System and method for secure power systems infrastructure communications
AssigneeCooper Technologies Company
InventorRonald Landheer
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Communication apparatus and associated method for sending messages while concealing the messages among chaff data. In sending outgoing communications to and from a remote device, a stream of chaffing data is generated. A message to be communicated is inserted into the stream of chaffing data such that the beginning and ending boundaries of the first message are concealed by the chaffing data. A matching pair of deterministic number generators, one at the sending end and one at the remote device, are initialized using a common initialization value to cause generation of a common sequence of numbers with the remote device. The stream of chaffing data, or data associated with the first message, or both, are encoded with the common sequence of numbers.
Claims48
A communication apparatus for sending messages over a communication medium and to conceal the messages among chaff data, the apparatus comprising:
- an input circuit adapted to obtain a first message that is to be transmitted;
- a communication circuit adapted to send outgoing communications and receive incoming communications data over one or more channels through the communication medium, respectively, to and from a remote device;
- a chaffing module adapted to generate a stream of chaffing data;
- a message insertion module operatively coupled to the input circuit, the chaffing module, and the communication circuit, and configured to insert the first message into the stream of chaffing data such that the beginning and ending boundaries of the first message are concealed by the chaffing data;
- a first deterministic number generator module (DNGM) adapted to generate different sequences of numbers based on different initialization values such that, in response to each initialization value, a certain sequence of numbers is repeatably generated;
- a DNGM initialization module operatively coupled to the communication circuit and to the first DNGM, and adapted to exchange initialization data via the communication circuit with the remote device to establish a common initialization value between the first DNGM and a second DNGM of the remote device to thereby cause the first DNGM and second DNGM to generate a common sequence of numbers;
- and
- wherein at least one of the stream of chaffing data and data associated with the first message is encoded using an output of the first DNGM when the first DNGM is and the second DNGM are generating the common sequence of numbers.
A communication apparatus for receiving, over a communication medium, messages that are concealed among chaff data, the apparatus comprising:
- a communication circuit adapted to send outgoing communications and receive incoming communications data over one or more channels through the communication medium, respectively, to and from a remote device, wherein the incoming communications data comprises a stream of chaffing data and a first message inserted therein such that the beginning and ending boundaries of the first message are concealed by the chaffing data;
- a first deterministic number generator module (DNGM) adapted to generate different sequences of numbers based on different initialization values such that, in response to each initialization value, a certain sequence of numbers is repeatably generated;
- a DNGM initialization module operatively coupled to the communication circuit and to the first DNGM, and adapted to exchange initialization data via the communication circuit with the remote device to establish a common initialization value between the first DNGM and a second DNGM of the remote device to thereby cause the first DNGM and second DNGM to generate a common sequence of numbers;
- a winnower module operatively coupled to the communication circuit and to the first DNGM, the winnower module adapted to distinguish between chaffing data and message data in the incoming communications data, by determining the beginning and ending boundaries of the first message based on detecting at least one of the stream of chaffing data and data associated with the first message in the incoming communications data using an output of the first DNGM when the first DNGM is and the second DNGM are generating the common sequence of numbers;
- and
- an output circuit adapted to provide the decoded first message to a message consumer circuit.
A method for sending messages, by a communication device, over a communication medium while concealing the messages among chaff data, the method comprising:
- obtaining a first message that is to be transmitted;
- sending outgoing communications over one or more channels through the communication medium to and from a remote device;
- generating a stream of chaffing data;
- inserting the first message into the stream of chaffing data such that the beginning and ending boundaries of the first message are concealed by the chaffing data;
- generating different sequences of numbers based on different initialization values such that, in response to each initialization value, a certain sequence of numbers is repeatably generated;
- exchanging initialization data with the remote device to establish a common initialization value with the remote device to thereby cause generation of a common sequence of numbers with the remote device;
- and
- encoding at least one of the stream of chaffing data and data associated with the first message the common sequence of numbers.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.