Patent ID: 9735957
Date: 2017-08-15
CPC Classifications: H04L,H04W

Claim:
1. A method comprising: at an authenticator device arranged to receive communications between an authentication server and a plurality of devices in a mesh network, storing a pairwise master key for the plurality of devices in the mesh network upon authentication of the respective devices; at the authenticator device, storing a group temporal key, wherein the group temporal key is shared by each of the plurality of devices, and each of the plurality of devices uses the group temporal key to encrypt and to decrypt messages sent in the mesh network; initiating an authentication procedure with a particular device, wherein the authentication procedure comprises: at the authenticator device, receiving a list of neighbor devices from each of the plurality of devices in the mesh network; at the authenticator device, encrypting with the group temporal key a message comprising information indicating which neighbor devices are considered valid in the mesh network; and sending the message to each of the plurality of devices in the mesh network.