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US 8,948,745 B2Granted
Rogue tower detection in a wireless network
AssigneeVerizon Patent and Licensing Inc.
InventorsDevin C. Moore, Wade P. Thompson
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A system associated with a first tower in a wireless network receives, at the first tower, tower lists generated by other towers that are nearby the first tower. The system further authenticates each of the received tower lists, and identifies ones of the nearby towers as rogue towers based on failures to authenticate respective ones of the received additional tower lists. The system also broadcasts a tower black list that lists the identified rogue towers to the nearby towers and to nearby mobile devices.
Claims18
A method, comprising:
- generating a token at a first tower in a wireless network;
- sending the token from the first tower to a network device;
- receiving, at the first tower from the network device, a list of towers that are nearby the first tower, wherein the list includes towers that are nearby the first tower that are known as valid to the network device and a respective first token associated with each of the towers that are nearby the first tower that are known as valid;
- receiving, at the first tower, tower lists broadcast from nearby towers, wherein each of the tower lists includes a second token associated with a respective one of the nearby towers;
- authenticating, at the first tower, each of the tower lists from the nearby towers by comparing the second token with the respective first token;
- identifying, at the first tower, each of the nearby towers whose second token fails authentication as a rogue tower that has been improperly placed within the wireless network to misroute or record traffic from or to mobile devices roaming within the wireless network;
- generating, at the first tower, a local tower list based on the list of towers received from the network device, but which excludes the identified nearby towers that failed authentication;
- and
- broadcasting the local tower list from the first tower to nearby towers and to nearby mobile devices.
6 more elements
A first cellular network radio tower in a wireless network, comprising:
- a transceiver configured to:
- send, via the wireless network, a token to a network device,
- receive, from the network device, a list of towers that are nearby the first tower, wherein the list identifies towers that are nearby the first tower that are known to be valid by the network device and includes a respective first token associated with each of the identified towers,
- receive, at the first tower, tower lists generated by other towers that are nearby the first tower, wherein each of the tower lists includes a second token associated with a respective one of the nearby towers;
- and
- a processing unit configured to:
- authenticate each of the received tower lists by comparing the second token with the respective first token;
- identify ones of the nearby towers as rogue towers based on failures to authenticate respective ones of the received additional tower lists, wherein the identified rogue towers comprise cellular network radio towers that have been improperly placed within the wireless network to misroute or record traffic from or to mobile devices roaming within the wireless network, and
- broadcast a tower black list that lists the identified rogue towers to the nearby towers and to nearby mobile devices.
6 more elements
A method, comprising:
- receiving tower lists at a mobile device from cellular network radio towers in a wireless network that are nearby the mobile device, wherein the tower lists identify cellular network radio towers that are not rogue towers and wherein the rogue towers comprise cellular network radio towers that have been improperly placed within the wireless network to misroute or record traffic from or to mobile devices roaming within the wireless network;
- receiving tower black lists at the mobile device from the cellular network radio towers that are nearby the mobile device, wherein the tower black lists identify cellular network radio towers that are rogue towers;
- connecting from the mobile device to one of the nearby cellular network radio towers based on the received tower lists and the received tower black lists;
- generating, at the mobile device, a local tower list based on the received tower lists and the received tower blacklists;
- receiving, at the mobile device, a tower list from the connected one of the nearby cellular network radio towers;
- determining, at the mobile device, whether the generated local tower list matches the received tower list from the connected one of the nearby cellular network radio towers;
- and
- disconnecting the mobile device from the connected one of the nearby cellular network radio towers based on a determination that the generated local tower list does not match the received tower list from the connected one of the nearby cellular network radio towers.
5 more elements
A mobile device, comprising:
- a wireless transceiver configured to:
- receive tower lists from cellular network radio towers in a wireless network that are nearby the mobile device, wherein the tower lists identify towers that are not rogue towers and wherein the rogue towers comprise cellular network radio towers that have been improperly placed within the wireless network to misroute or record traffic from or to mobile devices roaming within the wireless network,
- receive tower blacklists from the cellular network radio towers that are nearby the mobile device, wherein the tower blacklists identify towers that are rogue towers, and
- a processing unit configured to:
- cause the transceiver to connect to one of the nearby cellular network radio towers based on the received tower lists and the received tower blacklists,
- cause the transceiver to receive a tower list from the connected one of the nearby cellular network radio towers,
- generate a local tower list based on the received tower lists and the received tower blacklists,
- determine whether the generated local tower list matches the received tower list from the connected one of the nearby cellular network radio towers, and
- cause the mobile device to disconnect from the connected one of the nearby cellular network radio towers based on a determination that the generated local tower list does not match the received tower list from the connected one of the nearby cellular network radio towers.
6 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.