Authentication and handover methods and systems for radio personal communications
First Claim
1. An authentication method between a cellular terminal and a telephone base station, the telephone base station connecting a wire telephone network to the cellular terminal within a local region in a cell of a wide area cellular network which uses a plurality of channels within a cellular network spectrum, said authentication method comprising the steps of:
- detecting that said cellular terminal is within said local region;
transferring an authentication challenge from said wide area cellular network to said telephone base station via radio communication with said cellular terminal;
transferring an authentication response from said base station to said wide area cellular network via radio communication with said cellular terminal; and
in response to a valid authentication response, initiating communication between said wire telephone network and said cellular terminal, via said base station.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
During handover of a cellular terminal from a wide area cellular network to a base station, authentication messages are relayed between the base station and the wide area cellular network via the cellular terminal. Communications between the cellular terminal and the wire telephone network via the base station are prevented until after authentication takes place. Accordingly, the cellular terminal relays authentication messages between the base station and the wide area cellular network. Use of the wire telephone network for authentication between the cellular terminal and the base station is avoided. Secure handover is thereby provided without incurring excess overhead to the system and without adding unnecessary wire network charges to the cellular terminal user.
-
Citations
21 Claims
-
1. An authentication method between a cellular terminal and a telephone base station, the telephone base station connecting a wire telephone network to the cellular terminal within a local region in a cell of a wide area cellular network which uses a plurality of channels within a cellular network spectrum, said authentication method comprising the steps of:
-
detecting that said cellular terminal is within said local region; transferring an authentication challenge from said wide area cellular network to said telephone base station via radio communication with said cellular terminal; transferring an authentication response from said base station to said wide area cellular network via radio communication with said cellular terminal; and in response to a valid authentication response, initiating communication between said wire telephone network and said cellular terminal, via said base station. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
-
-
8. An authentication method between a cellular terminal and a telephone base station, the telephone base station connecting a wire telephone network to the cellular terminal within a local region in a cell of a wide area cellular network which uses a plurality of channels within a cellular network spectrum, said authentication method comprising the step of:
relaying authentication messages between said telephone base station and said wide area cellular network via said cellular terminal within said local region, without accessing said wire telephone network via said telephone base station. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11)
-
12. A handover method between a radio terminal and a local network base station, the local network base station connecting a local network to the radio terminal within a local region of the local network base station, the local region overlapping a macro network, said handover method comprising the steps of:
-
detecting that said radio terminal has entered said local region; causing said macro network to authenticate said local network base station via radio communication with said radio terminal; and allowing communications between said radio terminal and said local network via said local network base station upon authentication of said local network base station. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14)
-
-
15. A radio personal communications system comprising:
-
a wide area cellular network, including a plurality of cells, each of which uses a plurality of channels within a cellular network spectrum; a wire telephone network; a cellular terminal; a telephone base station within one of said cells, said telephone base station connecting said wire telephone network to said cellular terminal when said cellular terminal is within a local region of said telephone base station; means for detecting that said cellular terminal is within said local region; challenge transferring means, responsive to said detecting means, for transferring an authentication challenge from said wide area cellular network to said telephone base station via radio communication with said cellular terminal; response transferring means, responsive to said challenge transferring means, for transferring an authentication response from said base station to said wide area cellular network via radio communication with said cellular terminal; and means for initiating communication between said wire telephone network and said cellular terminal, via said base station, in response to a valid authentication response. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18, 19)
-
-
20. A radio personal communications system comprising:
-
a wide area cellular network, including a plurality of cells, each of which uses a plurality of channels within a cellular network spectrum; a wire telephone network; a cellular terminal; a telephone base station within one of said cells, said telephone base station connecting said wire telephone network to said cellular terminal when said cellular terminal is within a local region of said telephone base station; and means for relaying authentication messages between said telephone base station and said wide area cellular network via said cellular terminal within said local region, without accessing said wire telephone network via said telephone base station. - View Dependent Claims (21)
-
Specification