Granted Patent B2

US 12,727,051 · App. 17/972,838 · Granted Sep 1, 2026

Inventor: Edward Fredrick Henson (Reston, VA)

Assignee: CACI, Inc.—Federal

H04W76/20H04L41/0686H04L43/04H04L43/16H04L63/0227H04L63/0272H04L63/302H04W12/06H04W48/20H04W74/0816H04W84/12

Abstract

Claims (53)

1 . A computer-implemented method, comprising:

obtaining one or more attributes of a radiofrequency (RF) environment of a user device;

detecting that the user device is neither associated with any access point (AP) nor authenticated;

after the detection, stimulating the user device to be (i) associated with at least one AP and (ii) authenticated to respond to a ready-to-send (RTS) protocol data unit (PDU) with a clear-to-send (CTS) PDU;

receiving the CTS PDU;

after the reception, adjusting an RF link with which the user device is currently connected to operate at one or more different frequencies; and

obtaining, from the user device, a first probe request indicating non-association, the first probe request comprising an extractable service set identification (SSID) of the at least one AP.

2 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

emitting a first probe response including the SSID; and

obtaining, at a computer performing the implementation in a predetermined time period after the first probe response is emitted, an authentication request,

wherein the stimulation causes the user device to emit the authentication request.

3 . The method of claim 2 , further comprising:

responsive to the obtained authentication request, emitting an authentication response to a medium access control (MAC) address of the user device.

4 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

responsive to an authentication request not being obtained in a predetermined time period after a first probe response is emitted, monitoring receipt of a second probe request from the user device.

5 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

broadcasting one or more beacon PDUs comprising association information involving an AP with which the user device is previously determined to have been associated; and

after the broadcast, obtaining, from the user device, at least one of a probe request for the previously determined association or an authentication request.

6 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

obtaining, from the user device, an association request; and

responsive to the obtained request, generating and emitting an association response.

7 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

before the stimulation is performed, determining whether a link involving the user device is operably capable of being at least one of maintained or established based on the one or more attributes.

8 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the adjustment causes a cyber operation to be performed at a greater level of reliability by extending a range of the connection of the user device notwithstanding reduction in throughput of the connection.

9 . A computer-implemented method, comprising:

obtaining one or more attributes of an RF link communicably involving a user device;

detecting that the user device is currently neither associated with any AP nor authenticated;

determining that a MAC address of the user device is predetermined to be of interest; and

after the determination, stimulating the user device to be (i) associated with at least one AP and (ii) authenticated at least by emitting an unsolicited authentication response causing the user device to transition to a state configured to operably respond to an RTS PDU.

10 . The method of claim 9 , further comprising:

confirming that the user device (i) is in a specified region and/or (ii) has a signal strength satisfying at least one criterion based on the one or more obtained attributes.

11 . The method of claim 9 , wherein the RF link comprises a Wi-Fi connection.

12 . A computer-implemented system, comprising:

a non-transitory memory including instructions stored;

a processor operably coupled to the non-transitory memory and configured to execute one or more of the stored instructions comprising:

obtaining one or more attributes of a radiofrequency (RF) environment of a user device;

detecting that the user device is neither associated with any access point (AP) nor authenticated wherein the detection includes obtaining, from the user device, a first probe request indicating non-association, and wherein the first probe request comprises an extractable service set identification (SSID) of the at least one AP;

after the detection, stimulating the user device to be (i) associated with at least one AP and (ii) authenticated to respond to a ready-to-send (RTS) protocol data unit (PDU) with a clear-to-send (CTS) PDU;

receiving the CTS PDU; and

adjusting an RF link with which the user device is currently connected to operate at one or more different frequencies after the reception.

13 . The computer-implemented system of claim 12 , wherein the processor is further configured to execute the instructions of:

emitting a first probe response including the SSID; and

obtaining, at a computer performing the implementation in a predetermined time period after the first probe response is emitted, an authentication request,

wherein the stimulation causes the user device to emit the authentication request.

14 . The computer-implemented system of claim 13 , wherein the processor is further configured to execute the instructions of emitting an authentication response to a medium access control (MAC) address of the user device responsive to the obtained authentication request.

15 . The computer-implemented system of claim 12 , wherein the processor is further configured to execute the instructions of monitoring receipt of a second probe request from the user device responsive to an authentication request not being obtained in a predetermined time period after a first probe response is emitted.

16 . The computer-implemented system of claim 12 , wherein the processor is further configured to execute the instructions of:

broadcasting one or more beacon PDUs comprising association information involving an AP with which the user device is previously determined to have been associated; and

obtaining, from the user device, at least one of a probe request for the previously determined association or an authentication request after the broadcast.

17 . The computer-implemented system of claim 12 , wherein the processor is further configured to execute the instructions of:

obtaining, from the user device, an association request; and

responsive to the obtained request, generating and emitting an association response.

18 . The computer-implemented system of claim 12 , wherein the processor is further configured to execute the instructions of determining whether a link involving the user device is operably capable of being at least one of maintained or established based on the one or more attributes before the stimulation is performed.

Assignments (3)

Continuity (2)

References Cited (26)