Patent ID: 8862881

Claim:
A method for mutually authenticating a first node and a second node operating in a wireless communication network, the method comprising: determining, by the first node, that the first node and the second node do not have a common trust anchor; identifying, at the first node, a third node that has a first trust anchor by which it can verify a first certificate held by the first node and also has a second trust anchor by which it can verify a second certificate in common with the second node; transmitting, in response to identifying the third node, from the first node to the third node, authentication data for authenticating the first node with the third node; processing, at the first node, a keying material received from the third node; authenticating the second node and the third node including transmitting from the second node to the third node, authentication data, and transmitting the keying material from the third node to the second node; and processing, at the first node and the second node, a shared secret mutual authentication protocol, whereby the first node and the second node are mutually authenticated in response to each having authenticated with the third node and each having the keying material.