METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR INITIALIZING SECURE COMMUNICATIONS AMONG, AND FOR EXCLUSIVELY PAIRING WIRELESS DEVICES

摘要

A method and system for efficiently establishing secure communications between mobile devices in a radio network. The present invention utilizes public key cryptography and unique hardware identifiers to enable authorizations for access to wireless networks, such as picocells. The present invention prevents the mobile user from maintaining a plurality of secrets such as user identifier/password pairs, PINs, or encryption keys, for access to each device to which he might require access. Wireless devices distributed throughout an enterprise are enabled to be efficiently initialized for secure communications. Well-known public key cryptography and machine unique identifiers are utilised to establish a secure channel and initialize the wireless devices. Wireless devices are enabled to be paired or permanently associated by a user or a network administrator. Well known public key cryptography and machine unique identifiers are utilised to establish a secure channel and associate the devices with each other. This is extremely useful for associating a wireless headset with a telephone or associating a wireless mouse with a computer.