Compact Certificates for Low-Power Devices via Field Encoding
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Smart home devices face challenges in securely transmitting and storing certificates due to their large size, which exceeds the memory and power capabilities of low-power devices, and standard compression methods offer limited reduction.
Innovation Solution
The development of compact application-specific certificates using field-by-field decoding and encoding rules that constrain options, allowing for a shorter representation of the same certificate information, enabling efficient transmission and storage on low-memory devices.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If standard certificates are used for securing communications in smart home networks, then security is improved, but memory usage and power consumption increase
Solution Approach 1:
The certificate is divided into multiple components: a full standard certificate stored securely, and a compact representative portion transmitted and stored on low-power devices. This segmentation allows the system to maintain full security capabilities while reducing the burden on resource-constrained devices.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of transmitting and storing complete certificates on every device, the system creates and transmits a compact copy or representative portion of the certificate. This compact representation contains sufficient information for verification purposes while dramatically reducing memory and transmission requirements.
2Quantity of substance
If redundancy-based compression algorithms are applied to certificates, then some compression is achieved, but the reduction is insufficient for low-power devices
Solution Approach 1:
The system extracts only the essential and necessary portions of the certificate data that are required for verification purposes. By taking out only the critical elements rather than attempting to compress the entire certificate, the system achieves significant size reduction while maintaining functionality.
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes the representation parameters of the certificate data by using a compact format with constrained encoding rules. This parameter change transforms the standard certificate format into a space-efficient representation that uses fewer bits to convey the same essential information.
3Quantity of substance
If compact format encoding with constrained rules is used, then certificate size is reduced, but encoding complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The compact encoding rules and format are pre-defined and established before runtime operations. By preparing the encoding scheme in advance, the system eliminates the need for complex real-time decision-making during certificate creation and verification, reducing operational complexity despite the specialized format.
Data Source
AI summary
Methods and systems for generating or validating compact certificates include receiving a first format of the certificate. Moreover, obtain a signature for the certificate in the first format. For each field of the certificate decode the field to obtain a value for the field from the first format and encoding the value for the field into a second format. Decoding and encoding for each field is done incrementally in the same order of the fields as the first format. In other words, a next field is not decoded from the first format until the field is encoded in the second format. Furthermore, a security envelope is encoded using the signature in the first format and the fields.