APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR SECURE OVER THE AIR PROGRAMMING OF A COMMUNICATION DEVICE

• US 20150127938A1
• Filed: 11/01/2013
• Published: 05/07/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 11/01/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Chastain, Walter Cooper, Chin, Stephen Emille
• Granted Patent: US 9,240,989 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 713/168
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/305 by remotely controlling device operation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/72 in cryptographic circuits
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/77 in smart cards
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2153 Using hardware token as a secondary aspect
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/65 Updates security arrangements therefor G06F21/57
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/066 Format adaptation, e.g. format conversion or compression
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/58 Message adaptation for wireless communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0281 Proxies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0428 wherein the data content is protected, e.g. by encrypting or encapsulating the payload
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0471 applying encryption by an intermediary, e.g. receiving clear information at the intermediary and encrypting the received information at the intermediary before forwarding
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/08 for authentication of entities cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication H04L9/32
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/01 Protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/08 Protocols for interworking; Protocol conversion
• 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 4/14 Short messaging services, e.g. short message services [SMS] or unstructured supplementary service data [USSD]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/18 Information format or content conversion, e.g. adaptation by the network of the transmitted or received information for the purpose of wireless delivery to users or terminals
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/50 Service provisioning or reconfiguring
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/18 Processing of user or subscriber data, e.g. subscribed services, user preferences or user profiles; Transfer of user or subscriber data

Abstract

A system that incorporates the subject disclosure may perform, for example, receiving an over-the-air programming message that is utilizing a hypertext transfer protocol where the over-the-air programming message including programming data for use by the mobile communication device, converting the over-the-air programming message to a short message service transport protocol to generate an adjusted message that includes the programming data, and providing the adjusted message to a universal integrated circuit card of the mobile communication device via a baseband proxy operating in a device processor of the mobile communication device. Other embodiments are disclosed.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, by a network interworking function operating in a server, an over-the-air programming message that is utilizing a short message service transport protocol, the over-the-air programming message including programming data for use by a mobile communication device;

converting, by the network interworking function, the over-the-air programming message to a hypertext transfer protocol to generate a first adjusted message that includes the programming data;

registering, by the network interworking function, an internet protocol address associated with a user interworking function operating in a secure device processor of the mobile communication device, wherein the registering of the internet protocol address is based on a mutual authentication of the network interworking function and the user interworking function utilizing a first keyset; and

providing, by the network interworking function, the first adjusted message to the user interworking function to enable the user interworking function to convert the first adjusted message to the short message service transport protocol to generate a second adjusted message that includes the programming data, wherein the providing of the first adjusted message to the user interworking function further enables the user interworking function to provide the second adjusted message to a universal integrated circuit card via a baseband proxy operating in a device processor of the mobile communication device, and wherein the secure device processor, the universal integrated circuit card and the device processor are separate from each other and are in communication with each other.

2. The method of claim 1, comprising:

receiving, by the network interworking function, a group of over-the-air programming messages; and

determining, by the network interworking function, a priority among the over-the-air programming message and the group of over-the-air programming messages, wherein the providing of the first adjusted message to the user interworking function is according to the priority.

3. The method of claim 2, comprising:

encrypting, by the network interworking function, the first adjusted message; and

monitoring, by the network interworking function, for a response to the first adjusted message originating from the mobile communication device, wherein the over-the-air programming message is received by the network interworking function from an over-the-air programming server, and wherein the short message service transport protocol is a short message peer-to-peer protocol.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the first keyset is provided to the network interworking function and the user interworking function by a remote management server to enable the mutual authentication, and wherein the over-the-air programming message is received by the network interworking function from an over-the-air programming server.

5. The method of claim 1, comprising:

receiving, by the network interworking function, a group of over-the-air programming messages from a group of over-the-air programming servers; and

determining, by the network interworking function, a priority among the group of over-the-air programming messages, wherein the priority is utilized for determining a transmission schedule for the group of over-the-air programming messages.

6. The method of claim 1, comprising:

receiving, by the network interworking function, a response that is utilizing the hypertext transfer protocol, the response being received from the user interworking function, the response being associated with the second adjusted message received by the universal integrated circuit card;

converting, by the network interworking function, the response to the short message service transport protocol to generate an adjusted response;

correlating, by the network interworking function, the response to the over-the-air programming message to identify an over-the-air programming server that originated the over-the-air programming message; and

providing, by the network interworking function, the adjusted response to the over-the-air programming server.

7. The method of claim 6, comprising decrypting, by the network interworking function, the response utilizing the first keyset, wherein the decrypting is performed prior to the generating of the adjusted response, and wherein the first keyset is provided to the network interworking function and the user interworking function by a remote management server.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the response is encrypted utilizing a third keyset that is stored by the universal integrated circuit card and the over-the-air programming server, wherein the third keyset is not stored by the user interworking function, and wherein the third keyset is not stored by the network interworking function.

9. The method of claim 1, comprising:

encrypting, by the network interworking function, the first adjusted message utilizing the first keyset, wherein the first keyset is provided to the network interworking function and the user interworking function by a remote management server; and

retransmitting, by the network interworking function, the first adjusted message to the user interworking function.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the first keyset is provided to the network interworking function by a remote management server utilizing a remote management keyset.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the over-the-air programming message is encrypted utilizing a third keyset that is stored by the universal integrated circuit card and the over-the-air programming server, wherein the third keyset is not stored by the user interworking function, and wherein the third keyset is not stored by the network interworking function.

12. A computer readable storage device comprising computer instructions which, responsive to being executed by a user interworking function of a secure device processor of a mobile communication device, cause the user interworking function to perform operations comprising:

receiving, from a network interworking function operating in a server, an over-the-air programming message that is utilizing a hypertext transfer protocol, the over-the-air programming message including programming data for use by the mobile communication device;

converting the over-the-air programming message to a short message service transport protocol to generate an adjusted message that includes the programming data; and

providing the adjusted message to a universal integrated circuit card of the mobile communication device via a baseband proxy operating in a device processor of the mobile communication device, wherein the secure device processor, the universal integrated circuit card and the device processor are separate from each other and are in communication with each other.

13. The computer readable storage device of claim 12, wherein the operations further comprise:

registering an internet protocol address with the network interworking function, the internet protocol address being associated with the user interworking function, wherein the registering of the internet protocol address is based on a mutual authentication of the network interworking function and the user interworking function utilizing a first keyset that is provided to the user interworking function and the network interworking function by a remote management server.

14. The computer readable storage device of claim 13, wherein the first keyset is provided to the user interworking function utilizing a remote management keyset.

15. The computer readable storage device of claim 12, wherein the operations further comprise authenticating with the baseband proxy prior to the providing of the adjusted message to the universal integrated circuit card, wherein the authenticating with the baseband proxy is based on a second keyset.

16. The computer readable storage device of claim 12, wherein the operations further comprise:

receiving a response that is utilizing the short message service transport protocol, the response being received from the universal integrated circuit card, the response being associated with the adjusted message provided to the universal integrated circuit card, the response being received from the universal integrated circuit card via the baseband proxy;

converting the response to the hypertext transfer protocol to generate an adjusted response; and

providing the adjusted response to the network interworking function.

17. The computer readable storage device of claim 16, wherein the operations further comprise encrypting the response utilizing a first keyset that is provided to the user interworking function and the network interworking function by a remote management server, wherein the encrypting is performed prior to the generating of the adjusted response.

18. The computer readable storage device of claim 12, wherein the operations further comprise decrypting the over-the-air programming message utilizing a first keyset that is provided to the user interworking function and the network interworking function by a remote management server, wherein the decrypting is performed prior to the generating of the adjusted message.

19. A method comprising:

receiving, by a universal integrated circuit card of a mobile communication device, an over-the-air programming message including programming data, wherein the over-the-air programming message is received from a user interworking function of a secure device processor of the mobile communication device via a baseband proxy operating in a device processor of the mobile communication device, wherein the secure device processor, the universal integrated circuit card and the device processor are separate from each other and are in communication with each other, wherein the over-the-air programming message is received by the user interworking function in a hypertext transfer protocol and converted to a short message service transport protocol;

generating, by the universal integrated circuit card, a response based on the over-the-air programming message; and

providing, by the universal integrated circuit card, the response to the user interworking function via the baseband proxy to enable the user interworking function to convert the response to the hypertext transfer protocol to generate a first adjusted response, wherein the providing of the response to the user interworking function further enables the user interworking function to provide the first adjusted response to a network interworking function operating in a server for conversion to a second adjusted response that is in the short message service transport protocol.

20. The method of claim 19, comprising:

decrypting, by the universal integrated circuit card, the over-the-air programming message utilizing a keyset, wherein the keyset is stored by the universal integrated circuit card and an over-the-air programming server that originated the over-the-air programming message, wherein the keyset is not stored by the user interworking function, and wherein the keyset is not stored by the network interworking function.