System and method for the early detection of cellular telephone piracy
First Claim
1. A method for detecting piracy of a mobile station within a cellular telecommunications system, said method comprising the steps of:
- maintaining, within a database of said telecommunications system, an activity flag associated with said mobile station, said activity flag being set when said mobile station is active;
transmitting, automatically by said mobile station, an identification signal a plurality of times while said mobile station is idle, wherein said mobile station, if in a powered-off condition at the time said identification signal is scheduled for transmission, automatically powers-on for a period at least long enough for said transmission to occur;
determining, after at least one of said identification signal transmissions, whether said activity flag for said idle mobile station is active; and
generating an alarm signal if said activity flag for said idle mobile station is active.
6 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A method and system for early piracy detection in a cellular telecommunications network is disclosed. When in idle mode, a network subscriber Mobile Station (MS) transmits a Current Location Identifier message (CLID) on a pseudo-random basis. The CLID, which contains MS identifying information, is picked up by the network and relayed to the Mobile Switching Center (MSC) covering the area in which the MS is currently located. When it receives the CLID, the MSC generates an MS-CLID message containing the CLID and the identifier of the nodes through which it has passed, including that of the MSC itself. The MS-CLID message is then sent to the system Home Location Register (HLR), which compares the MS identification and location information to that stored in its database. The system generates a piracy alarm when the comparison determines that another caller using the same identity is currently active or that a call being initiated is originating from a location distant to the last reported location of the legitimate MS, allowing the system operator to take action prior to the loss of inordinate amounts of air time.
34 Citations
23 Claims
-
1. A method for detecting piracy of a mobile station within a cellular telecommunications system, said method comprising the steps of:
-
maintaining, within a database of said telecommunications system, an activity flag associated with said mobile station, said activity flag being set when said mobile station is active; transmitting, automatically by said mobile station, an identification signal a plurality of times while said mobile station is idle, wherein said mobile station, if in a powered-off condition at the time said identification signal is scheduled for transmission, automatically powers-on for a period at least long enough for said transmission to occur; determining, after at least one of said identification signal transmissions, whether said activity flag for said idle mobile station is active; and generating an alarm signal if said activity flag for said idle mobile station is active. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
-
-
16. A method for detecting piracy in a telecommunications system, said method comprising the steps of:
-
maintaining, within a home location register, a location database containing a plurality of locations of a corresponding plurality of active mobile stations associated with the telecommunications system; transmitting, from a given one of said mobile stations, a current location identifier, said current location identifier corresponding to said given mobile station; relaying said current location identifier of said given mobile station to said home location register; determining, within said home location register upon receipt of said current location identifier, whether an active mobile station identifier, for at least one of said locations in said location database of said active mobile stations, matches said current location identifier; generating an alarm if, in said step of determining, said current location identifier matches said active mobile station identifier; determining the location of said given mobile station transmitting said current location identifier; updating said location database in the home location register to said current location identifier location; transmitting said current location identifier location to said given mobile station, said given mobile station storing said current location identifier location in a memory therein; transmitting from said given mobile station, a second current location identifier, said second current location identifier including said stored current location identifier; comparing said stored current location identifier in said second current location identifier to said current location identifier for said given mobile station in said location database; and generating said alarm if the stored current location identifier within said second current location identification does not match said current location identifier for said given mobile station in said location database of said home location register. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20)
-
-
21. A cellular telecommunications system for detecting piracy of a mobile station, said system comprising:
-
a home location register having a location database containing the last reported location of a plurality of mobile stations associated with said home location register; a signal generator in at least one of said mobile stations for sending respective identification messages to said home location register said signal generator varying the frequency of transmission of said respective identification messages based on the areas in which said mobile station had been recently operating; determining means for determining if said identifier corresponding to a given one of said mobile stations matches the identifier corresponding to at least one other active mobile station sending said respective identification messages; and an alarm generator for generating an alarm if said given one mobile station identifier matches said other active mobile station identifier. - View Dependent Claims (22)
-
-
23. A method for detecting piracy of a mobile station within a cellular telecommunications system, said method comprising the steps of:
-
maintaining, within a database of said telecommunications system, an activity flag associated with said mobile station, said activity flag being set when said mobile station is active; transmitting, by said mobile station, an identification signal a plurality of times while said mobile station is idle, wherein said identification signal is transmitted by said idle mobile station at pseudo-randomly space intervals; varying the frequency of said pseudo-random transmissions, by a control signal sent to said mobile station, based on the areas in which said mobile station had been recently operating; determining, after at least one of said identification signal transmissions, whether said activity flag for said idle mobile station is active; and generating an alarm signal if said activity flag for said idle mobile station is active.
-
Specification