SBIR-STTR Award

Trlokom proposes to develop a novel and low cost solution for local speech processing and secure voice communication in digital wireless systems. Commercially available wireless communication systems do not have adequate security measures to ensure end-to-end secure communication. Since, wireless communication systems are now becoming very popular in military as well as in commercial world, providing end-to-end secure communication will reduce the danger of eavesdropping, credit-card theft, and industrial espionage. Our solution will be based on low-power and high-speed hardware for local processing of the speech signal. The same hardware will also assist in encryption, voice-authentication, protocol processing, and secure key-management. At the end of Phase I, we will deliver our design for an end-to-end secure wireless communication system with voice-authentication. We will provide detailed information about the component technologies and our integration methodology for the COTS and custom components. Digital cellular phone with internet access are starting to become available and we expect to see a big demand for security systems in digital wireless phones. Adding voice authentication to the security systems can make them much more user friendly and reduce the fraud associated with stolen phone. It could also be used with satellite telephone service (STS) to provide military with the ability to securely communicate where cellular phone service is not available.

During the Phase I of the project, we developed a system level architecture for end-to-end voice authentication and security in mobile phones. The core of our architecture is a protocol, MNGIsec, that for the first time provides NAT compatible end-to-end security in mobile phone based communications. Based on our effort a provisional patent (60/315,234) has been filed. We have also overcome a security hole in mobile communications, that arises from lost devices containing keys for secure communication, by incorporating biometric authentication based on voice. There are some mobile phones in the market that incorporate security, but have not been very successful because of lack of end-to-end feature. Currently there are no mobile phones that supports biometrics based authentication or integrate biometrics with secure communications. Our proposed solution will be the first product with true end-to-end authentication, security, and VPN functionality in mobile phones. Since our solution provides application independent security and authentication, there will be no need to modify individual applications. Our Phase II goal is to deliver prototype software and hardware suitable for use in mobile phones. Dedicated hardware integrated into the mobile phones will improve system performance by in-line implementation of security protocols and speech data processing.

Benefits:
Commercial applications will include improved voice authenticated e-commerce, real-time distribution of multi-media over the mobile phone network, peer-to-peer networking etc. Defense applications are similar and specifically this system will enable guaranteed and secure data communication even in adverse conditions, especially over commercial wireless networks. Voice authentication can be used by law enforcement agencies to track criminals