Dedicated APN access using default network access key for profile download

• US 9,998,896 B1
• Filed: 08/18/2017
• Issued: 06/12/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 08/18/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Inventors: Guven, Musa Kazim, Chen, Zhengfang, Alparslan, Hakan, McArtney, Thomas W., Raghavachari, Balaji L., Schmidt, Christopher M., Verma, Tarun
• Primary Examiner(s): Shedrick, Charles
• Application Number:
  US15/680,889
• Time in Patent Office: 298 Days
• Field of Search: 4554351
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/3816 Mechanical arrangements for accommodating identification devices, e.g. cards or chips; with connectors for programming identification devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2101/654 International mobile subscriber identity [IMSI] numbers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/4588 containing mobile subscriber information, e.g. home subscriber server [HSS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/50 Address allocation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/125 involving control of end-device applications over a network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/08 Access security
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/35 Protecting application or service provisioning, e.g. securing SIM application provisioning
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/40 Security arrangements using identity modules
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/70 Services for machine-to-machine communication [M2M] or machine type communication [MTC]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/08 Access restriction or access information delivery, e.g. discovery data delivery signalling during connection H04W76/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 60/00 Affiliation to network, e.g. registration; Terminating affiliation with the network, e.g. de-registration
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 60/04 using triggered events
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 60/06 De-registration or detaching
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/06 Registration at serving network Location Register, VLR or user mobility server
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/08 Mobility data transfer
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/183 Processing at user equipment or user record carrier
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/20 Transfer of user or subscriber data
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/02 Terminal devices

Abstract

A method including determining whether a subscriber identification profile (SIDP) is stored within a UE; sending an initial attach request along with a default network access key to a MME, upon determining that the SIDP is not stored; receiving a first authorization to attach to the network in response to the initial attach request, the first authorization restricts connectivity of the UE to an M2M activation system accessed by a dedicated APN associated with the default network access key; receiving, from a subscription management system, a SIDP generated by the M2M activation system; detaching from the M2M activation system and the network; sending a second attach request to the network based on the received SIDP; and receiving a second authorization to the network in response to the second attach request; the second authorization provides unrestricted APN connectivity and access to services associated with the subscriber identification profile.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

determining, by a user equipment (UE) device, whether a subscriber identification profile is stored within the UE device;

sending, from the UE device, an initial attach request along with a default network access key to a mobility management entity (MME) within a network, upon determining that the subscriber identification profile is not stored in the UE device;

receiving, at the UE device, a first authorization to attach to the network in response to the initial attach request, wherein the first authorization restricts connectivity of the UE device to a machine-to-machine (M2M) activation system accessed by a dedicated APN associated with the default network access key;

receiving, at the UE device from a subscription management system, a subscriber identification profile generated by the M2M activation system;

detaching the UE device from the M2M activation system and the network;

sending, from the UE device, a second attach request to the network based on the received subscriber identification profile; and

receiving, at the UE device, a second authorization to the network in response to the second attach request;

wherein the second authorization provides unrestricted APN connectivity and access to services associated with the subscriber identification profile.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein upon determining that the subscriber identification profile is stored in the UE device, further comprising:

determining whether a predetermined command was received to reset the stored subscriber identification profile, and in response to determining a predetermined command was received;

discarding the stored subscriber identification profile from the UE device, and

sending the initial attach request along with the default network access key to the MME within the network; and

wherein upon determining that the predetermined command was not received,

performing an attach procedure.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein determining whether a predetermined command was received further comprises:

receiving at least one of an activation of a switch sequence, a simultaneous activation of a combination of switches, an activation of a dedicated switch, or a switch actuation lasting a predetermined period of time.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein determining whether a predetermined command was received further comprises:

receiving the predetermined command upon powering on the UE device.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving instructions via the network for generating the default network access key, wherein the instructions may generate the default network access key based on at least one of the international mobile equipment identity (IMEI) of the UE device, an individual subscriber authentication key (Ki, Kix), encryption algorithm identifier values, or integrity algorithm identifier values;

generating the default network access key by automatically activating the instructions upon an initial powering on of the UE device and determining that the subscriber identification profile is not stored in the UE device; and

saving the default network access key in the UE device.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the IMEI of the UE device used in generating the default network access key includes at least one of a specific mobile country code (MCC) prefix or a specific mobile network code (MNC) prefix which is anchored to the M2M activation system.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a request to provide customer consent for a service subscription associated with the subscriber identification profile generated by the M2M activation system;

prompting a user to provide customer consent after receiving the first authorization to attach to the network; and

sending customer consent to the network in response to the prompting.

8. A user equipment (UE) device, comprising:

a chipset configured to store a subscriber identification profile and a default network access key;

at least one memory configured to store instructions; and

at least one processor configured to execute the instructions to;

determine whether a subscriber identification profile is stored within the UE device,

send an initial attach request along with a default network access key to a mobility management entity (MME) within a network, upon determining that the subscriber identification profile is not stored in the UE device,

receive a first authorization to attach to the network in response to the initial attach request, wherein the first authorization restricts connectivity of the UE device to a machine-to-machine (M2M) activation system accessed by a dedicated APN associated with the default network access key,

receive, from a subscription management system, a subscriber identification profile generated by the M2M activation system,

detach from the M2M activation system and the network,

send a second attach request to the network based on the received subscriber identification profile, and

receive a second authorization to the network in response to the second attach request;

wherein the second authorization provides unrestricted APN connectivity for the UE device and access to services associated with the subscriber identification profile.

9. The UE device of claim 8, wherein upon the instructions that determine that the subscriber identification profile is stored in the UE device, further cause the at least one processor to:

determine whether a predetermined command was received to reset stored subscriber identification profile, and in response to determining a predetermined command was received;

discard the stored subscriber identification profile from the UE device, and

send the initial attach request along with the default network access key to the MME within the network, and

wherein upon determining that the predetermined command was not received, the instructions cause the processor to performing an attach procedure.

10. The UE device of claim 9, wherein the instructions to determine whether a predetermined command was received further causes the at least one processor to:

receive at least one of an activation of a switch sequence, a simultaneous activation of a combination of switches, an activation of a dedicated switch, or a switch actuation lasting a predetermined period of time.

11. The UE device of claim 10, wherein the instructions to determine whether a predetermined command was received further causes the at least one processor to:

receive the predetermined command upon powering on the UE device.

12. The UE device of claim 8, wherein the instructions further cause the at least one processor to:

receive executable instructions via the network for generating the default network access key, wherein the executable instructions may generate the default network access key based on at least one of the international mobile equipment identity (IMEI) of the UE device, an individual subscriber authentication key (Ki, Kix), encryption algorithm identifier values, or integrity algorithm identifier values,

generate the default network access key by automatically activating the executable instructions upon an initial powering on of the UE device and determining that the subscriber identification profile is not stored in the UE device, and

save the default network access key in the UE device.

13. The UE device of claim 12, wherein the IMEI of the UE device used in generating the default network access key includes at least one of a specific mobile country code (MCC) prefix or a specific mobile network code (MNC) prefix which is anchored to the M2M activation system.

14. The UE device of claim 8, comprising instructions that further cause the at least one processor to:

receive a request to provide customer consent for a service subscription associated with the subscriber identification profile generated by the M2M activation system,

prompt a user to provide customer consent after receiving the first authorization to attach to the network, and

send customer consent to the network in response the prompting.

15. A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions, which, when executed by at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to:

determine whether a subscriber identification profile is stored within a user equipment (UE) device;

send an initial attach request along with a default network access key to a mobility management entity (MME) within a network, upon determining that the subscriber identification profile is not stored in the UE device;

receive a first authorization to attach to the network in response to the initial attach request, wherein the first authorization restricts connectivity of the UE device to a machine-to-machine (M2M) activation system accessed by a dedicated APN associated with the default network access key;

receive, from a subscription management system, a subscriber identification profile generated by the M2M activation system;

detach from the M2M activation system and the network;

send a second attach request to the network based on the received subscriber identification profile; and

receive a second authorization to the network in response to the second attach request;

wherein the second authorization provides unrestricted APN connectivity for the UE device and access to services associated with the subscriber identification profile.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein upon the at least one processor determining that the subscriber identification profile is stored in the UE device, the instructions further cause the at least one processor to:

determine whether a predetermined command was received to reset stored subscriber identification profile, and in response to determining a predetermined command was received;

discard the stored subscriber identification profile from the UE device, and

send the initial attach request along with the default network access key to the MME within the network; and

wherein upon determining that the predetermined command was not received,

perform an attach procedure.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the instructions to determine whether a predetermined command was received further cause the at least one processor to:

receive at least one of an activation of a switch sequence, a simultaneous activation of a combination of switches, an activation of a dedicated switch, or a switch actuation lasting a predetermined period of time.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 17, wherein the instructions to determine whether a predetermined command was received further cause the at least one processor to:

receive the predetermined command upon powering on the UE device.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15, further comprising instructions which cause the at least one processor to:

receive executable instructions via the network for generating the default network access key, wherein the executable instructions may generate the default network access key based on at least one of the international mobile equipment identity (IMEI) of the UE device, an individual subscriber authentication key (Ki, Kix), encryption algorithm identifier values, or integrity algorithm identifier values;

generate the default network access key by automatically activating the executable instructions upon an initial powering on of the UE device and determining that the subscriber identification profile is not stored in the UE device; and

save the default network access key in the UE device.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 19, wherein the IMEI of the UE device used in generating the default network access key includes at least one of a specific mobile country code (MCC) prefix or a specific mobile network code (MNC) prefix which is anchored to the M2M activation system.