eSIM profile discovery

• US 10,652,728 B1
• Filed: 11/13/2018
• Issued: 05/12/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 11/13/2018
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Guday, Shai, Malvern, Jeffrey J., Bruner, John David
• Primary Examiner(s): Aung, Sai
• Application Number:
  US16/189,446
• Publication Number:
  US 20200154263A1
• Time in Patent Office: 546 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/06 Authentication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/35 Protecting application or service provisioning, e.g. securing SIM application provisioning
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/40 Security arrangements using identity modules
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/50 Service provisioning or reconfiguring
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/60 Subscription-based services using application servers or record carriers, e.g. SIM application toolkits
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/70 Services for machine-to-machine communication [M2M] or machine type communication [MTC]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/16 Discovering, processing access restriction or access information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/183 Processing at user equipment or user record carrier
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/186 Processing of subscriber group data

Abstract

Mobile devices are provisioned that do not have a direct communications path to a data network. A proximate device is discovered that is available for connecting to the mobile device via a peer-to-peer connection. The second device is determined to be trusted by the mobile device and usable to communicate to the data network A peer-to-peer connection is established with the proximate device. Identification data is provided to the proximate device, and an activation code is received. The mobile device, via the peer-to-peer connection, communicates to the mobile network operator indicated by the activation code. Subscription credentials are received for accessing a mobile network operated by the mobile network operator.

Claims

1. A method of provisioning a mobile device configured to communicate on a mobile communications network operated by a mobile network operator, the method comprising:

determining, by the mobile device, that the mobile device does not have a direct communications path to a data network;

discovering, by the mobile device, a proximate device that is available for connecting to the mobile device via a peer-to-peer connection, wherein the proximate device is determined to be trusted by the mobile device and usable to communicate to the data network;

establishing the peer-to-peer connection with the proximate device;

sending, by the mobile device, identification data to the proximate device via the peer-to-peer connection, wherein the identification data is for an embedded Universal Integrated Circuit Card (eUICC) installed on the mobile device;

receiving, from the proximate device via the peer-to-peer connection, an activation code received via the data network by the proximate device;

communicating, by the mobile device via the peer-to-peer connection, to a mobile network operator server indicated by the activation code; and

receiving, by the mobile device via the peer-to-peer connection, subscription credentials for accessing a mobile network operated by the mobile network operator, the subscription credentials provided based in part on the activation code.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the proximate device is one of a smartphone, laptop, tablet, or an Internet of Things (IoT) device.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the proximate device executes an application authorized by an enterprise to at least verify the identification data of the mobile device and communicate with the enterprise.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the identification data is represented as a QR code.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the enterprise enrolls and manages the mobile device and the proximate device.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the proximate device is a device of an Internet of Things (IoT) network of devices that includes the mobile device and the proximate device.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the activation code was received by the proximate device prior to the establishing the peer-to-peer connection with the proximate device.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the activation code includes a location of a SM-DP+.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the activation code identifies a SIM profile to be obtained from the mobile network operator.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the identification data is one of a serial number or IMEI.

11. The method of claim 3, wherein the mobile device executes an application authorized by the enterprise and configured to discover the proximate device and send the identification data to the proximate device.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the peer-to-peer connection enables a pass-through of data packets from the mobile device to the mobile network operator via the Internet.

13. The method of claim 3, wherein the identification data is verified by the enterprise and determined to be authorized by the enterprise to receive subscription credentials from the mobile network operator.

14. A computing device comprising:

a memory storing thereon instructions that when executed by a processor of the computing device, cause the computing device to perform operations comprising;

discovering a mobile device that is available for a peer-to-peer connection;

establishing the peer-to-peer connection with the mobile device;

receiving identification data from the mobile device via the peer-to-peer connection;

sending the identification data to a third device;

receiving, from the third device, an activation code;

sending, to the mobile device via the peer-to-peer connection, the activation code;

receiving, from the mobile device via the peer-to-peer connection, data traffic addressed to a mobile network operator indicated by the activation code over a data network accessible by the computing device; and

sending the received data traffic to the mobile network operator over the data network.

15. The computing device of claim 14, wherein the activation code includes a token usable to obtain a SIM profile from the mobile network operator.

16. The computing device of claim 14, further comprising receiving response data from the mobile network operator and passing the response data to the mobile device via the peer-to-peer connection.

17. The computing device of claim 16, further comprising:

establishing peer-to-peer connections with a plurality of mobile devices;

sending identification data for the plurality of mobile devices to the third device;

receiving, from the third device, activation codes for the plurality of mobile devices;

sending, to the plurality of mobile devices, the activation codes for the plurality of mobile devices;

receiving, from the plurality of mobile devices, data traffic addressed to the mobile network operator indicated by the activation codes; and

sending the received data traffic to the mobile network operator over the data network.

18. A server configured to communicate with one or more devices, the server configured to:

receive, from a first device, identification data for a second device, wherein the identification data is received by the first device from the second device over a peer-to-peer connection, and wherein the second device is not provisioned for mobile network access;

determine that the first and second devices are trusted by the server;

access an activation code associated with the second device, wherein the activation code is usable by the second device to request subscription credentials from a mobile network operator indicated by the activation code; and

send, to the first device, the activation code, wherein the activation code is sent to the second device by the first device over the peer-to-peer connection.

19. The server of claim 18, wherein the determining is performed based on accessing a database of managed devices and associated subscription information.

20. The server of claim 18, wherein the mobile network operator is pre-authorized to provide subscription credentials to the second device.