Method, apparatus, and computer program product for service anonymity

An apparatus, comprising:

• at least one processor;
• at least one memory including computer program code;
• the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to:
• receive a service discovery frame from a wireless device operating synchronously with the apparatus in a neighbor awareness network cluster, the service discovery frame including one or more scrambled values associated with one or more service names, each of the scrambled values being a hash of an argument comprising a service name and a component value selected from an array of component values, the selection of a component value being made at each occurrence of a periodic time interval based on a current synchronous time shared by the apparatus and the wireless device;
• compare the one or more received scrambled values with scrambled values associated with service names maintained by the apparatus, each of the scrambled values maintained by the apparatus being a hash of an argument comprising a valid service name of a service known by the apparatus and a component value that is selected by the apparatus from the array of component values, the selection of a component value being made at each occurrence of the periodic time interval based on the current synchronous time shared by the apparatus and the wireless device;
• and
• determine that the received one or more scrambled values are associated with a service name known by the apparatus, if any of the received scrambled values satisfies the comparison with a scrambled value maintained by the apparatus, associated with the known service name.

A computer program product comprising computer executable program code recorded on a computer readable non-transitory storage medium, the computer executable program code comprising:

• code for receiving, by an apparatus, a service discovery frame from a wireless device operating synchronously with the apparatus in a neighbor awareness network cluster, the service discovery frame including one or more scrambled values associated with one or more service names, each of the scrambled values being a hash of an argument comprising a service name and a component value selected from an array of component value, the selection of a component value being made at each occurrence of a periodic time interval s based on a current synchronous time shared by the apparatus and the wireless device;
• code for comparing, by the apparatus, the one or more received scrambled values with scrambled values associated with service names maintained by the apparatus, each of the scrambled values maintained by the apparatus being a hash of an argument comprising a valid service name of a service known by the apparatus and a component value that is selected by the apparatus from the array of component values, the selection of a component value being made at each occurrence of the periodic time interval based on the current synchronous time shared by the apparatus and the wireless device;
• and
• code for determining, by the apparatus, that the received one or more scrambled values are associated with a service name known by the apparatus, if any of the received scrambled values satisfies the comparison with a scrambled value maintained by the apparatus, associated with the known service name.