The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Feb. 21, 1995
Filed:
Dec. 09, 1991
Andrew F Bulfer, Mountain Lakes, NJ (US);
Michael M Kaplan, Rockport, MA (US);
Bruce E McNair, Holmdel, NJ (US);
Carol A Wegrzynowicz, Holmdel, NJ (US);
AT&T Corp., Murray Hill, NJ (US);
Abstract
A security node disposed in the telecommunications network connecting calling and called parties transforms information (which can be voice, data, facsimile, video and other types of calls or messages) encrypted in a first format to (a) encrypted information in a different format or to (b) non-encrypted information, and vice-versa. The node is accessible from any location connected to the network. By routing calls or messages originated by the calling party and destined for the called party via the security node, and providing appropriate control signals to the node, the information may be encrypted only over a portion of the transmission path between the parties, and clear over the remainder of the transmission path. Alternatively, the information may be encrypted in different portions of the path using different encryption algorithms. This arrangement enables the parties to obtain relatively secure communications even if only one party has a security device at the originating or terminating end, or if the parties have security devices using different handshaking protocols and encryption algorithms.