Secured registration of a home network device

• US 8,346,976 B2
• Filed: 01/22/2010
• Issued: 01/01/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 11/25/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: T-Mobile USA, Inc. (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Original Assignee: T-Mobile USA, Inc. (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Inventors: Bouthemy, Jean-Luc, Hassan, Omar, Hodroj, Samir M.
• Primary Examiner(s): SHAW, PELING ANDREW
• Application Number:
  US12/692,541
• Publication Number:
  US 20110125925A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,075 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 709/250
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2834 Switching of information between an external network and a home network access arrangements H04L12/2856
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/4641 Virtual LANs, VLANs, e.g. virtual private networks [VPN] LAN interconnection over a bridge based backbone H04L12/462; encapsulation techniques H04L12/4633; routing of packets H04L45/00; packet switches H04L49/00; virtual private networks for security H04L63/0272
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0803 Configuration setting
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0272 Virtual private networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/20 for managing network security; network security policies in general filtering policies H04L63/0227
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1073 Registration or de-registration
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1104 Session initiation protocol [SIP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/14 Session management for real-time applications in data packet communications networks H04L65/1066
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/40 for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity, e.g. service redundancy protocols, protocol state redundancy or protocol service redirection management of faults, events, alarms or notifications in data switching networks H04L41/06

Abstract

A home router configured to receive a network registration request from a device that is locally connected to the home router and to provide the request to a service provider network through a network tunnel is disclosed herein. A device configured to provide a network registration request for the device to the service provider network is also disclosed herein. The device sends the request directly to the service provider network via a network tunnel if the device is not connected to the home router or sends the request to the home router for subsequent transmission if the device is connected to the home router.

Claims

1. One or more computer-readable storage media having computer-readable programming instructions stored thereon, the computer-readable programming instructions configured to program a device to perform operations comprising:

determining whether the device is connected to a home router;

in response to determining that the device is connected to the home router, submitting a network registration request to the home router for secure transmission by the home router to a service provider network, the network registration request including a pre-provisioned public identifier and the pre-provisioned public identifier being usable for registration, but not for other voice or data communications;

in response to determining that the device is not connected to the home router, establishing a network tunnel between the device and the service provider network and providing the network registration request to the service provider network via the network tunnel; and

receiving a network registration response including a public identifier for the device, the public identifier usable in the other voice and data communications.

2. The one or more computer-readable storage media of claim 1, wherein the device and the home router comprise a home network.

3. The one or more computer-readable storage media of claim 2, wherein all devices of the home network share the public identifier in common between the devices.

4. The one or more computer-readable storage media of claim 3, wherein the public identifier is associated with a separate service profile for each device of the devices of the home network.

5. The one or more computer-readable storage media of claim 3, wherein the public identifier is one of a telephone number, an Internet Protocol (IP) address, or a messaging identifier.

6. The one or more computer-readable storage media of claim 3, wherein the device has at least one public identifier that is not shared with the home router.

7. The one or more computer-readable storage media of claim 1, wherein the computer-readable programming instructions further configure the device to include a SIP client for formulating the network registration request.

8. The one or more computer-readable storage media of claim 1, wherein the service provider network is an Internet Protocol Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) network.

9. The one or more computer-readable storage media of claim 1, wherein the network tunnel is an IPSec tunnel between the device and a session border controller (SBC) of the service provider network.

10. The one or more computer-readable storage media of claim 1, wherein the pre-provisioned public identifier is also usable for emergency calling.

11. A method comprising:

determining, by a device, whether the device is connected to a home router;

in response to determining that the device is connected to the home router, submitting, by the device, a network registration request to the home router for secure transmission by the home router to a service provider network, the network registration request including a pre-provisioned public identifier and the pre-provisioned public identifier being usable for registration, but not for other voice or data communications;

in response to determining that the device is not connected to the home router, establishing, by the device, a network tunnel between the device and the service provider network and providing the network registration request to the service provider network via the network tunnel; and

receiving, by the device, a network registration response including a public identifier for the device, the public identifier usable in the other voice and data communications.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the device and the home router comprise a home network.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein all devices of the home network share the public identifier in common between the devices.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the public identifier is associated with a separate service profile for each device of the devices of the home network.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the device has at least one public identifier that is not shared with the home router.

16. The method of claim 11, wherein the service provider network is an Internet Protocol Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) network.

17. The method of claim 11, wherein the pre-provisioned public identifier is also usable for emergency calling.

18. A device comprising:

a processor; and

computer-readable programming instructions configured to be executed by the processor to perform actions including;

determining whether the device is connected to a home router;

in response to determining that the device is connected to the home router, submitting a network registration request to the home router for secure transmission by the home router to a service provider network, the network registration request including a pre-provisioned public identifier and the pre-provisioned public identifier being usable for registration, but not for other voice or data communications;

in response to determining that the device is not connected to the home router, establishing a network tunnel between the device and the service provider network and providing the network registration request to the service provider network via the network tunnel; and

receiving a network registration response including a public identifier for the device, the public identifier usable in the other voice and data communications.

19. The device of claim 18, wherein all devices of a home network that includes at least the device and the home router share the public identifier in common between the devices.

20. The device of claim 18, wherein the pre-provisioned public identifier is also usable for emergency calling.