Patent ID: 8015409

Claim:
An industrial automation system, comprising: one or more processors communicatively coupled to one or more memory, the one or more memory having stored therein computer-executable instructions to implement the system, including: at least one client license component granted by a license generating component (LGC) to permit access to a portion of an industrial control component; and at least one client component configured to employ a protocol that is based in part on an asymmetric key exchange to facilitate authentication and access by the client to the portion of the industrial control component, wherein the protocol comprises: the at least one client component is further configured to transmit the at least one client license component to the industrial control component; the at least one client component is further configured to receive a device license component from the industrial control component; the at least one client component is further configured to authenticate the device license component, and to transmit a client challenge to the industrial control component; the at least one client component is further configured to receive a device challenge and a response to the client challenge from the industrial control component; the at least one client component is further configured to authenticate the response to the client challenge, decode the device challenge, and transmit a response for the device challenge to the industrial control component; and the at least one client component is further configured to receive a session response from the industrial control component indicating whether a session has been established between the at least one client device and the industrial control component.