INTERNET PROTOCOL MULTIMEDIA SUBSYSTEM (IMS) AUTHENTICATION FOR NON-IMS SUBSCRIBERS

• US 20150118995A1
• Filed: 10/25/2013
• Published: 04/30/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 10/25/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cellco Partnership, Inc. (Verizon Communications Inc.), Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cellco Partnership, Inc. (Verizon Communications Inc.), Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Inventors: Aksu, Arda, Haynes, Thomas W., Carames, Miguel A.
• Granted Patent: US 9,326,141 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/411
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/065 Continuous authentication

Abstract

A call session control function (“CSCF”), of an Internet Protocol Multimedia Subsystem (“IMS”) core network, may receive a set of authentication credentials that do not include IMS authentication credentials; and may use the set of authentication credentials, which do not include IMS authentication credentials, to authenticate a user device for the IMS core network.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving, by a network device and from a user device, an authentication request, the user device being associated with a first network that is different from a second network associated with the network device;

identifying, by the network device, a home subscriber server (“

HSS”

) associated with the first network;

requesting, by the network device, an authentication vector from the HSS;

receiving, by the network device, the authentication vector from the HSS, wherein the authentication vector does not include authentication credentials associated with an Internet Protocol Multimedia Subsystem (“

IMS”

);

generating, by the network device, an authentication challenge based on the authentication vector;

outputting, by the network device, the authentication challenge to the user device;

receiving, by the network device and from the network device, a response to the authentication challenge; and

authenticating, by the network device and based on the response, the user device for an IMS core network associated with the second network.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first network does not include an IMS core network.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the network device includes a call session control function (“

CSCF”

) associated with the IMS core network.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the response from the user device includes a response computed by a Universal Subscriber Identity Module (“

USIM”

) associated with the user device.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the response from the user device does not include a response computed by an IMS Services Identity Module (“

ISIM”

).

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

allowing traffic, associated with IMS services, to be forwarded to the user device, the allowing being based on authenticating the user device for the IMS core network.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

identifying, based on the authentication request, a device identifier associated with the user device;

wherein identifying the HSS includes using the device identifier.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the user device does not include an IMS Services Identity Module (“

ISIM”

).

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the authentication request comprises a Session Initiation Protocol (“

SIP”

) REGISTER request.

10. A network device, comprising:

a memory device configured to store a set of processor-executable instructions; and

a processor configured to execute the stored processor-executable instructions, wherein executing the stored processor-executable instructions causes the processor to;

identify, based on receiving an authentication request from a user device, a home subscriber server (“

HSS”

) associated with a first network that is associated with the user device, the first network being different from a second network associated with the network device;

request an authentication vector from the HSS;

receive the authentication vector from the HSS, wherein the authentication vector does not include authentication credentials associated with an Internet Protocol Multimedia Subsystem (“

IMS”

);

output an authentication challenge, that is based on the authentication vector, to the user device;

receive, from the network device, a response to the authentication challenge; and

authenticate, based on the response, the user device for an IMS core network associated with the second network.

11. The network device of claim 10, wherein the first network does not include an IMS core network.

12. The network device of claim 10, wherein the network device includes a call session control function (“

CSCF”

) associated with the IMS core network.

13. The network device of claim 10, wherein the response from the user device includes a response computed by a Universal Subscriber Identity Module (“

USIM”

) associated with the user device.

14. The network device of claim 10, wherein the response from the user device does not include a response computed by an IMS Services Identity Module (“

ISIM”

).

15. The network device of claim 10, wherein executing the processor-executable instructions further causes the processor to:

allow traffic, associated with IMS services, to be forwarded to the user device, the allowing being based on authenticating the user device for the IMS core network.

16. The network device of claim 10, wherein executing the processor-executable instructions further causes the processor to:

identify, based on the authentication request, a device identifier associated with the user device;

wherein identifying the HSS includes using the device identifier.

17. The network device of claim 10, wherein the user device does not include an IMS Services Identity Module (“

ISIM”

).

18. The network device of claim 10, wherein the authentication request comprises a Session Initiation Protocol (“

SIP”

) REGISTER request.

19. A method, comprising:

receiving, by a call session control function (“

CSCF”

) of an Internet Protocol Multimedia Subsystem (“

IMS”

) core network, a set of authentication credentials that do not include IMS authentication credentials; and

using, by the CSCF, the set of authentication credentials to authenticate a user device for the IMS core network.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the set of authentication credentials include a set of Evolved Packet Core (“

EPC”

) authentication credentials.