Patent ID: 7058390

Claim:
A mobile communication system, comprising: a first mobile terminal; and a plurality of base stations, the first mobile terminal achieving confidentiality of data communicated with a base station amongst the plurality of base stations on an air link and with a second mobile terminal connected via the air link, the first mobile terminal and second mobile terminal using a first shared common encryption/decryption key to encrypt and decrypt the communicated data sent and received between the first mobile terminal and the second mobile terminal; the encrypted data using the first shared common encryption/decryption key being encrypted using a second shared common encryption/decryption key shared between the first mobile terminal and said base station amongst the plurality of base stations, the base station decrypting the data using the second shared common encryption/decryption key and transferring the encrypted data using the first shared common encryption/decryption key to a second base station for forwarding to the second mobile terminal, wherein the second base station encrypts the received encrypted data using a third shared common encryption/decryption key shared between the second base station and second mobile terminal, the second mobile terminal being able to decrypt the received encrypted data from the second base station using both the third and first shared common encryption/decryption keys.