Legal interception in a telecommunications network

• US 6,654,589 B1
• Filed: 03/24/2000
• Issued: 11/25/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 09/26/1997
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Nokia Technologies Oy (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Nokia Networks (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Haumont, Serge
• Primary Examiner(s): Vo, Nguyen T.
• Assistant Examiner(s): LEI, TSULEUN R
• Application Number:
  US09/509,318
• Time in Patent Office: 1,341 Days
• Field of Search: 455/67.1, 455/404, 455/410, 379/35, 379/230, 370/328, 370/338, 370/352, 370/353, 370/354, 370/355, 370/356, 370/401, 370/466
• US Class Current: 455/67.11
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/306 intercepting packet switched data communications, e.g. Web, Internet or IMS communications
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2207/18 wireless networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/2281 Call monitoring, e.g. for law enforcement purposes; Call tracing; Detection or prevention of malicious calls
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/80 Arrangements enabling lawful interception [LI]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/00 Supervisory, monitoring or testing arrangements

Abstract

Method and arrangement for intercepting a target mobile station in a GPRS network. A legal interception node is installed into the land-based portion of the radio network. An “intercepted” status is defined for mobile stations that are to be intercepted. In response to an order from a law-enforcement authority to intercept one of said mobile stations the status of such mobile station is changed to “intercepted” and at least some of the packets originating from such a mobile station or terminated thereto are routed and/or copied from at least one of the support nodes via the legal interception node to the law-enforcement authority.

Claims

1. A method for intercepting traffic between a first support node and a second support node of a packet radio network;

said traffic comprising data packets, each data packet having a payload and one or more headers;

the method comprising;

installing a legal interception node into said network;

copying at least part of said traffic to be intercepted from at least one support node to said legal interception node in response to an order from a law enforcement authority; and

sending at least part of said copied traffic from said legal interception node to said law enforcement authority;

wherein the copying comprises;

encapsulating the payload of each copied data packet; and

sending the encapsulated payload to the legal interception node.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein, said legal interception node converts said copied data packets to a format supported by said law enforcement authority before sending at least part of the copied traffic to the law enforcement authority.

3. The method according to claim 1 wherein, said telecommunications network supports at least one mobile station;

some of said traffic comprises location information relating to said mobile station; and

by means of said location information said legal interception node co-operates with said telecommunications network for maintaining a connection relating to the mobile station when it changes its location.

4. A method for intercepting a target mobile station in a packet radio network supporting General Packet Radio Service (GPRS), the packet radio network comprising at least one of each of the following network elements:

a first support node, a second support node, and a home location register, wherein a unique address is defined for each one of said network elements;

the method comprising;

installing a legal interception node into said network;

marking the mobile station as a target mobile station in response to an order from a law-enforcement authority to intercept one of the mobile stations; and

copying at least some of the traffic relating to it from at least one of said support nodes of the packet radio network via said legal interception node to said law-enforcement authority in response to a mobile station being a target mobile station.

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein said coping comprises:

copying said packets relating to the mobile station to be intercepted from the at least one of the support nodes to the legal interception node; and

routing said copied packets from the legal interception node to the law-enforcement authority.

6. The method according to claim 4 or 5, further comprising converting the packets to be copied to the law-enforcement authority to at least one format supported by said law-enforcement authority.

7. A legal interception node for legal interception of a target mobile station in a packet radio network, said legal interception node comprising:

means for storing information relating to the location of said target mobile station;

a first interface for communicating with a home location register and at least one support node of the network;

a second interface for communicating with a legal enforcement authority; and

means for routing or copying information relating to said target mobile station from the first interface to the second interface.

8. The legal interception node according to claim 7, further comprising means for receiving short messages related to the target mobile station and means for converting said short messages to another format.

9. The legal interception node according to claim 7 or 8, further comprising means for emulating a support node of a first type to a support node of a second type and vice versa.

10. The legal interception node according to claim 7 or 8, further comprising means for emulating a support node of a first type to a home location register and vice versa.

11. A home location register of a packet radio network, adapted for legal interception of a number of target mobile stations in said network, the home location register comprising:

means for receiving a command from a law-enforcement authority to intercept at least one target mobile station;

memory means for storing status information indicating which ones of said mobile stations are target mobile stations; and

means for sending modified information to other nodes of said network about said target mobile stations such that at least some packets originated therefrom or terminated thereto are copied by other network nodes to said law-enforcement authority.

12. The home location register according to claim 11, further comprising means for sending said modified information to a support node of said network and means for sending the unmodified information to another node of said network.

13. The home location register according to claim 11, further comprising means for forcing a reattach of a target mobile station, if said target mobile station is already attached.

14. A serving GPRS support node for a packet radio network, comprising:

means for storing and canceling information relating to the location of mobile stations in said network;

means for storing information indicating which ones of said mobile stations are target mobile stations and means for detecting such target mobile stations; and

means for copying to a law-enforcement authority or a legal interception node at least some information derived from the packets originated from a target mobile station or terminated thereto, in response to detecting such a target mobile station.

15. The serving GPRS support node according to claim 14, further comprising means for ignoring but acknowledging an order for canceling location information related to a target mobile station.

16. A Gateway GPRS support node for a packet radio network, adapted for legal interception of traffic related to a number of terminals in said network, comprising:

means for receiving an identifier for each one of said terminals to be intercepted;

means for detecting a certain one of said terminals as a terminal to be intercepted; and

means, responsive to said detecting means, for duplicating at least some of the traffic relating to said detected terminal to another node of said network.