Patent ID: 7835725

Claim:
A wireless communication system including a plurality of terminals, comprising: an ad-hoc network; a first terminal configured to send, using the ad-hoc network, a signal that includes beacon information having a first identifier that identifies the origin of the sent beacon and a second identifier that identifies an issuing terminal of a certificate of privilege; and a second terminal configured to send, using the ad-hoc network, an authentication request to the first terminal in response to the signal sent from the first terminal by providing the certificate of privilege that matches the second identifier, wherein the certificate of privilege includes encrypted data for certifying the second terminal, and wherein the second terminal comprises: a certificate-of-privilege issuing terminal list table for storing a public key certificate of a terminal that has issued the certificate of privilege; authentication-request receiving means for receiving a second authentication request from the first different terminal in response to the authentication request sent from the authentication request means; and verification means for verifying a second certificate of privilege contained in the second authentication request received by the authentication-request receiving means by using a public key contained in the public key certificate stored in the certificate-of-privilege issuing terminal list table.