Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Krishna Ganugapati

Arun Ayyagari

Timothy Mark Moore

Abhishek Abhishek

Pradeep Bahl

Hui Shen

Jiandong Ruan

Sachin C Sheth

Colin Watson

Margaret K Johnson

Steven G Judd

Florin Teodorescu

Mihai S Peicu

Chuck Y Chan

Daniel Ron Simon

Bernard D Aboba

Stuart L S Kwan

William H Dixon

Edwin Hernandez

Stuart L Kwan

A software based wireless infrastructure system is provided. The system has a driver that communicates with the network stack and a network interface card (NIC), a station server in communication with the station driver and an 802.1X supplicant or an 802.1X authenticator. Each NIC provides station and/or access point functionality support. The driver drops packets that have been received if the packet has not been authenticated and associated. Packets that have been fragmented or encrypted are unfragmented and decrypted. An association manager is used in conjunction with a configuration table manager to associate stations and access points via management packets. A manager receives 802.1X data packets from the packet processor and sends them up to a station server that communicates with user mode applications and an 802.1X supplicant or an 802.1X authenticator that are used to authenticate and deauthenticate stations and access points. APIs are provided to enable communication between the components.

Native Wi-Fi architecture for 802.11 networks

Native WI-FI architecture for 802.11 networks

Native wi-fi architecture for 802.11 networks

A power management scheme for use in a wireless device reduces the power consumption of the network interface module of the wireless device by selectively putting the network interface module into a low-power state for an idle time. The length of the idle time is calculated such that the amount of delayed traffic data accumulated is expected to be less than or equal to a pre-selected threshold when the network interface module is put in the low-power state for the calculated idle time. The amount of delayed traffic data as a function of the idle time is modeled using average inter-arrival and service rates that are derived from traffic statistics data.

Method and system for managing power consumption of a network interface module in a wireless computing device

A system and method for enabling a zero configuration nomadic wireless and wired computing environment presenting a just works experience is presented. The system examines predefined user preference or profile settings to determine to which of a competing number of wireless networks available it should connect, and what type of authentication should be used for such connection. Nomadic wireless computing between infrastructure wireless networks and ad hoc wireless networks may be accomplished without further user intervention required in an auto mode. Also, both infrastructure only and ad hoc only modes are available through the system of the invention. Further, the user may set a preference for infrastructure or ad hoc modes in the auto mode. With an infrastructure mode preference set, the system will automatically detect and transfer connectivity to a newly available infrastructure wireless network if the user was previously operating off-line or in ad hoc mode.

System and method for achieving zero-configuration wireless and wired computing and computing device incorporating same

Disclosed are methods for a client, having established one set of security keys, to establish a new set without having to communicate with an authentication server. When the client joins a group, master session security keys are derived and made known to the client and to the group's access server. From the master session security keys, the access server and client each derive transient session security keys, used for authentication and encryption. To change the transient session security keys, the access server creates 'liveness' information and sends it to the client. New master session security keys are derived from the liveness information and the current set of transient session security keys. From these new master session security keys are derived new transient session security keys. This process limits the amount of data sent using one set of transient session security keys and thus limits the effectiveness of any statistical attacker.

Methods for iteratively deriving security keys for communications sessions

System and method for achieving zero-configuration wireless computing and computing device incorporating same

A method of network security policy administration for a network client uses a finite state machine to maintain the security policy information of the network client. Security policy information may originate in a remote source such a directory storage as well as, or alternatively, locally in cache and local store locations. The finite state machine has four states, Initial, DS, Cache, and Local, and transitions between states responsive to the availability of security policy information from the various policy information sources. Furthermore, security policy updates occur via a differencing mechanism, wherein only filters that have changed are updated, minimizing impact on unchanged policy filters and the traffic protected by them, and minimizing lulls in policy coverage.

Centralized deployment of IPSec policy information

The present invention provides a directory service system for accessing a plurality of directory services in a uniform manner. Each directory service manages information relating to objects of that directory service. The type of information that a directory service manages for an object is defined by the object class of the object. An object class defines the properties (i.e., information) that a directory service manages for objects of that object class. Each property has a property name and property type. A directory service has a property value for each property defined by the object class of each object. The directory service system comprises a schema browsing component, a name resolving component, a binding component, and an extending component. The schema browsing component controls the retrieving of the property name and property type of each property of each object class of each directory service. A client of the directory service system uses the schema browsing component to retrieve property names and property types of the object classes. The name resolving component controls the receiving of a unique identifier of an object within a directory service and the locating of the object within the directory service. The binding component controls the binding to an in-memory object representing a located object within a directory service. The extending component controls the defining of new object classes and new properties for each directory service. A client of the directory service system uses the extending component to define new object classes and new properties.

Method and system for uniformly accessing multiple directory services

The present invention provides a directory service system for accessing a plurality of directory services in a uniform manner. Each directory service manages information relating to objects or that directory service. The type of information that a directory service manages for an object is defined by the object class of the object. An object class defines the properties (i.e., information) that a directory service manages for objects of that object class. Each property has a properly name and property type. A directory service has a property value for each property defined by the object class of each object. The directory service system comprises a schema browsing component, a name resolving component, a binding component, and an extending component. The schema browsing component controls the retrieving of the property name and property type of each property of each object class of each directory service. A client of the directory service system uses the schema browsing component to retrieve property names and property types of the object classes. The name resolving component controls the receiving of a unique identifier of an object within a directory service and the locating of the object within the directory service. The binding component controls the binding to an in-memory object representing a located object within a directory service. The extending component controls the defining of new object classes and new properties for each directory service. A client of the directory service system uses the extending component to define new object classes and new properties.

Growing community of inventors

Redmond, WA, United States of America

Krishna Ganugapati