Patent ID: 7826618

Claim:
A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising computer-executable instructions for synchronizing a cryptosystem between a sender and a receiver in a wireless network comprising at least one base station and at least one remote unit, the medium comprising instructions for: detecting a particular control message at an associated control channel level that is sent each time an airlink channel is set up; in response to detecting the particular control message, determining a point in the transmission at which to begin operating the cryptosystem, including changing an encryption key that is used by the base station and the remote unit; loading an encryption synchronization counter with a size of an associated control channel message that contains the particular control message, wherein the associated control channel message is transmitted in blocks; decrementing the encryption synchronization counter to zero when a last block of the associated control channel message has been transmitted; and when the particular control message has been detected and the encryption synchronization counter is zero, initializing the cryptosystem.