Patent ID: 8612743

Claim:
A computer-implemented method comprising: identifying a suspect node of a network that includes multiple nodes in wireless communication; in response to identifying the suspect node, initiating formation of a sub-network of the network by: identifying one or more neighbor nodes of the suspect node; and sending an invitation message to each neighbor node of the one or more neighbor nodes to invite the neighbor node to the sub-network, wherein the invitation message sent to a first particular neighbor node is encrypted using an encryption key associated with the first particular neighbor node, and wherein the invitation message is not sent to a second particular node that is only identified as a neighbor node by the suspect node; wherein the suspect node is not a member of the sub-network, wherein, after formation of the sub-network, first communications between the suspect node and a device of the network are routed to or through at least one of the members of the sub-network, and wherein the sub-network is configured to enable second communications between members of the sub-network, wherein the second communications are communicated in a manner that is secured against access by the suspect node; and implementing a traffic masking process that obscures a pattern of communications within the network, wherein the traffic masking process includes communicating dummy packets via the network to obscure the pattern of the communications within the network, and wherein existence of the sub-network is masked from the suspect node by replacing one or more of the dummy packets with one or more packets of the second communications.