TERMINAL IDENTITY MASKING IN A WIRELESS NETWORK

摘要

The certificate issued by a certificate authority (Figure 2, 202) used in authenticating a user terminal can be scrambled prior to being set to an access point. In one embodiment, the present invention includes a user terminal having a memory in which a user terminal certificate is stored. The user terminal also has a processor coupled to the memory to scramble the user terminal certificate (208) using a shared secret (204) to be known only by the user terminal and an access point of the wireless access network, and transmitter coupled to the processor to send a message (214) to the access point, the message (214) including the scrambled user terminal certificate (208).