Secure authentication-key management system and method for mobile communications
US5970144A · kind A · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Jan 31, 1997 |
| Grant date | Oct 19, 1999 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Jan 31, 2017 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
- CPC primaryH04W12/065
- WIPO fieldDigital communication
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
A system and method for enabling sensitive authentication information to be under the control of the service provider and transmitting only non-sensitive authentication information to the AC, for providing a secure technique for generating sensitive authentication information and for securely transmitting to and storing the information in the mobile system (MS) and a storage device controlled by the service provider, and for enabling a mobile station to utilize features supported by the visited system even if the MS home system does not support the feature. The present invention utilizes a secure authentication center (SAC) and a secure A-key management system (SAMS) to perform authentication. The SAC can be positioned locally in a home system, or it can be centrally located, for example, between systems. The SAC can be connected to many SAMS. Each SAMS stores sensitive authentication information for a group of MS's. During authentication, the SAC generates a request signal to the appropriate SAMS which generates a unique signal based upon the secret authentication data and other data stored therein. However, the sensitive authentication data is not sent to the SAC. The SAC perform…
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.