Method and apparatus for authenticating nodes in a wireless network

Abstract

The invention includes a method and apparatus for authenticating a wireless node requesting to join a network. A method includes receiving an authentication request from the wireless node, negotiating at least one authentication parameter with the wireless node, deriving a first encryption key using the at least one authentication parameter, encrypting a second encryption key using the first encryption key, and propagating the encrypted second encryption key toward the wireless node, wherein the wireless node independently derives the first encryption key for use in decrypting the encrypted second encryption key received from the authentication server node. The wireless node decrypts the encrypted second encryption key and stores the second encryption key for use to securely communicate with other wireless nodes of the network. In one embodiment, the present invention may be implemented using a modified version of the EAP-TLS protocol, in which rather than a Pairwise Master Key (PMK) being sent from the authentication server node to the wireless node, the authentication server node and the wireless node each derive the PMK and the authentication server node securely provides a group encryption key to the wireless node by encrypting the group encryption key using the PMK.