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:
May. 29, 2001
Filed:
Oct. 20, 1997
Atsushi Inoue, Kanagawa, JP;
Masahiro Ishiyama, Tokyo, JP;
Atsushi Fukumoto, Kanagawa, JP;
Yoshiyuki Tsuda, Kanagawa, JP;
Atsushi Shimbo, Tokyo, JP;
Toshio Okamoto, Tokyo, JP;
Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba, Kawasaki, JP;
Abstract
A packet processing and packet transfer scheme capable of reducing the packet processing overhead by eliminating a need to decrypt and re-encrypt the entire packet at a time of relaying encrypted packets. In a packet processing device for relaying encrypted packets, a packet transferred to the packet processing device is received, where the packet has a packet processing key to be used in a prescribed packet processing with respect to a data portion of the packet, and the packet processing key is encrypted by using a first master key shared between a last device that applied a cipher communication related processing to the packet and the packet processing device. Then, the packet processing key in the received packet is decrypted, without carrying out the prescribed packet processing with respect to the data portion of the packet, and the decrypted packet processing key is re-encrypted by using a second master key shared between a next device to apply the cipher communication related processing to the packet and the packet processing device. Then, the packet with the re-encrypted packet processing key encoded therein is transmitted toward a destination of the received packet.