Method for amortizing authentication overhead

Abstract

A method is disclosed for amortizing the authentication overhead of data transmissions. The method comprises establishing a first secure transmission of data between a transmitter and a receiver by transmitting at least one token to the receiver during the first secure transmission. There may be any number of senders and receivers, and any receivers may be a sender and vice versa. The method also comprises establishing at least one additional transmission of data between the sender and the receiver and transmitting the data and at least one token during the at least one additional transmission. In addition, the method compares the at least one token transmitted during the at least one additional transmission to the token transmitted during the first secure transmission to guarantee the authenticity of that at least one additional transmission. The method may also include transmitting a preselected number of tokens during the first secure transmission. The number of additional transmissions may or may not correspond to the preselected number of tokens. The at least one additional transmission may be conducted over an unsecure connection using open communication. The first secure transmission may be protected or encrypted.

1 . A method for authenticating transferred data between a sender system and a receiver system over an open network comprising the steps of: 
 establishing a first secure transmission of data between the sender system and the receiver system;    assigning a value to a variable N where the value of N is a positive number and defines a selected number of additional transmissions;    transmitting selected authentication information including N number of token(s) from the sender system to the receiver system during the first secure transmission so as to allow the sender system to authenticate itself, each of the N number of token(s) being a unique identifier;    transmitting an acknowledgment from the receiver system to the sender system, upon successful receipt and processing of the first transmission by the receiver system;    establishing at least one additional transmission of data between the sender system and the receiver system;    transmitting the data and the N token(s) from the sender system during the at least one additional transmission;    comparing the one token transmitted from the sender system during the additional transmission to each of the token(s) transmitted from the sender system during the one or more previous transmission(s) to determine whether the most recent additional transmission is authentic;    establishing a second secure transmission between the sender system and the receiver system;    assigning a second value to the variable N where the second value of N is a positive number and defines a second selected number of additional transmissions; and    transmitting the second value of N and a second value of N number of tokens to be used to authenticate the sender computer, from the sender computer to the receiver computer, each of the second N number of tokens being a unique identifier.    
     
     
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