Verizon Patent and Licensing Inc.

Jayesh Kumar Laad

Amit Mahajan

Sudhakar Reddy Patil

Vinod Kumar Choyi

John M Bittenbender

A device may determine that a network function of a network has been instantiated to facilitate communication via the network. The device may request a certificate authority to provide a certificate for the network function. The device may receive, from the certificate authority, the certificate. The device may generate a certificate profile to enable other network functions of the network to authenticate communications with the network function, wherein the certificate profile identifies: the certificate and a certification protocol. The device may provide, to the network function, the certificate profile to cause the network function to use the certificate to communicate with the other network functions.

Systems and methods for managing public key infrastructure certificates for components of a network

Systems and methods leverage trust anchors to generate tokens which can then be used by network functions (NFs). A virtualization infrastructure manager (VIM) for a virtualized platform receives a NF software package and a certificate request token (CRT) from a management function. The NF is a virtual NF, a containerized NF, or another virtual entity (xNF) to be deployed. The CRT is digitally signed by the management function and includes a network address of a trust anchor platform and a NF profile. The VIM deploys the NF and provides the CRT to the NF. The NF obtains from the CRT the network address of the trust anchor platform, generates a certificate signing request (CSR) for a digital certificate, and submits the CSR and the CRT to the trust anchor platform. The NF receives a digital certificate from the trust anchor platform based on validation of both the CSR and CRT.

System and method for establishing dynamic trust credentials for network functions

A device may determine that a network function of a network is to use a secure communication protocol. The network function may be configured to facilitate communication via the network. The device may identify a component of a resource configuration that is to instantiate the network function. The device may instantiate, using the component, a proxy for the network function. The device may configure the proxy to obtain a certificate that is associated with the secure communication protocol. The device may cause the proxy to use the certificate to communicate with another proxy that is associated with the network function to perform an operation associated with the network function.

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Ashland, MA, United States of America

Jayesh Kumar Laad