Patent ID: 8041949
Filing Date: 2011-10-18
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. A bridge device for bridging between communication devices in an information processing system in which a range of information transfer between communication devices through a network is limited within a prescribed range by registering, in each of the communication devices, unique information which is unique to a short range communication device connectable to the each of the communication devices and permitting information transfer between communication devices which share common unique information, where the unique information is formed by a pair of a public unique information and a secret unique information, and where the registration of the unique information is performed by transmitting the unique information of the short range communication device to the each of the communication devices through short range communication of the short range communication device, the bridge device comprising: a unique information storing unit configured to store pairs of the public unique information and the secret unique information of different short range communication devices registered by the bridge device through the short range communication of the short range communication devices respectively; a proxy check request receiving unit configured to receive a proxy check request for determining, in place of the communication devices, whether to permit information transfer on the basis of the public unique information stored in the unique information storing unit, the public unique information registered by a first communication device, and an address information of a second communication device which is an intended correspondent of the first communication device, from the first communication device; a first judgment unit configured to judge whether the public unique information registered by the first communication device is the public unique information of one of the different short range communication devices; a second judgment unit configured to receive the public unique information from the second communication device, and judge whether the public unique information received from the second communication device is the public unique information of one of the different short range communication devices or not; a device type judgment unit configured to judge whether the second communication device is another bridge device or not, when the first judgment unit judges that the public unique information registered by the first communication device is registered in the unique information storing unit and the second judgment unit judges that one public unique information registered in the unique information storing unit is registered by the second communication device; and a unique information transmission determining unit configured to determine transmission of the secret unique information registered by the first communication device to the second communication device after confirming that each of the first and second communication devices registers the unique information of any one of the different short range communication devices, according to a judgment result of the device type judgment unit, wherein the communication of the short range communication device is based on a physical layer and a datalink layer, and the communication among the first and second communication devices and the bridge device is based on a network layer and a transport layer.