Telefonaktiebolaget Lm Ericsson (publ)

Catherine Truchan

Suresh Krishnan

Stere Preda

Ludovic Beliveau

Peyman Talebi Fard

Meral Shirazipour

Eric Dyke

Ravi Manghirmalani

Makan Pourzandi

Daniel Migault

Geoffrey Lefebvre

Jon Maloy

Amy Derbyshire

Andre Beliveau

Sethuraman Ramachandran

Jean-Francois Bergeron

Badis Omarouayache

Methods and systems for group re-authentication of devices in a wireless telecommunication network are provided. According to one aspect, a method of operation of a base station in a wireless telecommunication network comprises receiving a group authentication request message from a mobility management entity, the group authentication request message comprising a group identifier; identifying at least one user equipment as belonging to a group identified by the group identifier; sending an individual authentication request message to each identified UE; receiving an authentication response from at least one of the identified UE; aggregating the received at least one authentication response to create a group authentication response message; and sending the group authentication response message to the mobility management entity.

Enhanced aggregated re-authentication for wireless devices

Systems and methods are disclosed herein that relate to secure monitoring or interception of traffic in a wireless communications system. In some embodiments, a method of operation of a network node comprises receiving a list of one or more obfuscated target identifiers from a monitoring node, where each obfuscated target identifier is a user identifier of a target user that is encrypted using a first encryption key that is unknown to the network node. The method further comprises receiving an encrypted packet from another network node and determining whether an encrypted user identifier of the encrypted packet matches one of the obfuscated target identifiers. The method further comprises, if the encrypted user identifier matches one of the obfuscated target identifiers, further encrypting the encrypted packet using a second encryption key negotiated between the network node and the monitoring node and transmitting the further encrypted packet to the monitoring node.

Enhanced lawful interception

Methods, systems, and computer program products for security context escrowing are provided herein. According to one aspect, a method of operation of a network node for a telecommunications network comprises storing security context information associated with a small data, fast path connection between a wireless device and a first gateway that is serving the wireless device, determining a change in the gateway that is serving the wireless device from the first gateway to a second gateway, and, in response to determining the change, providing the stored security context information to the second gateway for use with the wireless device.

Security context escrowing

Systems and methods relating to an efficient communication system to, e.g., support Massive Machine Type Communication (M-MTC) devices are disclosed. In some embodiments, a base station in a cellular communications network comprises, during initial attachment of a wireless device, establishing a Data Radio Bearer (DRB) between the base station and the wireless device, updating a context of the wireless device to include information regarding the DRB established between the base station and the wireless device to thereby provide a mapping between the DRB and a cellular network identifier of the wireless device. The method further comprises, during initial attachment of the wireless device, providing, to the wireless device, at least a portion of an Internet Protocol (IP) address assigned to the wireless device and updating the context of the wireless device to include the at least a portion of the IP address of the wireless device.

Simplified wireless connectivity for a cellular communications system

In one aspect of the teachings herein, a controlling gateway and an associated radio access point are configured for operation in a radio access network and use a radio protocol stack that is split on the network side between the gateway and the access point, for conveying radio bearer traffic going between the radio access network and a wireless device. According to methods and apparatuses disclosed, the radio protocol entities affected by the stack split communicate using Internet Protocol, IP, sessions. Advantageously, the radio bearer traffic conveyed over the split stack maps to different IP sessions in dependence on any one or more of network capabilities, various isolation or privacy requirements associated with the device and/or traffic, the types of data being conveyed, the types of radio bearers involved, and the involved Radio Link Control, RLC, operating modes.

Method and apparatus for a radio node and a controlling gateway

Systems and methods relating to scheduling Paging Occasions (POs) are disclosed. Embodiments of a method of operation of a network node are disclosed. In some embodiments, the method of operation of a network nodes comprises assigning POs to a plurality of User Equipments (UEs) in accordance with one or more anti-affinity groups such that, for a defined time interval, POs within the defined time interval are assigned to UEs in a same anti-affinity group. The method further comprises notifying the plurality of UEs of the POs assigned to the UEs. In this manner, the expected maximum number of pages within the defined time interval is substantially reduced.

Paging for massive MTC

In one aspect of the teachings herein, a radio node provides a local loopback mode of operation in at least some operational instances, in which it loops 'local' traffic between wireless devices operating within a local radio cell or cells, rather than forwarding such traffic along to a controlling gateway for handling. The wireless devices operating within the cell(s) and involved in the loopback operation switch over from symmetric encryption that involves the controlling gateway as a secure endpoint for their traffic, to asymmetric or public-private key pair encryption. The radio node uses a correspondingly derived loopback encryption key to enable security on the loopback traffic flow between the involved local devices. Use of the loopback encryption key means that the radio node need not know or otherwise have access to the symmetric encryption keys used by the involved devices and the controlling gateway for 'normal' non-loopback operation.

Methods and apparatuses for handling data traffic in a radio node having a split protocol stack

A system and method for steering traffic through a set of services is provided. A service path or service chain is assigned to a received packet based on a classification of the packet and correlation of the packet with a traffic flow. A new service chain identifier can be created if no such correlation exists. A next service type and a particular instance of the next service type can be determined in accordance with the service chain identifier. A next destination for the traffic can be set in accordance with the instance of the next service.

Service chaining in a cloud environment using software defined networking

A method for redirecting a traffic flow in a communication network, in which a first or default service path has been configured for the traffic flow to go through is disclosed. The method comprises: receiving a notification message from a network node, the notification message including a traffic characteristic information of a packet of the traffic flow; creating a set of rules based on the received traffic characteristic information; and sending the set of rules to a plurality of switches in the communication network, the set of rules configuring a second or alternative service path to be used by subsequent packets of this traffic flow. Also, a network node for carrying out this method is provided.

Methods and network nodes for traffic steering based on per-flow policies

Service chaining in a cloud environment using Software Defined Networking

The present disclosure describes methods and apparatus for differentiating subscriber devices of a subscriber hidden by a network address translation device and enables traffic flow steering on a per device basis rather than a per subscriber basis. Identification of subscriber devices is achieved by assigning a reserved set of external ports to each subscriber device. Different service paths can be defined for different subscriber devices to provide a subscriber with a different experience for each subscriber device of the subscriber.

Identifying NATed devices for device-specific traffic flow steering

A load balancer in a communication network tracks active network flows using a Bloom filter and takes a snapshot of the Bloom filter at the time of a scaling event. The load balancer uses the Bloom filter snapshot to differentiate packets belonging to pre-existing network flows from packets belonging to new network flows. Packets belonging to pre-existing network flows continue to be distributed according to a mapping function in use prior to the scaling event. Packets belonging to new network flows are distributed according to a new mapping function.

Load balancing for stateful scale-out network services

Method and router supporting tracing of a packet therein. A first service module receives the packet and a memory module stores a tracing extension header. The extension header comprises an identifier of a receiving service module and a tracing identifier associated with the packet. The extension is stored following reception of the packet by the first service module. Optionally, the receiving module may be the first service module that further receives the packet through a network interface module. The first service module may also generate the tracing identifier associated with the packet that uniquely identifies the tracing in the receiving module. The router may comprise a second service module and a second memory module associated thereto. The first service module may further append the tracing extension header to the packet and forwards the packet to the second service module. The second memory module may then store the extension header thereupon.

Tracing support in a router

A communications network and method for providing a voice message to a user of a mobile station (MS) in a network having a plurality of independent mobile systems, each independent mobile system including a Mobile Switching Center (MSC), Short Message Service Center (SMS-C) and Voice Message System (VMS), wherein each VMS is identified by a unique identifier code. A received voice message is stored in a VMS, and an SMS notification message is sent to the MS. Because each VMS is identified by a unique identifier code, the MS can retrieve a voice message by dialing the code contained in an SMS notification message, regardless of which independent mobile system is serving the MS at the time the voice message retrieval is requested.

Growing community of inventors

Lorraine, Canada

Catherine Truchan