SECURING A WIRELESS MESH NETWORK VIA A CHAIN OF TRUST

摘要

A master beacon device emits a data packet that is received and retransmitted by servant beacon devices in a wireless mesh network that enables the beacon devices to detect the received signal strength indicator (“RSSI”) of beacon devices in proximity. Each servant beacon device transmits survey data packets comprising the RSSIs and hardware identifiers of proximate beacon devices to the master beacon device, which constructs a first virtual map of the mesh network. At a later time, each servant beacon device transmits authentication data packets, which are retransmitted, each retransmitting beacon inserting an RSSI and hardware identifier of the beacon device from which the authentication data packet was received, until they reach the master beacon device, which constructs a second virtual map of the mesh network. The master beacon device compares the first virtual map to the second virtual map to determine if the network is secure.

主权项

1. A computer-implemented method for securing a wireless mesh network of beacon devices, comprising:
receiving, by a master beacon device and from a plurality of servant beacon devices in a mesh network, survey data comprising, for each of the servant beacon devices, a beacon device identifier and path loss information of proximate servant beacon devices detected by each servant beacon device; constructing, by the master beacon device, a first virtual map of the mesh network based on the received survey, the first virtual map comprising a list of beacon devices in the mesh network identified by the beacon device identifiers and path loss information detected by servant beacon devices; transmitting, by the master beacon device and to each of the plurality of servant beacon devices, enrollment data comprising beacon device identifiers and corresponding path loss values of proximate beacon devices to servant beacon devices, wherein the enrollment data is based on the first virtual map data and wherein the enrollment data may be retransmitted by servant beacon devices within the mesh network to reach other recipient servant beacon devices; receiving, by the master beacon device, authentication data from a plurality of servant beacon devices, the authentication data comprising beacon device identifiers for servant beacon devices and path loss information detected by servant beacon devices of proximate servant beacon devices; constructing, by the master beacon device, a second virtual map of the mesh network based on the received authentication data, the second virtual map comprising a list of all known beacon devices in the mesh network identified by the beacon device identifiers and path loss detected by servant beacon devices; comparing, by the master beacon device, the first virtual map to the second virtual map; and determining, by the master beacon device, that the mesh network is insecure based on identified differences between the first virtual map and the second virtual map.