CELLULAR SERVICE ACCOUNT TRANSFER AND AUTHENTICATION

• US 20200137566A1
• Filed: 10/29/2019
• Published: 04/30/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 10/29/2018
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: JIN, Sherman X., CHAUGULE, Raj S., GOYAL, Anish Kumar, LI, Li, RIVERA-BARRETO, Rafael L., TOUATI, Samy, MALTHANKAR, Rohan C.
• Granted Patent: US 10,924,921 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0853 using an additional device, e.g. smartcard, SIM or a different communication terminal cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication involving additional secure or trusted devices H04L9/3234
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/06 Authentication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/069 using certificates or pre-shared keys
• 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 12/42 using virtual identity modules
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/43 using shared identity modules, e.g. SIM sharing
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/50 Secure pairing of devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/14 Direct-mode setup
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/20 Transfer of user or subscriber data
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/205 Transfer to or from user equipment or user record carrier

Abstract

Embodiments described herein relate to transfer of credentials between two mobile wireless devices that are within proximity of each other, via a secure local connection, or via a network-based cloud service, where the two mobile wireless devices are not in proximity to each other. Transfer of credentials can include communication between a source device, a target device, and/or one more network-based servers, which can include mobile network operator (MNO) managed servers, such as an entitlement server, a web-sheet server, an authentication server, a provisioning server, a subscription management data preparation (SM-DP+) server, a home subscriber server (HSS), and/or an authentication server, as well as third-party managed servers, such as a cloud service server and/or an identification services server. Authentication can be based at least in part on one or more tokens and/or a trust flag obtained by the source device and provided to the target device.

Claims

1. A method for cellular service account transfer and authentication, the method comprising:

at a target device;

establishing a secure connection with a source device via a proximity sharing feature;

obtaining cellular service plan description and authentication data for one or more electronic subscriber identity modules (eSIMs) from the source device via the secure connection; and

triggering, after obtaining user consent, direct installation of at least one of the one or more eSIMs to the target device from a server of a mobile network operator (MNO),

wherein the target device and the source device are associated with a common user account.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the authentication data includes at least one transfer token obtained by the source device from the server of the MNO.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the authentication data includes at least one trust flag that indicates a trust relationship between an eSIM of the one or more eSIMs and the source device.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the authentication data obviates a requirement for the target device to perform a cellular service user account login procedure with a web-sheet server of the MNO.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

at the target device;

presenting, via a user interface of the target device, a listing on the one or more eSIMs; and

obtaining, via the user interface of the target device, a selection of the at least one of the one or more eSIMs to transfer to the target device.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

at the target device;

performing a setup procedure for the one or more eSIMs installed on the target device to configure one or more associated cellular service plans.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

at the target device;

receiving, from the server of the MNO, a redirection to a web-sheet server of the MNO;

authenticating with the web-sheet server based on a cellular service account login and password;

obtaining cellular service plan terms and conditions from the web-sheet server; and

providing an indication of consent to the cellular service plan terms and conditions to the web-sheet server.

8. A method for cellular service account transfer and authentication, the method comprising:

at an entitlement server of a mobile network operator (MNO);

providing, to a source device, authentication data for transfer of one or more electronic subscriber identity modules (eSIMs);

receiving, from a target device, a request to transfer at least one eSIM of the one or more eSIMs, the request including at least a portion of the authentication data; and

responsive to successful authentication of the target device based on the at least a portion of the authentication data;

obtaining, from a provisioning server, at least one identifier corresponding to the at least one eSIM to be transferred to the target device; and

providing, to the target device, the at least one identifier corresponding to the at least one eSIM and a network address for the provisioning server.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the authentication data comprises at least one transfer token.

10. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

at the entitlement server;

obtaining the at least one transfer token from an authorization server.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein the authentication data includes at least one trust flag that indicates a trust relationship between an eSIM of the one or more eSIMs and the source device.

12. The method of claim 8, wherein the authentication data obviates a requirement for the target device to perform a cellular service user account login procedure with a web-sheet server of the MNO.

13. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

at the entitlement server;

communicating with one or more back-end servers of the MNO to provision the at least one eSIM to the target device.

14. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

at the entitlement server;

updating a push notification token for the target device to correspond to an international mobile subscription identifier (IMSI) for an eSIM of the at least one eSIM transferred to the target device.

15. A method for cellular service account transfer and authentication, the method comprising:

at a source device;

establishing a secure connection with a target device via a proximity sharing feature;

receiving a request for information regarding electronic subscriber identity modules (eSIMs) transferable from the source device to the target device;

obtaining, from an entitlement server of a mobile network operator (MNO), authentication data for transferring one or more eSIMs; and

providing, to the target device via the secure connection, cellular service plan description and authentication data for the one or more eSIMs;

wherein the target device and the source device are associated with a common user account.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the authentication data includes at least one transfer token.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the authentication data includes at least one trust flag that indicates a trust relationship between an eSIM of the one or more eSIMs and the source device.

18. The method of claim 15, wherein the authentication data obviates a requirement for the target device to perform a cellular service user account login procedure with a web-sheet server of the MNO.

19. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

at the source device;

receiving an indication that at least one eSIM of the one or more eSIMs has been transferred to the target device.

20. The method of claim 19, further comprising:

at the source device;

disabling baseband circuitry of the source device when transfer of the at least one eSIM results in no active eSIMs remaining at the source device.