ZONE SWITCHING METHOD IN A BROADBAND WIRELESS ACCESS SYSTEM HAVING REGARD TO SECURITY ASSOCIATION AND DEVICE FOR SAME

• US 20130010762A1
• Filed: 03/14/2011
• Published: 01/10/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 03/12/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Original Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Inventors: Jung, In Uk, Ryu, Ki Seon
• Granted Patent: US 8,948,130 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/331
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/062 Pre-authentication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/0038 of security context information

Abstract

The present invention relates to a wireless access system, and more particularly, to a method for supporting security during a handover performance through a zone switch and to a device performing same. According to one embodiment of the present invention, switching a zone by a terminal in a broadband wireless access system comprises the following steps: creating at least one service flow in a first zone that supports the legacy mode of a base station; receiving at the base station a first message, which indicates a zone switch to a second zone that supports an advanced mode; and performing the zone switch, wherein performing the zone switch may further comprise a step for receiving from the second zone a second message, which includes security association information that indicates the security association applied to at least one service flow in the second zone.

Claims

1. A method of performing zone switch at a mobile station (MS) in a broadband radio access system, the method comprising:

receiving, from a first zone supporting a legacy mode of a base station (BS), a first message including zone switch information required for the zone switch from the first zone to a second zone supporting an advanced mode of the BS; and

performing the zone switch by using the zone switch information,

wherein the performing the zone switch includes;

receiving, from the second zone, a second message including security association (SA) information indicating at least one service flow mapped to a specific SA of the advanced mode in the second zone among at least one service flow corresponding to each connection identifier allocated from the first zone; and

updating SA of the at least one service flow indicated by the SA information.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein, any one of an SAID 0 with null SA and an SAID 1 for protecting confidentiality and integrity is applied in the legacy mode, and

any one of the SAID 0, the SAID 1 and an SAID 2 for protecting confidentiality is applied in the advanced mode.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein the specific SA corresponds to the SAID 2, and wherein the SA information includes a bitmap indicating to which of the at least one service flow the SAID 2 is mapped.

4. The method according to claim 3, further comprising mapping SA to the each connection identifier allocated from the first zone according to a predetermined SA mapping rule,

wherein the predetermined SA mapping rule sets mapping of the SAID 0 or the SAID 1 in the second zone in consideration of at least one of SA in the first zone of the each connection identifier, management connection, broadcast connection, multicast connection or unicast connection.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein:

the first zone is an LZone and the second zone is an MZone,

the first message is a unsolicited ranging response (RNG-RSP) message transmitted from the LZone, and

the second message is a ranging response (AAI-RNG-RSP) message transmitted from the MZone.

6. A method of supporting zone switch of a mobile station (MS) at an advanced base station (ABS) supporting a legacy mode in a broadband radio access system, the method comprising:

transmitting, to the MS through a first zone supporting the legacy mode of the ABS a first message including zone switch information required for the zone switch of the MS from the first zone to a second zone supporting an advanced mode of the ABS; and

transmitting, to the MS through the second zone, a second message including security association (SA) information indicating at least one service flow mapped to a specific SA of the advanced mode in the second zone among at least one service flow corresponding to each connection identifier allocated from the first zone.

7. The method according to claim 6, wherein any one of an SAID 0 with null SA and an SAID 1 for protecting confidentiality and integrity is applied in the legacy mode, and

any one of the SAID 0, the SAID 1 and an SAID 2 for protecting confidentiality is applied in the advanced mode.

8. The method according to claim 7, wherein the specific SA corresponds to the SAID 2, and wherein the SA information includes a bitmap indicating to which of the at least one service flow the SAID 2 is mapped.

9. The method according to claim 8, further comprising mapping SA to the each connection identifier allocated from the first zone according to a predetermined SA mapping rule,

wherein the mapping is performed in consideration of at least one of SA in the first zone of the each connection identifier, management connection, broadcast connection, multicast connection or unicast connection.

10. The method according to claim 6, wherein:

the first zone is an LZone and the second zone is an MZone,

the first message is a unsolicited ranging response (RNG-RSP) message transmitted from the LZone, and

the second message is a ranging response (AAI-RNG-RSP) message transmitted from the MZone.

11. A mobile station (MS) for performing zone switch in a broadband radio access system, the MS comprising:

a processor; and

a radio frequency (RF) module configured to transmit and receive an RF signal to and from an external device under control of the processor,

wherein, the processor is configured to;

receive, from a first zone supporting a legacy mode of a base station (BS), a first message including zone switch information required for the zone switch from the first zone to a second zone supporting an advanced mode of the (BS);

receive from the second zone, a second message including security association (SA) information indicating at least one service flow mapped to a specific SA of the advanced mode in the second zone among at least one service flow corresponding to each connection identifier allocated from the first zone; and

update SA of the at least one service flow indicated by the SA information, during the zone switch.

12. The MS according to claim 11, wherein, any one of an SAID 0 with null SA and an SAID 1 for protecting confidentiality and integrity is applied in the legacy mode, and

any one of the SAID 0, the SAID 1 and an SAID 2 for protecting confidentiality is applied in the advanced mode.

13. The MS according to claim 12, wherein the specific SA corresponds to the SAID 2, and wherein the SA information includes a bitmap indicating to which of the at least one service flow the SAID 2 is mapped.

14. The MS according to claim 13, wherein the processor is further configured to map SA to the each connection identifier allocated from the first zone according to a predetermined SA mapping rule, and

wherein the predetermined SA mapping rule sets mapping of the SAID 0 or the SAID 1 in the second zone in consideration of at least one of SA in the first zone of the each connection identifier, management connection, broadcast connection, multicast connection or unicast connection.

15. The MS according to claim 11, wherein:

the first zone is an LZone and the second zone is an MZone,

the first message is a unsolicited ranging response (RNG-RSP) message transmitted from the LZone, and

the second message is a ranging response (AAI-RNG-RSP) message transmitted from the MZone.