Provisioning content formatting in a mobile device management system

• US 8,170,536 B2
• Filed: 12/12/2006
• Issued: 05/01/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 12/19/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Giesecke + Devrient Mobile Security GmBH (Giesecke & Devrient GmbH)
• Original Assignee: SmartTrust AB (Giesecke & Devrient GmbH)
• Inventors: Normark, Magnus, Svensson, Britt-Mari
• Primary Examiner(s): Cho, Un C
• Application Number:
  US12/158,002
• Publication Number:
  US 20090318123A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,967 Days
• Field of Search: 455/412.1, 455/414.4, 455/418, 455/419, 455/420, 455/466
• US Class Current: 455/414.4
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/082 the condition being updates or upgrades of network functionality
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/22 Processing or transfer of terminal data, e.g. status or physical capabilities

Abstract

The method is for provisioning content formatting in a device management system to facilitate provisioning of mobile devices of different capabilities with contents in a device management system in a mobile network infrastructure. The system has a device management application and repositories. The device management application in the device management system is initiated to perform provisioning content formatting. The device management application determines the applicable format for a mobile device to be provisioned on an analysis based on combining the capabilities of the mobile device identified by means of one or more of the repositories.

Claims

1. A method for provisioning content formatting in a device management system so facilitate provisioning of mobile devices of different capabilities with contents in the device management system in a mobile network infrastructure, comprising:

providing the mobile device with a terminal and a module with subscriber information and the device management system comprising a device management application and repositories,

initiating the device management application in the device management system to perform provisioning content formatting,

determining capabilities of the terminal by looking up the terminal in a database,

determining capabilities of the module by looking up the subscriber information and matching a subscription, associate with the subscriber information, with the module, based on the capabilities of the terminal and the capabilities of the module, determining an applicable provisioning content format for the mobile device, and

the device management application obtaining a generic format of a provisioning content from a provisioning content repository (PC) and converting she provisioning content from the generic format into the applicable provisioning content format for the mobile device.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising the steps of storing a content into a repository of the device management system, before initiating provisioning content formatting, whereby the initiation of the device management capabilities takes place by formatting the stored provisioning content into an applicable provisioning content format being found to he a format of the mobile device.

3. The method of claim 2 further comprising the steps of storing the provisioning content in the repository of the device management system in a generic format.

4. The method of claim 3 further comprising the steps of the device management application converting the provisioning content stored in the generic format into the applicable provisioning content format of the mobile device.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising the steps of providing the provisioning content with connectivity parameters for a service.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising the steps of providing the provisioning content with a data parameter subject to a provisioning by the device management system.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising the steps of the device management application identifying the mobile device to be provisioned by means of Mobile Station Integrated Service Digital Network Number (MSISDN) and/or International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI).

8. The method of claim 7 further comprising the steps of the device management application retrieving a terminal type out of the IMEI and looking up a corresponding Over-The-Air (OTA) provisioning protocol and a provisioning content format of the OTA protocol from a Terminal Capabilities Repository (TCR) and thereafter the device management application converting the provisioning content into a correct format for the mobile device.

9. The method of claim 7 further comprising the steps of the device management application retrieving the subscriber out of the MSISDN and looking up the SIM card type from a subscription and SIM card type relationship repository (SSP) and then a corresponding Over-The-Air (OTA) provisioning protocol and the provisioning content format of the OTA provisioning protocol from the SIM Card Capabilities Repository (SCR) thereafter the device management application converting the provisioning content into a correct format for the mobile device.

10. The method of claim 7 further comprising the steps of the device management application looking up the provisioning content format corresponding to an OTA provisioning protocol, terminal type and/or SIM card type.

11. The method of claim 1 further comprising the steps of terminally bounding the provisioning content.

12. The method of claim 1 further comprising the steps of managing data objects.

13. The method of claim 1 further comprising the steps of SIM card bounding the provisioning content.

14. The method of claim 13 further comprising the steps of storing the data objects to be managed in files on the SIM card.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises the step of determining an OTA provisioning protocol based on a SIM card type and terminal type of the mobile device.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein the method further comprises the step of using the OTA provisioning protocol to determine whether the provisioning content is terminal-bound or SIM-card-bound.

17. The method of claim 1 wherein the method further comprises the step of using an OTA provisioning protocol to determine the provisioning content format.

18. The method of claim 17 wherein the method further comprises the step of 24 determining the provisioning content format by looking up the OTA provisioning protocol in a repository.

19. A system for formatting provisioning contents of different formats for devices of different capabilities by a device management system in a mobile network infrastructure, the devices to be provisioned the mobile device consisting of a terminal and a subscriber identity module (SIM), the system comprising:

one or more device capabilities repositories,

the repositories being adapted for storing information about capabilities for both the terminal and for SIM is stored, and

a device management application used for a determination of correct provisioning content format based on capabilities of the mobile device and the device capabilities repositories, means for determining capabilities of the terminal to determine a terminal type,

means for determining capabilities of the SIM by looking up a subscription of a subscriber in a subscription and SIM card type relationship repository (SSR) and means for matching the subscription with a SIM card type,

means for determining an Over-The-Air (OTA) provisioning protocol,

means for determining an applicable provisioning content format based on the OTA provisioning protocol, SIM card type and terminal type, and

the device management application having means for obtaining a generic format of a provisioning content and converting the provisioning content from the generic format into the applicable provisioning content format for the mobile device.

20. The system of claim 19 wherein the device capabilities repositories consists of a terminal capabilities repository storing information about provisioning protocols to be used in provisioning and/or about provisioning content formats each mobile terminal type is provisioned by.

21. The system of claim 19 wherein one of the device capabilities repositories consists of a subscription and SIM card capabilities repository storing information about data objects available on a SIM card type.

22. The system of claim 19 wherein one of the device capabilities repositories consists of a subscription and SIM card type relationship repository storing information about capabilities of a SIM card type for a particular subscription.

23. The system of claim 19 wherein one of the repositories consists of a device identity repository storing mobile device identities as identified by a terminal identity and a subscription identity.

24. The system of claim 19 wherein one of the device capabilities repositories consists of a repository storing content to be provisioned on the generic format administratively managed in the system.

25. The system of claim 19 wherein the device management application has means for executing conversion from the generic format into a provisioning content format that fits capabilities of a particular mobile device consisting of subscription, terminal and SIM card.

26. A method for provisioning content formatting in a device management system, comprising:

providing a mobile device having a terminal and a module with subscriber information,

determining capabilities of the terminal by looking up the terminal in a database,

determining capabilities of the module,

based on the capabilities of the terminal and the capabilities of the module, determining an applicable provisioning content format for the mobile device,

obtaining a generic format of a provisioning content, and

converting the provisioning content from the generic format into the applicable provisioning content format for the mobile device based on the capabilities of the terminal and the module.

27. A method for provisioning content formatting in a device management system, comprising:

providing a mobile device having a terminal and a module with subscriber information,

determining capabilities of the terminal and the module,

determining whether the provisioning content is terminal-bound or module-bound,

when the provisioning content is terminal-bound, determining an OTA provisioning protocol for the terminal,

when the provisioning content is module-bound, determining an OTA provisioning protocol for the module,

determining an applicable provisioning content format for the mobile device,

converting the provisioning content from a generic format to the applicable provisioning format, and

provisioning the mobile device with the provisioning content in the applicable provisioning content.