DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Status of Claims
Claims 1-2, 4-10, 12-22 are pending. Claims 3, 11 are cancelled.
Claim Objections
Claims 1, 9, and 17 are objected to because of the following informalities:
Claims 1, 9, and 17 contain the term “preforming”. This should be “performing”.
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 101
35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows:
Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.
Claims 1-16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to an abstract idea without significantly more. The claim(s) recite(s) obtaining a physical layer key, using the key as input of a physical layer key generator, and obtaining a second… key as an output of the generator, which falls under mathematical concepts related to cryptography. This judicial exception is not integrated into a practical application because the additional recited elements as part of the method, e.g. “physical layer key generator”, can themselves be seen as abstractions (e.g. mental key generation or pencil/paper). The claim(s) does/do not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception because the claims contain no discernible hardware elements which perform the actual steps of the method. Mere recitation of an “ambient internet-of-things (AIoT) device in the preamble of the claim is insufficient to show involvement of a hardware device in the method steps. In order to overcome this rejection, applicant could recite hardware elements performing the method, e.g. “hardware processor” or “computing device”. None of claims 2-8 fix this and are therefore rejected for the same reasons.
Claims 9-16 contain similar subject matter to claims 1-8, but from the perspective of the opposite node, and are therefore rejected for similar reasons.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claim(s) 1-2, 6-10, 14-19, 22 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Win et al (WO 2021/091615), and further in view of Salkintzis et al (WO 2024/088582), Elshafie (WO-2023/278900), and Dandekar et al (PGPUB 2024/0214803).
Regarding Claim 1:
Win teaches a wireless communication method of key generation (abstract, physical layer key generation), performed by an internet-of-things (IoT) device and comprising (page 3 line 13-22, internet of things devices):
obtaining a first physical layer key used in at least one previous communication with a node (page 14 line 1-10, both a transmitting device and a receiving device perform the key generation steps 600, a transmitting device performs the encryption steps 610, and the receiving device performs the decrypting steps 622; during key generation 600, a key generation module 606 takes as input a previous encryption key 602);
using the first physical layer key as an input of a physical layer key generator (page 14 line 1-10, during key generation 600, a key generation module 606 takes as input a previous encryption key 602); and
obtaining a second physical layer key generated based on at least a part of the first physical layer key, wherein the second physical layer key is an output of the physical layer key generator (page 14 line 1-10, during key generation 600, a key generation module 606 takes as input a previous encryption key 602 and a current key derived from currently correlated phase-related channel state information 604; the current key may include, but need not be limited to, the quantity; in general any key derived from current phase-related channel state information that is correlated between sender and receiver may be used; the key generation module 606 combines the two keys 602 and 604 to produce a current encryption key 608);
wherein obtaining the second physical layer key comprises performing a randomization operation, a quantization operation, and a shared key stream operation on the first physical layer key (page 2 line 12-21, key generation from the physical layer of a channel, such as wireless radio frequency channels, linking communication nodes has attracted interest in recent years; since multipath environments generally cause time-varying and location-sensitive fading effects on the wireless signals, the wireless channel parameters (e.g., path delays and path amplitudes) are regarded as a proper random source to generate secret keys; page 9 line 14-17, key extraction begins by converting the analog signal to a digital signal; to that end, we implement a quantization scheme for transforming the complex values to binary values for key generation; page 13 line 14-20, we introduce the cross-layer design by combining a recently-computed raw key and the old encryption key together to obtain the new encryption key using XOR (i.e. “shared key stream operation”); page 14 line 1-10, both a transmitting device and a receiving device perform the key generation steps 600; key derived from currently correlated phase-related channel state information 604);
wherein when the key generation is put into use a first time, in a case where the IoT device is pre-configured with a shared key, the shared key is input into the key generation (page 14 line 1-10, during key generation 600, a key generation module 606 takes as input a previous encryption key 602 and a current key derived from currently correlated phase-related channel state information 604; the current key may include, but need not be limited to, the quantity; in general any key derived from current phase-related channel state information that is correlated between sender and receiver may be used; the key generation module 606 combines the two keys 602 and 604 to produce a current encryption key 608).
Win does not explicitly teach wherein the internet-of-things device is an ambient internet-of-things (AIoT) device.
However, Salkintzis teaches the concept wherein an internet-of-things device is an ambient internet-of-things (AIoT) device ([0002] ambient IoT devices; [0091] AIoT security key, part of security information).
It would have been obvious to one or ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the ambient internet of things device teachings of Salkintzis with the key generation of an internet of things device teachings of Win, with the benefit of incorporating secure low-overhead key generation methods into a larger variety of devices which would benefit from such reduced computation methods to conserve power, such as ambient devices, which typically rely on miniscule amounts of environmental power to function, thereby improving the security of such device types.
Neither Win nor Salkintzis explicitly teaches wherein obtaining the second physical layer key comprises performing a reconciliation operation.
However, Elshafie teaches the concept wherein obtaining a physical layer key comprises performing a reconciliation operation ([0086] the UE and the BS may each generate the set of secret keys using physical layer (PHY)-based secret key generation schemes that exploit the randomness and reciprocity of the radio channel between the UE and the BS; [0091] upon quantization of the RSS measurements, there may be discrepancies between the secret key sequences generated by the UE and the BS, for example, due to noise, interference, hardware variations, half-duplex probing signal transmission, etc.; in some instances, the UE and the BS may apply key reconciliation techniques to reconcile the discrepancies so that the secret key generated by the UE and the BS is same or at least substantially similar); and
Win teaches wherein the physical layer key is a second physical layer key (page 14 line 1-10).
It would have been obvious to one or ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the key reconciliation techniques of Elshafie with the key generation of an internet of things device teachings of Win in view of Salkintzis, in order to improve performance and reliability of the encryption system by using methods which ensure that each party to the encryption can generate functionally equivalent keys using inherently noisy parameters such as channel state information.
Neither Win nor Salkintzis nor Elshafie explicitly teaches wherein when the key generation is put into use a first time, in a case where there is not a key generated from prior iteration, the first physical layer key is initialized to be all 0’s.
However, Dandekar teaches the concept wherein when a key generation is put into use a first time, in a case where there is not a key generated from prior iteration, the first physical layer key is initialized to be all 0’s ([0031] the state is used to generate bits based on the channel symmetry that form the key, which are continuously placed into a shift register 210 as shown in FIG. 2; the bits may be continuously updated until a system specified event occurs, upon which the current key value may be transferred from the shift registers into memory 211; the system event may be either time-triggered based on an interrupt or event-triggered based on the number of packets successfully transmitted or received; at this point, the key is (1) used on its own, (2) mixed with a software encryption key from the application layer, or (3) mixed with the previously valid physical encryption key to generate a more secure key; the key mixing function 220 shown in FIG. 2 is applied with XORs; [0039] the key policy discussed in Section 3.1 is adapted to an FPGA fabric; to implement the key policy on an FPGA, the bits generated from the real-time algorithm described in Section 2.2 may be placed into a shift register capable of storing N bits, where N is the size of the key; the content stored in memory may serve as the key for the software layer for the current time session; the current session key applied within the software layer may be XORed with the physical layer key, which was initialized to all zeros, to create a new temporally dependent key).
It would have been obvious to one or ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the key initialized to zero teachings of Dandekar with the key generation of an internet of things device teachings of Win in view of Salkintzis and Elshafie; a person of ordinary skill in the art, faced with the problem of initializing the state of a key generation algorithm, must choose from a limited pool of available options for the initial values of the input parameters. It would therefore be obvious to choose to zero out the initial physical layer key parameter in order to reset the system and generate a predictable outcome.
Regarding Claim 2:
Win in view of Salkintzis, Elshafie, and Dandekar teaches the wireless communication method of claim 1. In addition, Win teaches wherein the physical layer key generator is a loop feedback physical layer key generation (page 14 line 1-10, during key generation 600, a key generation module 606 takes as input a previous encryption key 602, i.e. “loop feedback”).
Regarding Claim 6:
Win in view of Salkintzis, Elshafie, and Dandekar teaches the wireless communication method of claim 1. In addition, Win teaches the method, further comprising generating an encrypted message based on the second physical layer key (page 14 line 1-10, both a transmitting device and a receiving device perform the key generation steps 600, a transmitting device performs the encryption steps 610, and the receiving device performs the decrypting steps 622; during the encrypting phase 610, an encryption module 618 receives as input a plaintext message 612, as well as a current encryption key 614 and a counter value 616; the encryption module 618 then encrypts the plaintext to produce ciphertext 620 as described above; the ciphertext may be transmitted by the transmitting device).
Regarding Claim 7:
Win in view of Salkintzis, Elshafie, and Dandekar teaches the wireless communication method of claim 6. In addition, Win teaches the method further comprising sending the encrypted message to the node (page 14 line 1-10, both a transmitting device and a receiving device perform the key generation steps 600, a transmitting device performs the encryption steps 610, and the receiving device performs the decrypting steps 622; during the encrypting phase 610, an encryption module 618 receives as input a plaintext message 612, as well as a current encryption key 614 and a counter value 616; the encryption module 618 then encrypts the plaintext to produce ciphertext 620 as described above; the ciphertext may be transmitted by the transmitting device).
Regarding Claim 8:
Win in view of Salkintzis, Elshafie, and Dandekar teaches the wireless communication method of claim 1. In addition, Win teaches wherein the node is a user equipment (UE) or a base station (page 3 line 13-22, devices in an “internet of things” setting, such as connected appliances, smart speakers, connected vehicles, etc., i.e. “user equipment”).
Regarding Claim 9:
Win teaches a wireless communication method of key generation, performed by a node (abstract, physical layer key generation) and comprising:
obtaining a first physical layer key used in at least one previous communication with an internet-of-things (AIoT) device (page 3 line 13-22, internet of things devices; page 14 line 1-10, both a transmitting device and a receiving device perform the key generation steps 600, a transmitting device performs the encryption steps 610, and the receiving device performs the decrypting steps 622; during key generation 600, a key generation module 606 takes as input a previous encryption key 602);
using the first physical layer key as an input of a physical layer key generator (page 14 line 1-10, during key generation 600, a key generation module 606 takes as input a previous encryption key 602); and
obtaining a second physical layer key generated based on at least a part of the first physical layer key, wherein the second physical layer key is an output of the physical layer key generator (page 14 line 1-10, during key generation 600, a key generation module 606 takes as input a previous encryption key 602 and a current key derived from currently correlated phase-related channel state information 604; the current key may include, but need not be limited to, the quantity; in general any key derived from current phase-related channel state information that is correlated between sender and receiver may be used; the key generation module 606 combines the two keys 602 and 604 to produce a current encryption key 608);
wherein obtaining the second physical layer key comprises performing a randomization operation, a quantization operation, and a shared key stream operation on the first physical layer key (page 2 line 12-21, key generation from the physical layer of a channel, such as wireless radio frequency channels, linking communication nodes has attracted interest in recent years; since multipath environments generally cause time-varying and location-sensitive fading effects on the wireless signals, the wireless channel parameters (e.g., path delays and path amplitudes) are regarded as a proper random source to generate secret keys; page 9 line 14-17, key extraction begins by converting the analog signal to a digital signal; to that end, we implement a quantization scheme for transforming the complex values to binary values for key generation; page 13 line 14-20, we introduce the cross-layer design by combining a recently-computed raw key and the old encryption key together to obtain the new encryption key using XOR (i.e. “shared key stream operation”); page 14 line 1-10, both a transmitting device and a receiving device perform the key generation steps 600; key derived from currently correlated phase-related channel state information 604);
wherein when the key generation is put into use a first time, in a case where the IoT device is pre-configured with a shared key, the shared key is input into the key generation (page 14 line 1-10, during key generation 600, a key generation module 606 takes as input a previous encryption key 602 and a current key derived from currently correlated phase-related channel state information 604; the current key may include, but need not be limited to, the quantity; in general any key derived from current phase-related channel state information that is correlated between sender and receiver may be used; the key generation module 606 combines the two keys 602 and 604 to produce a current encryption key 608).
Win does not explicitly teach wherein the internet-of-things device is an ambient internet-of-things (AIoT) device.
However, Salkintzis teaches the concept wherein an internet-of-things device is an ambient internet-of-things (AIoT) device ([0002] ambient IoT devices; [0091] AIoT security key, part of security information).
It would have been obvious to one or ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the ambient internet of things device teachings of Salkintzis with the key generation of an internet of things device teachings of Win, with the benefit of incorporating secure low-overhead key generation methods into a larger variety of devices which would benefit from such reduced computation methods to conserve power, such as ambient devices, which typically rely on miniscule amounts of environmental power to function, thereby improving the security of such device types.
Neither Win nor Salkintzis explicitly teaches wherein obtaining the second physical layer key comprises performing a reconciliation operation.
However, Elshafie teaches the concept wherein obtaining a physical layer key comprises performing a reconciliation operation ([0086] the UE and the BS may each generate the set of secret keys using physical layer (PHY)-based secret key generation schemes that exploit the randomness and reciprocity of the radio channel between the UE and the BS; [0091] upon quantization of the RSS measurements, there may be discrepancies between the secret key sequences generated by the UE and the BS, for example, due to noise, interference, hardware variations, half-duplex probing signal transmission, etc.; in some instances, the UE and the BS may apply key reconciliation techniques to reconcile the discrepancies so that the secret key generated by the UE and the BS is same or at least substantially similar); and
Win teaches wherein the physical layer key is a second physical layer key (page 14 line 1-10).
It would have been obvious to one or ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the key reconciliation techniques of Elshafie with the key generation of an internet of things device teachings of Win in view of Salkintzis, in order to improve performance and reliability of the encryption system by using methods which ensure that each party to the encryption can generate functionally equivalent keys using inherently noisy parameters such as channel state information.
Neither Win nor Salkintzis nor Elshafie explicitly teaches wherein when the key generation is put into use a first time, in a case where there is not a key generated from prior iteration, the first physical layer key is initialized to be all 0’s.
However, Dandekar teaches the concept wherein when a key generation is put into use a first time, in a case where there is not a key generated from prior iteration, the first physical layer key is initialized to be all 0’s ([0031] the state is used to generate bits based on the channel symmetry that form the key, which are continuously placed into a shift register 210 as shown in FIG. 2; the bits may be continuously updated until a system specified event occurs, upon which the current key value may be transferred from the shift registers into memory 211; the system event may be either time-triggered based on an interrupt or event-triggered based on the number of packets successfully transmitted or received; at this point, the key is (1) used on its own, (2) mixed with a software encryption key from the application layer, or (3) mixed with the previously valid physical encryption key to generate a more secure key; the key mixing function 220 shown in FIG. 2 is applied with XORs; [0039] the key policy discussed in Section 3.1 is adapted to an FPGA fabric; to implement the key policy on an FPGA, the bits generated from the real-time algorithm described in Section 2.2 may be placed into a shift register capable of storing N bits, where N is the size of the key; the content stored in memory may serve as the key for the software layer for the current time session; the current session key applied within the software layer may be XORed with the physical layer key, which was initialized to all zeros, to create a new temporally dependent key).
It would have been obvious to one or ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the key initialized to zero teachings of Dandekar with the key generation of an internet of things device teachings of Win in view of Salkintzis and Elshafie; a person of ordinary skill in the art, faced with the problem of initializing the state of a key generation algorithm, must choose from a limited pool of available options for the initial values of the input parameters. It would therefore be obvious to choose to zero out the initial physical layer key parameter in order to reset the system and generate a predictable outcome.
Regarding Claim 10:
Win in view of Salkintzis, Elshafie, and Dandekar teaches the wireless communication method of claim 9. In addition, Win teaches wherein the physical layer key generator is a loop feedback physical layer key generation (page 14 line 1-10, during key generation 600, a key generation module 606 takes as input a previous encryption key 602, i.e. “loop feedback”).
Regarding Claim 14:
Win in view of Salkintzis, Elshafie, and Dandekar teaches the wireless communication method of claim 9. In addition, Win teaches the method further comprising receiving an encrypted message from the IoT device (page 14 line 1-10, both a transmitting device and a receiving device perform the key generation steps 600, a transmitting device performs the encryption steps 610, and the receiving device performs the decrypting steps 622; during the encrypting phase 610, an encryption module 618 receives as input a plaintext message 612, as well as a current encryption key 614 and a counter value 616; the encryption module 618 then encrypts the plaintext to produce ciphertext 620 as described above; the ciphertext may be transmitted by the transmitting device); and
Salkintzis teaches wherein the IoT device is an AIoT device ([0002] ambient IoT devices).
The rationale to combine Win and Salkintzis is the same as provided for claim 9 due to the overlapping subject matter between claims 9 and 14.
Regarding Claim 15:
Win in view of Salkintzis, Elshafie, and Dandekar teaches the wireless communication method of claim 14. In addition, Win teaches the method further comprising decrypting the encrypted message based on the second physical layer key (page 14 line 1-10, both a transmitting device and a receiving device perform the key generation steps 600, a transmitting device performs the encryption steps 610, and the receiving device performs the decrypting steps 622; during the encrypting phase 610, an encryption module 618 receives as input a plaintext message 612, as well as a current encryption key 614 and a counter value 616; the encryption module 618 then encrypts the plaintext to produce ciphertext 620 as described above; the ciphertext may be transmitted by the transmitting device).
Regarding Claim 16:
Win in view of Salkintzis, Elshafie, and Dandekar teaches the wireless communication method of claim 9. In addition, Win teaches wherein the node is a user equipment (UE) or a base station (page 3 line 13-22, devices in an “internet of things” setting, such as connected appliances, smart speakers, connected vehicles, etc., i.e. “user equipment”).
Regarding Claim 17:
Win teaches an internet-of-things (IoT) device (abstract, physical layer key generation; page 3 line 13-22, internet of things devices), comprising:
a memory (page 17 line 17-page 18 line 13, software may include instructions stored on a non-transitory machine-readable medium);
a transceiver (page 17 line 17-page 18 line 13, hardware may further include WiFi-equipped devices such as WiFi cards, chips, etc.; the hardware may further any components capable of wireless communication, e.g. those embedded in mobile devices, “smart” appliances, switches, vehicles, measurement instruments, or the like); and
a processor coupled to the memory and the transceiver (page 17 line 17-page 18 line 13, general-purpose or a special-purpose processor);
wherein the IoT device is configured to:
obtain a first physical layer key used in at least one previous communication with an ambient internet-of-things (IoT) device (page 14 line 1-10, both a transmitting device and a receiving device perform the key generation steps 600, a transmitting device performs the encryption steps 610, and the receiving device performs the decrypting steps 622; during key generation 600, a key generation module 606 takes as input a previous encryption key 602);
use the first physical layer key as an input of a physical layer key generator (page 14 line 1-10, during key generation 600, a key generation module 606 takes as input a previous encryption key 602); and
obtain a second physical layer key generated based on at least a part of the first physical layer key, wherein the second physical layer key is an output of the physical layer key generator (page 14 line 1-10, during key generation 600, a key generation module 606 takes as input a previous encryption key 602 and a current key derived from currently correlated phase-related channel state information 604; the current key may include, but need not be limited to, the quantity; in general any key derived from current phase-related channel state information that is correlated between sender and receiver may be used; the key generation module 606 combines the two keys 602 and 604 to produce a current encryption key 608);
wherein obtaining the second physical layer key comprises performing a randomization operation, a quantization operation, and a shared key stream operation on the first physical layer key (page 2 line 12-21, key generation from the physical layer of a channel, such as wireless radio frequency channels, linking communication nodes has attracted interest in recent years; since multipath environments generally cause time-varying and location-sensitive fading effects on the wireless signals, the wireless channel parameters (e.g., path delays and path amplitudes) are regarded as a proper random source to generate secret keys; page 9 line 14-17, key extraction begins by converting the analog signal to a digital signal; to that end, we implement a quantization scheme for transforming the complex values to binary values for key generation; page 13 line 14-20, we introduce the cross-layer design by combining a recently-computed raw key and the old encryption key together to obtain the new encryption key using XOR (i.e. “shared key stream operation”); page 14 line 1-10, both a transmitting device and a receiving device perform the key generation steps 600; key derived from currently correlated phase-related channel state information 604);
wherein when the key generation is put into use a first time, in a case where the AIoT device is pre-configured with a shared key, the shared key is input into the key generation (page 14 line 1-10, during key generation 600, a key generation module 606 takes as input a previous encryption key 602 and a current key derived from currently correlated phase-related channel state information 604; the current key may include, but need not be limited to, the quantity; in general any key derived from current phase-related channel state information that is correlated between sender and receiver may be used; the key generation module 606 combines the two keys 602 and 604 to produce a current encryption key 608).
Win does not explicitly teach wherein the internet-of-things device is an ambient internet-of-things (AIoT) device.
However, Salkintzis teaches the concept wherein an internet-of-things device is an ambient internet-of-things (AIoT) device ([0002] ambient IoT devices; [0091] AIoT security key, part of security information).
It would have been obvious to one or ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the ambient internet of things device teachings of Salkintzis with the key generation of an internet of things device teachings of Win, with the benefit of incorporating secure low-overhead key generation methods into a larger variety of devices which would benefit from such reduced computation methods to conserve power, such as ambient devices, which typically rely on miniscule amounts of environmental power to function, thereby improving the security of such device types.
Neither Win nor Salkintzis explicitly teaches wherein obtaining the second physical layer key comprises performing a reconciliation operation.
However, Elshafie teaches the concept wherein obtaining a physical layer key comprises performing a reconciliation operation ([0086] the UE and the BS may each generate the set of secret keys using physical layer (PHY)-based secret key generation schemes that exploit the randomness and reciprocity of the radio channel between the UE and the BS; [0091] upon quantization of the RSS measurements, there may be discrepancies between the secret key sequences generated by the UE and the BS, for example, due to noise, interference, hardware variations, half-duplex probing signal transmission, etc.; in some instances, the UE and the BS may apply key reconciliation techniques to reconcile the discrepancies so that the secret key generated by the UE and the BS is same or at least substantially similar); and
Win teaches wherein the physical layer key is a second physical layer key (page 14 line 1-10).
It would have been obvious to one or ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the key reconciliation techniques of Elshafie with the key generation of an internet of things device teachings of Win in view of Salkintzis, in order to improve performance and reliability of the encryption system by using methods which ensure that each party to the encryption can generate functionally equivalent keys using inherently noisy parameters such as channel state information.
Neither Win nor Salkintzis nor Elshafie explicitly teaches wherein when the key generation is put into use a first time, in a case where there is not a key generated from prior iteration, the first physical layer key is initialized to be all 0’s.
However, Dandekar teaches the concept wherein when a key generation is put into use a first time, in a case where there is not a key generated from prior iteration, the first physical layer key is initialized to be all 0’s ([0031] the state is used to generate bits based on the channel symmetry that form the key, which are continuously placed into a shift register 210 as shown in FIG. 2; the bits may be continuously updated until a system specified event occurs, upon which the current key value may be transferred from the shift registers into memory 211; the system event may be either time-triggered based on an interrupt or event-triggered based on the number of packets successfully transmitted or received; at this point, the key is (1) used on its own, (2) mixed with a software encryption key from the application layer, or (3) mixed with the previously valid physical encryption key to generate a more secure key; the key mixing function 220 shown in FIG. 2 is applied with XORs; [0039] the key policy discussed in Section 3.1 is adapted to an FPGA fabric; to implement the key policy on an FPGA, the bits generated from the real-time algorithm described in Section 2.2 may be placed into a shift register capable of storing N bits, where N is the size of the key; the content stored in memory may serve as the key for the software layer for the current time session; the current session key applied within the software layer may be XORed with the physical layer key, which was initialized to all zeros, to create a new temporally dependent key).
It would have been obvious to one or ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the key initialized to zero teachings of Dandekar with the key generation of an internet of things device teachings of Win in view of Salkintzis and Elshafie; a person of ordinary skill in the art, faced with the problem of initializing the state of a key generation algorithm, must choose from a limited pool of available options for the initial values of the input parameters. It would therefore be obvious to choose to zero out the initial physical layer key parameter in order to reset the system and generate a predictable outcome.
Regarding Claim 18:
Win in view of Salkintzis, Elshafie, and Dandekar teaches a node (abstract, physical layer key generation; page 3 line 13-22, internet of things devices), comprising:
a memory (page 17 line 17-page 18 line 13, software may include instructions stored on a non-transitory machine-readable medium);
a transceiver (page 17 line 17-page 18 line 13, hardware may further include WiFi-equipped devices such as WiFi cards, chips, etc.; the hardware may further any components capable of wireless communication, e.g. those embedded in mobile devices, “smart” appliances, switches, vehicles, measurement instruments, or the like); and
a processor coupled to the memory and the transceiver (page 17 line 17-page 18 line 13, general-purpose or a special-purpose processor);
wherein the processor is configured to perform the method of claim 9 (see claim 9, above)
Regarding Claim 19:
Win in view of Salkintzis, Elshafie, and Dandekar teaches the ambient internet-of-things (AIoT) device of claim 17. In addition, Win teaches wherein the physical layer key generator is a loop feedback physical layer key generation (page 14 line 1-10, during key generation 600, a key generation module 606 takes as input a previous encryption key 602, i.e. “loop feedback”).
Regarding Claim 22:
Win in view of Salkintzis, Elshafie, and Dandekar teaches the ambient internet-of-things (AIoT) device of claim 17. In addition, Win teaches wherein the AIoT device is further configured to generate an encrypted message based on the second physical layer key (page 14 line 1-10, both a transmitting device and a receiving device perform the key generation steps 600, a transmitting device performs the encryption steps 610, and the receiving device performs the decrypting steps 622; during the encrypting phase 610, an encryption module 618 receives as input a plaintext message 612, as well as a current encryption key 614 and a counter value 616; the encryption module 618 then encrypts the plaintext to produce ciphertext 620 as described above; the ciphertext may be transmitted by the transmitting device).
Claim(s) 4, 12, 20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Win in view of Salkintzis, Elshafie, and Dandekar, and further in view of Wang et al (PGPUB 2021/0351936).
Regarding Claim 4:
Win in view of Salkintzis, Elshafie, and Dandekar teaches the wireless communication method of claim 1.
Neither Win nor Salkintzis nor Elshafie nor Dandekar explicitly teaches wherein the second physical layer key is used as a one-time pad (OTP).
However, Wang teaches the concept wherein a physical layer key is used as a one-time pad (OTP) ([0005] keys generated by the physical layer; [0014] one-time pad encryption is achieved); and
Win teaches wherein the physical layer key is a second physical layer key (page 14 line 1-10).
It would have been obvious to one or ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the one-time pad encryption teachings of Wang with the key generation of an internet of things device teachings of Win in view of Salkintzis, Elshafie, and Dandekar; it is well-known in the art that one-time pad is one of the most mathematically secure forms of encryption, and that the difficulty lies in distributing the key material securely without being intercepted by an eavesdropper. Therefore, combining the secure key generation techniques of Win in view of Salkintzis with the one-time pad encryption teachings of Wang would result in an overall improvement to the security environment.
Regarding Claim 12:
Win in view of Salkintzis, Elshafie, and Dandekar teaches the wireless communication method of claim 9.
Neither Win nor Salkintzis nor Elshafie nor Dandekar explicitly teaches wherein the second physical layer key is used as a one-time pad (OTP).
However, Wang teaches the concept wherein a physical layer key is used as a one-time pad (OTP) ([0005] keys generated by the physical layer; [0014] one-time pad encryption is achieved); and
Win teaches wherein the physical layer key is a second physical layer key (page 14 line 1-10).
It would have been obvious to one or ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the one-time pad encryption teachings of Wang with the key generation of an internet of things device teachings of Win in view of Salkintzis; it is well-known in the art that one-time pad is one of the most mathematically secure forms of encryption, and that the difficulty lies in distributing the key material securely without being intercepted by an eavesdropper. Therefore, combining the secure key generation techniques of Win in view of Salkintzis, Elshafie, and Dandekar with the one-time pad encryption teachings of Wang would result in an overall improvement to the security environment.
Regarding Claim 20:
Win in view of Salkintzis, Elshafie, and Dandekar teaches the ambient internet-of-things (AIoT) device of claim 17.
Neither Win nor Salkintzis nor Elshafie nor Dandekar explicitly teaches wherein the second physical layer key is used as a one-time pad (OTP).
However, Wang teaches the concept wherein a physical layer key is used as a one-time pad (OTP) ([0005] keys generated by the physical layer; [0014] one-time pad encryption is achieved); and
Win teaches wherein the physical layer key is a second physical layer key (page 14 line 1-10).
It would have been obvious to one or ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the one-time pad encryption teachings of Wang with the key generation of an internet of things device teachings of Win in view of Salkintzis, Elshafie, and Dandekar; it is well-known in the art that one-time pad is one of the most mathematically secure forms of encryption, and that the difficulty lies in distributing the key material securely without being intercepted by an eavesdropper. Therefore, combining the secure key generation techniques of Win in view of Salkintzis with the one-time pad encryption teachings of Wang would result in an overall improvement to the security environment.
Claim(s) 5, 13, 21 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Win in view of Salkintzis, Elshafie, and Dandekar, and further in view of Bartlett et al (PGPUB 2020/0336895).
Regarding Claim 5:
Win in view of Salkintzis, Elshafie, and Dandekar teaches the wireless communication method of claim 1.
Neither Win nor Salkintzis nor Elshafie nor Dandekar explicitly teaches the method further comprising performing a channel establishment procedure with the node.
However, Bartlett teaches the concept of performing a channel establishment procedure with a node ([0067] local communication interface 303 and antenna 311 establishes local communication channels with each of the IoT devices 101-105).
It would have been obvious to one or ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the channel establishment teachings of Bartlett with the key generation of an internet of things device teachings of Win in view of Salkintzis, Elshafie, and Dandekar; a person of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that communicating devices must somehow be configured to establish a channel of some kind prior to/as part of the exchange of security information, in order for that security information to be effectively conveyed.
Regarding Claim 13:
Win in view of Salkintzis, Elshafie, and Dandekar teaches the wireless communication method of claim 9.
Neither Win nor Salkintzis nor Elshafie nor Dandekar explicitly teaches the method further comprising performing a channel establishment procedure with the AIoT device.
However, Bartlett teaches the concept of performing a channel establishment procedure with an IoT device ([0067] local communication interface 303 and antenna 311 establishes local communication channels with each of the IoT devices 101-105); and
Salkintzis teaches wherein the IoT device is an AIoT device ([0002] ambient IoT devices).
It would have been obvious to one or ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the channel establishment teachings of Bartlett with the key generation of an internet of things device teachings of Win in view of Salkintzis, Elshafie, and Dandekar; a person of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that communicating devices must somehow be configured to establish a channel of some kind prior to/as part of the exchange of security information, in order for that security information to be effectively conveyed.
The rationale to combine Win and Salkintzis is the same as provided for claim 9 due to the overlapping subject matter between claims 9 and 13.
Regarding Claim 21:
Win in view of Salkintzis, Elshafie, and Dandekar teaches the ambient internet-of-things (AIoT) device of claim 17.
Neither Win nor Salkintzis nor Elshafie nor Dandekar explicitly teaches the method further comprising performing a channel establishment procedure with the node.
However, Bartlett teaches the concept of performing a channel establishment procedure with a node ([0067] local communication interface 303 and antenna 311 establishes local communication channels with each of the IoT devices 101-105).
It would have been obvious to one or ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the channel establishment teachings of Bartlett with the key generation of an internet of things device teachings of Win in view of Salkintzis, Elshafie, and Dandekar; a person of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that communicating devices must somehow be configured to establish a channel of some kind prior to/as part of the exchange of security information, in order for that security information to be effectively conveyed.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 10/22/2025 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
Regarding the rejection of claims under 35 USC 101:
Applicant’s amendments have failed to overcome the 35 USC 101 rejection, which is therefore maintained. Simply reciting “performed by [a device]” in the preamble is insufficient to incorporate an element of hardware into the method steps, when it is unclear which, if any, steps are being performed by said device. Furthermore, a “node” is nonstructural language, and therefore not inherently hardware.
Regarding the rejection of claims under 35 USC 103:
Examiner’s response to applicant’s arguments, page 9 paragraph 5-page 10 paragraph 5: Regarding Win, Examiner disagrees. Neither the specification nor claims defines what is meant by “quantization operation”. BRI would include direct quantization, as well as any other multi-step operation of which quantization is a part. Win teaches quantization of an analog signal to generate a “current key”, which is then combined with the previous encryption key; therefore, a “quantization operation” is performed on the previous encryption key.
Regarding Elshafie, Examiner disagrees. As is the case with the “quantization operation”, above, applicant has not defined what is meant by “reconciliation operation”. Elshafie shows a quantization operation and a reconciliation operation performed on a physical layer key (as above). Win teaches that the physical layer key is a first physical layer key used in at least one previous communication. Therefore, Win in view of Elshafie, in combination, teaches wherein obtaining the second physical layer key comprises performing a randomization operation, a quantization operation, a reconciliation operation, and a shared key stream operation on the first physical layer key.
Examiner’s response to applicant’s arguments, page 11 paragraph 2-paragraph 4: Claim 1 specifically recites “wherein when the key generation is put into use a first time”. This can be interpreted as an earlier iteration of the key generation process. Win teaches that the key generation process is iterative; a “first time” can therefore be considered an earlier iteration. Win teaches (Examiner provides subscript notation for clarity) a time t0 wherein current key k-0 is generated using a previous key k0-1, then a time t1 wherein a current key k1 is generated using a previous key k0, and then a time t2 wherein a current key k2 is generated using a previous key k1. Therefore, e.g. time t1 can be seen as the claimed “first time”, and the device is “pre-configured” with shared key k0, as it is already present to be used to generate k1. Therefore, Win teaches “in a case where the [device] is pre-configured with a shared key, the shared key is input into the key generation.”
The only element(s) missing from the combination of Win, Salkintzis, and Elshafie is wherein, in a case where there is not a key generated from prior iteration, the first physical layer key is initialized to be all 0’s. However, a new ground(s) for rejection is provided above which does teach this amended subject matter.
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to FORREST L CAREY whose telephone number is (571)270-7814. The examiner can normally be reached 9:00AM-5:30PM M-F.
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/FORREST L CAREY/Examiner, Art Unit 2491
/WILLIAM R KORZUCH/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2491