Wireless module air interface maintenance method

Abstract

The invention discloses a wireless module air interface maintenance method, which comprises a maintained wireless device and an operation and maintenance auxiliary device, and comprises the following steps: step 1, the operation and maintenance auxiliary device starts to operate an AP mode on a wireless channel C; step 2, the maintained wireless equipment periodically broadcasts and sends a first management frame outwards on a wireless channel C; 3, after the operation and maintenance auxiliary equipment receives the first management frame, replying a second management frame to the maintained wireless equipment, and after a certain time, starting a wireless client mode; 4, after the maintained wireless device receives the second management frame, a second user information element is extracted, and then the AP mode is started; and 5, the operation and maintenance auxiliary equipment can establish wireless connection with the maintained wireless equipment, and maintenance instruction interaction is carried out based on the wireless connection. The maintenance problem of sensors without physical interfaces in actual use is solved, and the scheme has the advantages of being simple, safe and convenient to implement.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The invention belongs to the field of communications, and in particular relates to an air interface maintenance method for a wireless terminal. Background Art

[0002] WAPI (Wireless LAN Authentication and Privacy Infrastructure) is a wireless network security standard and technology specified in China's national standard GB15629.11. WAPI uses digital certificates to identify wireless access points (APs) and wireless terminals (STAs). It authenticates APs and STAs based on a three-factor authentication system, ensuring secure wireless access authentication.

[0003] Due to the high security of WAPI wireless networks, they are increasingly being used in industrial scenarios such as power generation, including a variety of WAPI wireless sensors. These sensors are battery-powered and transmit data wirelessly, offering easy deployment and high network security.

[0004] Some WAPI wireless sensors, such as temperature and humidity sensors, are small and waterproof, lacking external physical interfaces. These sensors are difficult to maintain on-site, making installation of digital certificates, SSID configuration, and other parameter configuration difficult.

[0005] To address this issue, one approach is to have the sensor enter access point mode for a set period of time (e.g., 15 to 60 seconds) after power-up. However, to reduce energy consumption, the sensor automatically disables access point mode if no client device connects to the sensor's wireless unit. This approach solves the problem of entering maintenance mode within a certain period of time after power-up, but it still prevents the sensor from entering air interface maintenance mode during subsequent operation, making sensor maintenance inconvenient. Summary of the Invention

[0006] The purpose of the present invention is to provide a wireless module air interface maintenance method, aiming to solve the problem of inconvenient maintenance of wireless sensors.

[0007] In order to achieve the above object, the present invention adopts the following technical solutions:

[0008] A wireless module air interface maintenance method, comprising a wireless device to be maintained and an operation and maintenance auxiliary device, comprises the following steps:

[0009] Step 1: The operation and maintenance auxiliary device starts operating in AP mode on wireless channel C;

[0010] Step 2: The maintained wireless device periodically broadcasts a first management frame on wireless channel C. The first management frame includes a first user information element, and the first user information element includes a MAC address and an IP address of the maintained wireless device.

[0011] Step 3: After receiving the first management frame, the operation and maintenance auxiliary device replies with a second management frame to the maintained wireless device. The second management frame includes a second user information element, which includes SSID, authentication method, and authentication password information. Then, after waiting for a certain period of time, the operation and maintenance auxiliary device starts the wireless client mode and sets the wireless client mode using the SSID, authentication method, and authentication password parameters included in the second user information element. Based on this, the operation and maintenance auxiliary device starts searching for and connecting to a wireless network.

[0012] Step 4: After receiving the second management frame, the maintained wireless device extracts the second user information element from the second management frame, and then extracts the SSID, authentication method, and authentication password information from the second user information element, and then starts the AP mode, wherein the SSID, authentication method, and authentication password of the AP mode are set according to the corresponding information in the second user information element;

[0013] Step 5: On this basis, the operation and maintenance auxiliary device can establish a wireless connection with the maintained wireless device. Based on the wireless connection, the operation and maintenance operator can send commands to the maintained wireless device through the operation and maintenance auxiliary device and receive command responses sent back by the maintained wireless device.

[0014] In one embodiment, the first management frame is a problem-request frame, and the second management frame is a problem-response frame.

[0015] In one of the embodiments, the operation and maintenance auxiliary device can receive the first management frame sent by multiple maintained wireless devices, thereby knowing the MAC address and IP address pair information of multiple maintained wireless devices. The operation and maintenance operator can select the maintained wireless device by controlling the operation and maintenance auxiliary device, that is, according to the MAC address of the maintained wireless device selected by the user, set the BSSID to which the wireless client mode of the operation and maintenance auxiliary device is to be connected.

[0016] In one embodiment, for security, the maintained wireless device generates a random number R when sending each first management frame, and includes R in the first user information element; the operation and maintenance assistance device also includes the random number R in the second user information element when sending the second management frame; further, the operation and maintenance assistance device also uses the maintenance password of the maintained wireless device to encrypt the data portion of the second user information element. Accordingly, the maintained wireless device also uses the maintenance password to decrypt the second user information element in the received second management frame and compares whether the random number therein is equal to R. If they are not equal, the received second management frame is discarded; and, after the wireless client is connected to the AP mode, the maintained wireless device will reject connection requests from other wireless clients.

[0017] Beneficial effects:

[0018] The present invention: This solution guides the maintained device to turn on the wireless access point AP mode by adopting secure air interface interaction between the air interface operation and maintenance auxiliary module and the maintained wireless device, and establishes a wireless connection between the auxiliary device and the AP mode of the maintained device. Based on this wireless connection, the operation and maintenance personnel can send commands to the maintained device and receive command responses from the maintained device through the auxiliary device, thereby realizing maintenance operations on the maintained device based on the air interface, solving the maintenance problems of sensors that are not equipped with physical interfaces in actual use, and the present solution is simple and safe, and is easy to implement. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0019] Figure 1 Schematic diagram of the interaction process between the maintained device and the operation and maintenance auxiliary device of the present invention;

[0020] Figure 2 This is a schematic diagram of the user IE structure of the present invention;

[0021] Figure 3 This is a schematic diagram of the first user IE structure of the present invention;

[0022] Figure 4 This is a schematic diagram of the second user IE structure of the present invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0023] The following will clearly and completely describe the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. Obviously, the described embodiments are only part of the embodiments of the present invention, not all of the embodiments. Based on the embodiments of the present invention, all other embodiments obtained by ordinary technicians in this field without making creative efforts are within the scope of protection of the present invention.

[0024] The following describes the specific embodiments of the present disclosure in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. It should be understood that the specific embodiments described herein are only used to illustrate and explain the present disclosure and are not intended to limit the present disclosure.

[0025] To achieve the above objectives, the present invention discloses a method for air interface maintenance of a wireless module, including a wireless device to be maintained and an operation and maintenance auxiliary device, comprising the following steps:

[0026] Step 1: The operation and maintenance auxiliary device starts operating in AP mode on wireless channel C;

[0027] Step 2: The maintained wireless device (hereinafter referred to as the maintained wireless device) periodically broadcasts a first management frame on wireless channel C. The first management frame includes a first user information element (UIE), which includes the MAC address and IP address of the maintained wireless device.

[0028] Step 3: After receiving the first management frame, the operation and maintenance auxiliary device replies with a second management frame to the maintained wireless device. The second management frame includes a second user information element, which includes the SSID, authentication method, and authentication password information. Then, after waiting for a certain period of time, the wireless client mode is enabled and configured using the SSID, authentication method, and authentication password parameters included in the second user information element. Based on this, the operation and maintenance auxiliary device starts searching for and connecting to a wireless network.

[0029] Step 4: After receiving the second management frame, the maintained wireless device extracts the SSID, authentication method, and authentication password from the second user information element, and then starts AP mode. The SSID, authentication method, and authentication password of the AP mode are set according to the corresponding information in the second user information element.

[0030] Step 5: On this basis, the operation and maintenance auxiliary device can establish a wireless connection with the maintained wireless device. Based on the wireless connection, the operation and maintenance operator can send commands to the maintained wireless device through the operation and maintenance auxiliary device and receive command responses sent back by the maintained wireless device.

[0031] In a specific implementation, the first management frame adopts a problem-request frame, and the second management frame adopts a problem-response frame.

[0032] In a specific implementation, the operation and maintenance auxiliary device can receive the first management frames sent by multiple maintained wireless devices, thereby knowing the MAC addresses and IP addresses of multiple maintained wireless devices. The operation and maintenance operator can select the maintained wireless device by controlling the operation and maintenance auxiliary device, that is, according to the MAC address of the maintained wireless device selected by the user, set the BSSID to which the wireless client mode of the operation and maintenance auxiliary device is to be connected.

[0033] In a specific implementation, for security reasons, the maintained wireless device generates a random number R when sending each first management frame and includes R in the first user information element. When the operation and maintenance assistance device sends a second management frame, it also includes the random number R in the second user information element. Furthermore, the operation and maintenance assistance device uses the maintenance password of the maintained wireless device to encrypt the data portion of the second user information element. Correspondingly, the maintained wireless device uses the maintenance password to decrypt the second user information element in the received second management frame and compares the random number therein with R. If they are not equal, the received second management frame is discarded. Moreover, after the wireless client is connected to the AP mode, the maintained wireless device will reject connection requests from other wireless clients.

[0034] In a specific implementation, for example, for a 2.4G WLAN wireless sensor device, channel 13 can be selected for AP mode. The maintained wireless device periodically broadcasts a first management frame on channel 13. The AP mode for operation and maintenance auxiliary equipment is fixed, and in this embodiment, channel 13 is fixed. For the maintained wireless device, in client mode (also known as station mode or STA mode), regardless of whether it is currently connected to a service network or not, it can broadcast a first management frame on channel 13. After sending the first management frame, the maintained wireless device waits for a certain period of time (e.g., 20 to 100 milliseconds) on channel 13 to receive a second management frame. When a WLAN device operates in STA mode, if the STA mode is already connected to a wireless network, it is possible for the STA mode to temporarily leave the current operating channel and send and receive management frames on other channels. This is a practice currently supported by WLAN devices in STA mode. Typically, after connecting to a wireless network, the STA mode periodically scans other channels for better AP access points to connect to. This is how it works.

[0035] For the first management frame and the second management frame in this embodiment, a preferred embodiment is based on the problem management frame, that is, the first management frame adopts the problem-request frame and the second management frame adopts the problem-response frame. Both the problem-request and the problem-response are standard management frames in the WLAN network. In this embodiment, a vendor information element (Vendor Information Element, referred to as VIE) is added to these two management frames to include specific information that needs to be transmitted in this embodiment. The structure of VIE is as follows: Figure 2 As shown, it includes the IE Type (1 byte, fixed to 0xDD) and length (1 byte) of the header, followed by the vendor OUI (Vendor-OUI, 3 bytes) and the vendor message type Type (1 byte), and finally the VIE message body.

[0036] In this embodiment, we define the first user information element and the second user information element as an OUI-Type, and use a 2-byte message type field (such as Figure 3 、 Four The Msg-type field in the message) identifies the first and second user information elements.

[0037] For the first user information element of this embodiment, the message body composition diagram is as follows: Figure 3 As shown, including Msg-type (0x0001), MAC-addr (MAC address), IP-addr (IP address), and R (random number), if the maintained wireless device adopts a static IP address configuration, the IP-addr in the first user information element is the statically configured IP address; if the IP address is obtained dynamically, when the maintained wireless device is in STA mode and is not connected to a wireless network, the maintained wireless device does not have an IP address at this time, and the IP-addr field in the first user information element uses all 0s.

[0038] For the second user information element of this embodiment, its message body composition diagram is as follows: Figure 4 As shown, it includes Msg-type (0x0002), R (random number), SSID, key-method (authentication method), and passwd (shared password).

[0039] In order to improve security, this embodiment Figure 4 The message is encrypted except for Msg-type (0x0002), and the password used is the maintenance password pwd of the maintained wireless device. More specifically, the SM3 algorithm is used to perform HASH calculation on the maintenance password pwd, and the first 128 bits are taken as the encryption password K1. K1 is used as the password to use the SM4 algorithm to encrypt the other contents of the second user information element except for Msg-type (0x0002).

[0040] Correspondingly, after receiving the second management frame, the maintained wireless device uses the SM3 algorithm to hash the maintenance password pwd, extracts the first 128 bits as the decryption password K2, and uses the SM4 algorithm to decrypt the second user information element in the second management frame except for Msg-type (0x0002). The device then extracts the contents of R, SSID, key-method, and passwd. Based on this, the device compares the random number R obtained from the second management frame with the random number generated when sending the first management frame. If they do not match, the device discards the received second management frame.

[0041] The preferred embodiments of the present disclosure are described in detail above in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. However, the present disclosure is not limited to the specific details in the above embodiments. Within the technical concept of the present disclosure, various changes, modifications, replacements and variations can be made to these embodiments, and these changes, modifications, replacements and variations all fall within the scope of protection of the present disclosure.

[0042] It should also be noted that the various specific technical features described in the above specific embodiments may be combined in any suitable manner, unless there is any contradiction, and these combinations shall also be considered as the contents disclosed in this disclosure. To avoid unnecessary repetition, this disclosure will not further describe various possible combinations. The technical scope of this application is not limited to the contents of the specification and must be determined based on the scope of the claims.

Claims

1. A wireless module air interface maintenance method, comprising a wireless device to be maintained and an operation and maintenance auxiliary device, characterized in that: The steps include: Step 1: The operation and maintenance auxiliary device starts operating in AP mode on wireless channel C; Step 2: The maintained wireless device periodically broadcasts a first management frame on wireless channel C. Step 3: After receiving the first management frame, the operation and maintenance auxiliary device replies with a second management frame to the maintained wireless device. The second management frame includes a second user information element, which includes SSID, authentication method, and authentication password information. Then, after waiting for a certain period of time, the operation and maintenance auxiliary device starts the wireless client mode and sets the wireless client mode using the SSID, authentication method, and authentication password parameters included in the second user information element. Based on this, the operation and maintenance auxiliary device starts searching for and connecting to a wireless network. Step 4: After receiving the second management frame, the maintained wireless device extracts the second user information element from the second management frame, and then extracts the SSID, authentication method, and authentication password information from the second user information element, and then starts the AP mode, wherein the SSID, authentication method, and authentication password of the AP mode are set according to the corresponding information in the second user information element; Step 5: The operation and maintenance auxiliary device can establish a wireless connection with the wireless device being maintained. Based on the wireless connection, the operation and maintenance operator sends commands to the wireless device being maintained through the operation and maintenance auxiliary device and receives command responses sent back by the wireless device being maintained.

2. A wireless module air interface maintenance method according to claim 1, characterized in that: The first management frame includes a first user information element, which includes the MAC address and IP address of the maintained wireless device; the user selects the maintained wireless device that needs to be maintained based on the received one or more MAC address and IP address pair information, that is, step three also includes: setting the target BSSID of the wireless client mode connection according to the MAC address of the maintained wireless device selected by the user.

3. A wireless module air interface maintenance method according to claim 1, characterized in that: The second management frame includes a second user information element, and the second user information element includes SSID, authentication method, and authentication password information.

4. A wireless module air interface maintenance method according to claim 1, characterized in that: The first management frame uses a problem-request frame, and the second management frame uses a problem-response frame.

5. A wireless module air interface maintenance method according to claim 1, characterized in that: The maintained wireless device generates a random number R when sending each first management frame, and includes R in the first user information element.

6. A wireless module air interface maintenance method according to claim 1, characterized in that: When sending the second management frame, the operation and maintenance assistance device also includes the random number R in the second user information element.

7. A wireless module air interface maintenance method according to claim 6, characterized in that: The operation and maintenance auxiliary device uses the maintenance password of the maintained wireless device to encrypt the data part of the second user information element. The maintained wireless device uses the maintenance password to decrypt the second user information element in the received second management frame, and compares whether the random number therein is equal to R. If they are not equal, the received second management frame is discarded.

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