data associated with a holder of an RFID card;
a controller configured to
retrieve the identification data from the received RFID signal, and
generate a message responsive to the identification data, wherein the message further includes an RFID reader identifier and a message sequence number;
an encryption engine configured to encrypt the generated message;
and
an access controller interface configured to send the encrypted message to a remote access controller;
and
an access controller, including
an RFID reader interface configured to receive the encrypted message;
a decryption engine configured to decrypt the received message;
an authentication engine configured to authenticate the decrypted message based on the RFID reader identifier and the message sequence number;
and
an access control signal generator configured to generate an access control signal responsive to the received identification data.

12 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.