Wireless Payment Reader Power State Transition Latency
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Wireless payment readers face challenges in extending battery life while maintaining functionality and security during transactions, as they often consume high power during active usage and require frequent reinitialization for cryptographic operations.
Innovation Solution
The wireless payment reader transitions between multiple power states, including low-power and high-power states, to conserve battery life, and uses persistent memory to store cryptographic information, allowing it to quickly resume operations without significant latency. This is achieved through a microcontroller configuration that enables the device to awaken only when necessary and store key locations for secure sessions.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Duration of action of moving object
If the wireless payment reader frequently transitions to low-power states to extend battery life, then battery life is improved, but cryptographic operation latency increases due to reinitialization requirements
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by storing cryptographic operation state information in persistent memory before transitioning to low-power state. This allows the cryptographic operations to resume quickly after wakeup without full reinitialization, thus reducing latency while maintaining battery savings
Solution Approach 2:
The patent extracts only the essential cryptographic state information needed for resumption and stores it in persistent memory, separating this critical data from the full cryptographic initialization process. This selective extraction enables fast resume operations without compromising security
2Loss of time
If the wireless payment reader remains in high-power state to reduce cryptographic operation latency, then cryptographic operation speed is improved, but battery consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system uses periodic action by transitioning to low-power state between cryptographic operations while maintaining essential state information in persistent memory. This periodic cycling between power states reduces average power consumption while ensuring cryptographic operations can resume efficiently when needed
3Loss of time
If the wireless payment reader stores cryptographic information in persistent memory to reduce latency, then cryptographic operation resume speed is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by storing only specific cryptographic state information in persistent memory rather than all cryptographic data. This selective local storage reduces the complexity burden while providing sufficient information for fast operation resumption
Data Source
AI summary
Techniques described herein enable wireless payment reader to transition between lower-power and higher-power states while still performing cryptographic operations for securing payment data without undue latency caused by the transition between sleep and awake power states. For instance, a wireless payment reader may store information associated with cryptographic operations performed by the wireless payment reader in persistent memory of the wireless payment reader so that this information may be retained when the wireless payment reader enters a low-power, sleep state. Thus, when the wireless payment reader awakens from the low-power state, the wireless payment reader may read the cryptographic information from the local persistent memory rather than needing to request this information from a payment service.