Lawful intercept provisioning system and method for a network domain

• US 10,205,752 B2
• Filed: 10/30/2017
• Issued: 02/12/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 09/08/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Level 3 Communications LLC (Lumen Technologies, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Level 3 Communications LLC (Lumen Technologies, Inc.)
• Inventors: Bade, Kenneth C.
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Quang N
• Application Number:
  US15/797,950
• Publication Number:
  US 20180048678A1
• Time in Patent Office: 470 Days
• Field of Search: 709203, 709217, 709223, 709224, 709225, 709226, 713100, 713168, 713171, 726 22
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0806 for initial configuration or provisioning, e.g. plug-and-play
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/12 Network monitoring probes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/164 at the network layer
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/306 intercepting packet switched data communications, e.g. Web, Internet or IMS communications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1069 Session establishment or de-establishment
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/34 involving the movement of software or configuration parameters network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/53 using third party service providers

Abstract

A network provisioning system includes a computer-based set of instructions that receive, from a third party network provisioning system managed by a third party service provider, provisioning information associated with a wiretap to be setup on a customer communication device. The instructions then transmit the provisioning information to a policy server in a network domain. Thereafter, when the media gateway transmits a policy request message to the policy server to establish a call session for the customer communication device, the policy server issues instructions to establish the wiretap in the media gateway.

Claims

1. A network provisioning system comprising:

a computing device comprising at least one processor and at least one tangible memory to store instructions that are executed by the at least one processor to;

receive, from a third party network provisioning system managed by a service provider that is separate and distinct from another service provider that manages the computing device, provisioning information associated with a wiretap to be setup on a customer communication device;

transmit the provisioning information to a policy server in a network domain; and

in response to a media gateway in the network domain transmitting a policy request message to the policy server associated with the customer communication device to establish a call session, issue, by the policy server, instructions to the media gateway to establish the wiretap in the media gateway in accordance with the provisioning information.

2. The network provisioning system as recited in claim 1, wherein the provisioning information includes information associated with which one of a plurality of network domains is to provide communication service to the customer communication device.

3. The network provisioning system as recited in claim 1, wherein the instructions are further executed to receive the provisioning information from the third party network provisioning system using an application program interface (API) that is exposed to a public communication network.

4. The network provisioning system as recited in claim 3, wherein the API is accessed by the third party network provisioning system using an Internet protocol security (IPsec) tunnel.

5. The network provisioning system as recited in claim 1, wherein the provisioning information is specified according to a Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA).

6. The network provisioning system as recited in claim 1, wherein the third party provisioning system comprises a third party mediation server that is executed to:

receive wiretap information from the media gateway;

process the wiretap information according to one or more criteria; and

transmit the processed wiretap information to a law enforcement agency computing device.

7. The network provisioning system as recited in claim 6, wherein the wiretap information comprises at least one of wiretap content data and wiretap metadata.

8. The network provisioning system as recited in claim 6, wherein the one or more criteria comprise at least one of timestamp information, and information associated with the provisioning information.

9. The network provisioning system as recited in claim 1, wherein the third party provisioning system comprises a third party mediation server that is executed to:

receive wiretap information associated with the wiretap;

generate a normalized timestamp information of the wiretap information for a network domain, the normalized timestamp information synchronized with different network domains; and

transmit the normalized timestamp information of the wiretap information to a law enforcement agency computing device.

10. A network provisioning method comprising:

receiving, using instructions stored in at least one memory and executed by at least one processor, provisioning information associated with a wiretap to be setup on a customer communication device from a third party network provisioning system managed by a service provider that is separate and distinct from another service provider that manages a computing device comprising the at least one memory and the at least one processor;

transmitting, using the instructions, the provisioning information to a policy server in a network domain; and

in response to a media gateway in the network domain transmitting a policy request message to the policy server associated with the customer communication device to establish a call session, issuing, by the policy server, instructions to the media gateway to establish the wiretap in accordance with the provisioning information.

11. The network provisioning method as recited in claim 10, wherein the provisioning information includes information associated with which one of a plurality of network domains is to provide communication service to the customer communication device.

12. The network provisioning method as recited in claim 10, further comprising receiving the provisioning information from the third party network provisioning system using an application program interface (API) that is exposed to a public communication network.

13. The network provisioning method as recited in claim 12, further comprising accessing the API by the third party network provisioning system using an Internet protocol security (IPsec) tunnel.

14. The network provisioning method as recited in claim 10, wherein the provisioning information is specified according to a Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA).

15. The network provisioning method as recited in claim 10, further comprising:

receiving wiretap information from the media gateway;

processing the wiretap information according to one or more criteria; and

transmitting the processed wiretap information to a law enforcement agency computing device.

16. The network provisioning method as recited in claim 15, wherein the one or more criteria comprise at least one of timestamp information, and information associated with the provisioning information.

17. The network provisioning method as recited in claim 10, further comprising:

receiving wiretap information associated with the wiretap;

generating a normalized timestamp information of the wiretap information for a network domain, the normalized timestamp information synchronized with different network domains; and

transmitting the normalized timestamp information of the wiretap information to a law enforcement agency computing device.

18. A non-transitory computer-readable medium encoded with instructions executable by a processor to:

receive provisioning information associated with a wiretap to be setup on a customer communication device from a third party network provisioning system managed by a service provider that is separate and distinct from another service provider that manages a computing device comprising the processor;

transmit the provisioning information to a policy server in a network domain; and

in response to a media gateway in the network domain transmitting a policy request message to the policy server associated with the customer communication device to establish a call session, issue, by the policy server, instructions to the media gateway to establish the wiretap in accordance with the provisioning information.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable medium as recited in claim 18, wherein the instructions are further executed to receive the provisioning information from the third party network provisioning system using an application program interface (API) that is exposed to a public communication network.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable medium as recited in claim 18, wherein the third party network provisioning system comprises a third party mediation server that is executed to:

receive wiretap information from the media gateway;

process the wiretap information according to one or more criteria; and

transmit the processed wiretap information to a law enforcement agency computing device.