System and method for selectively provisioning telecommunications services between an access point and a telecommunications network using a subscriber identifier

• US 8,885,635 B2
• Filed: 07/17/2008
• Issued: 11/11/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 07/17/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: T-Mobile USA, Inc. (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Original Assignee: T-Mobile USA, Inc. (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Inventors: Linkola, Janne P., Caldwell, Christopher E., Hassan, Omar
• Primary Examiner(s): VU, HOANG-CHUONG Q
• Application Number:
  US12/175,414
• Publication Number:
  US 20100014507A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,308 Days
• Field of Search: 370/395.2, 370/252, 370/352, 370/401, 455/558, 455/556.1, 455/557
• US Class Current: 370/352
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/084 using delegated authorisation, e.g. open authorisation [OAuth] protocol
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/24 Accounting or billing
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/16 Discovering, processing access restriction or access information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/08 Access point devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 92/02 Inter-networking arrangements

Abstract

A method and system for reducing network load by selectively provisioning services between an access point and a carrier network is disclosed. The access point supports telecommunications services over an IP network. The access point includes a network connection and a telephone connector capable of connecting to a standard landline telephone. The access point also includes at least one detection component that detects whether a landline telephone is plugged in to the telephone connector. The access point is configured to provision a telecommunications services through the IP network when it detects that an identification module is present.

Claims

1. A wireless local area network (WLAN) access point configured for facilitating IP-based communications with a telecommunications system, the access point comprising:

an antenna;

a WLAN radio connected to the antenna and configured to provide WLAN connectivity;

a network connection component configured to communicate with an IP-based network and connected to transmit and receive data received from WLAN radio;

a telephone connector component configured to accept a wired connection with a landline telephone;

an identification module socket configured to accept an identification module,

wherein the identification module includes a tamper-resistant memory, and

wherein the tamper-resistant memory has stored therein a subscriber identifier, and

wherein the subscriber identifier is neither a Medium Access Control (MAC) address nor an electronic serial number (ESN);

at least one detection component connected to the telephone connector component and configured to detect if an identification module is present in the identification module socket and if a landline telephone is connected to the telephone connector component; and

a connection manager configured to selectively provision telecommunications services between the telephone connector component and the IP-based network in response to the detection component detecting that the identification module socket contains an identification module and that the telephone connector component is connected to a landline telephone,

wherein the telecommunications services are not provided if the detection component does not detect an identification module in the identification module socket, and does not detect a landline telephone connected to the telephone connector component,

wherein provisioning comprises;

registering with a cellular telephone carrier network, providing user-specific information to the cellular telephone carrier network,

wherein at least some of the user-specific information is provided through out-of-band communications, and

receiving a resource allocation from the cellular telephone carrier network.

2. The WLAN access point of claim 1, wherein the identification module socket is a Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) card socket configured to accept a SIM card.

3. The WLAN access point of claim 1, wherein the detection component comprises a mechanical or electromechanical switch to detect if the identification module is present.

4. The WLAN access point of claim 1, wherein the detection component uses electrical characteristics of the identification module socket to detect the identification module, the electrical characteristics comprising one or more of the following:

resistance, capacitance, or inductance.

5. The WLAN access point of claim 1, wherein the detection component is configured to generate an interrupt signal when the identification module is detected and wherein the connection manager is configured to provision the telecommunications services in response to the interrupt signal.

6. The WLAN access point of claim 1, wherein the telecommunications services are Unlicensed Mobile Access (UMA) services.

7. A system for managing use of an access point configured for facilitating IP-based communications in a telecommunications system, the system comprising:

a telephone connector component configured to accept a connection with a landline telephone device;

a network connection component configured to communicate with an IP-based network;

an identifier detection component configured to detect whether a subscriber identifier has been provided by a subscriber to the access point;

an identification module socket; and

a connection manager configured to selectively provision a telecommunications service between the telephone connector component and the IP-based network in response to;

determining that the subscriber identifier indicates that the telecommunications service is permitted and

the identifier detection component detecting that the subscriber identifier has been provided to the access point and that the telephone connector component is connected to a landline telephone device,

wherein the telecommunications service is not provided if the detection component does not detect an identification module in the identification module socket, and does not detect a landline telephone connected to the telephone connector component.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the identification module socket includes an identification module acceptor configured to accept an identification module having the subscriber identifier.

9. The system of claim 7, further comprising multiple telephone connector components, each telephone connector component having an associated identifier detection component, wherein the individual identifier detection components are configured to independently detect if a subscriber identifier has been provided and the connection manager is configured to independently provision telecommunications services between the IP-based network and individual ones of the multiple telephone connector components.

10. The system of claim 7, wherein the identification module socket includes an identification module slot configured to accept an identification module having the subscriber identifier, wherein the identifier detection component uses the impedance of the identification module slot to detect if the identification module is present.

11. The system of claim 7, further comprising a radio component configured to provide telecommunications services using a licensed frequency band.

12. The system of claim 7, further comprising a radio component configured to provide telecommunications services using an unlicensed frequency band.