Patent ID: 8578163

Claim:
A communication method for a mesh network system, said mesh network system including a plurality of communication terminals, which include two first communication terminals and a second communication terminal that is registered as a safe adjacent terminal to the two first communication terminals, an adjacent communication link being establishable between the two first communication terminals to enable wireless multi-hop communication in the mesh network system, the communication method comprising: a common key distribution step including distributing a common key to all of the plurality of communication terminals in the mesh network system, the common key being a network key that is commonly usable in the mesh network system for at least one of encryption and authentication of data communication among the plurality of communication terminals; an adjacent terminal list distribution step including distributing, by the second communication terminal to the two first communication terminals, an adjacent terminal list including terminal identifiers of the two first communication terminals, along with a first temporal key generated by the second communication terminal; an adjacent registration information distribution step including distributing, by one of the first communication terminals, upon receipt of the adjacent terminal list and the first temporal key distributed in the adjacent terminal list distribution step, to the other one of the first communication terminals, adjacent registration information generated using a second temporal key; and an adjacent terminal authentication step including determining, by the other one of the first communication terminals, whether the terminal identifier of the one of the first communication terminals is included in the distributed adjacent terminal list, and whether the distributed first temporal key matches the second temporal key used for generating the distributed adjacent registration information, and authenticating, by the other one of the first communication terminals after said inclusion and said matching are confirmed, the one of the first communication terminals as an adjacent communication terminal for establishing the adjacent communication link between the two first communication terminals, wherein said common key distribution step is performed prior to said adjacent terminal authentication step.