Patent ID: 11916889
Assignee: INVENTRONICS GMBH
Field: Digital communication (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC H | IPC H

Claim 10:
11. A method for operating a computer network, wherein the computer network comprises:
a Non-IP subnetwork with at least one frontend device; and
an IP subnetwork with at least one backend device; and
a gateway connecting the Non-IP subnetwork with the IP subnetwork and translating communication therebetween,
wherein the communication between the backend device and the gateway is an IP communication based on an IP security protocol, providing means for authentication and/or encryption; and
wherein the communication between the gateway and the frontend device is a Non-IP communication;
wherein the method comprises:
conducting a handshaking for establishing a secure tunnel for secure end-to-end communication between the backend device and the frontend device, wherein the secure tunnel is set to apply a session key;
wherein the gateway mediates the handshaking without getting in possession of the session key by providing datagrams with handshaking parameters to the backend device and by providing Non-IP messages with a subset of the handshaking parameters to the frontend device;
wherein the frontend device generates the session key incorporating the handshaking parameters;
wherein the backend device generates the session key incorporating the subset of the handshaking parameters.