Beacon-Based Device Grouping for Secure IoT Network Setup
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing M2M and IoT devices, such as Bluetooth earphone microphones and projectors with built-in SD cards, have poor communication performance and low battery capacity, leading to inefficient wireless coupling and security concerns due to the need for gateways to arbitrate communications, which complicates setting up secure networks.
Innovation Solution
A system comprising multiple information processing apparatuses, including gateways and device management servers, that use beacons with common identification information to establish secure communication groups, limiting access through whitelists and controlling relay communications to simplify device pairing and secure network setup.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If gateways are used to arbitrate communications between devices, then communication reliability is improved, but device complexity and setup difficulty increase
Solution Approach 1:
Devices automatically generate and share whitelists with each other through beacon communication, eliminating the need for manual gateway configuration. Each device independently manages its own access control lists and distributes them to authorized devices, making the system self-configuring and reducing setup complexity while maintaining security.
Solution Approach 2:
The whitelist management function is extracted from the gateway and distributed to individual devices. Each device maintains its own whitelist of authorized devices, removing the centralized configuration burden from the gateway while preserving the security arbitration function.
2Reliability
If gateways are used to arbitrate communications, then security is improved, but ease of operation deteriorates due to manual whitelist setting requirements
Solution Approach 1:
Devices automatically exchange and populate whitelists through beacon communication without user intervention. When devices detect each other via beacons, they automatically add themselves to each other's whitelists, eliminating manual whitelist configuration while maintaining security through controlled access.
Solution Approach 2:
Whitelists are pre-populated through automatic beacon-based device discovery and registration. Devices perform the whitelist setup action in advance through automated communication, so that when actual data transmission occurs, the security configuration is already in place without requiring user action.
3Productivity
If devices transmit beacons with common identification information, then device grouping efficiency is improved, but network traffic increases
Solution Approach 1:
The beacon message serves multiple functions simultaneously: device identification, grouping indication through common ID, and whitelist distribution. This multi-functionality allows efficient device grouping without requiring separate communication channels, thereby limiting overall network traffic while achieving productive device pairing.
Data Source
AI summary
A system includes an apparatus among apparatuses configured to relay communication between equipment, and another apparatus coupled to the apparatuses through a network. The apparatus receives a beacon from one or more equipment for which given operation is executed by a user among a plurality of equipment, the beacon including first identifier whose value is common to the plurality of equipment, each of the plurality of equipment being configured to transmit the beacon; transmits the first identifier and second identifier identifying the one or more equipment, in the beacon, to the another apparatus; and executes relaying communication between equipment relating to a list of second identifier from the another apparatus. The another apparatus transmits, to one of apparatuses, a list of second identifier received in relation to first identifier with a common value in a plurality of the first identifier received from the one of apparatuses.