KR20070014719A - System and method for providing service automatic activation - Google Patents

Abstract

A system and a method for offering automatic service activation are provided to enable a user terminal to use a service without any manual setting procedure of a user by automatically setting user/service information to the user terminal of diverse users. A user information database(110) stores basic information for the service activation. A DHCP(Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol)/TFTP(Trivial File Transfer Protocol) server(120) provides an IP(Internet Protocol) address and location information of a bootstrap file for activating the service to the user terminal(140) wanting to use the service. A connection management server(130) authenticates and registers the user terminals, and provides information needed for activating the service to the registered user terminal without any user operation by obtaining the user/service information from the user information database and the DHCP/TFTP server. A network connection system authenticates network connection of the user terminal. A policy server controls connection authentication of the network connection system by managing a service policy of each user.

Description

System and method for providing service automatic activation

1 is a block diagram showing the overall configuration of a system for automatically providing service activation according to the present invention.

2 is a flowchart illustrating a method for automatically providing a service according to the present invention.

3 is a diagram illustrating a header portion of a specification of a bootstrap file required for service activation.

4 is a diagram illustrating a format of a body part of a standard of a bootstrap file.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating in more detail a process of automatically setting mutual authentication and automatic setting of subscriber information / service information occurring during registration between a subscriber station and a connection management server in FIG. 2.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a process of automatically upgrading subscriber stations by managing various software versions including various application services. FIG.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a table structure for holding terminal information, subscriber information, and service information to be managed in the subscriber information DB 110. FIG.

The present invention relates to a system and method for automatically activating a variety of services in the Internet environment, and more particularly, to automatically activate a service that enables the dynamic use of various services in the Internet environment without manual information setting for the subscriber terminal. A provisioning system and method thereof are provided.

Today, the Internet is becoming a part of life beyond its proliferation period.

Recently, the movement to integrate various services that have been provided by other methods through the Internet has become visible. Representatively, the telephone service provided by the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) is provided through the Internet such as Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and Multimedia over Internet Protocol (MMoIP). Attempts have also been made to provide television broadcasting services that have been provided in a manner by using the Internet such as IP-TV.

Since these services have conventionally been provided using a separate network, subscriber service terminals could provide services by simply attaching a terminal to a network end without a separate setting procedure. However, in the case of integrating such services in the Internet environment, in order to mux and demux the traffic for each service, the subscriber service, the network information, the service information, and the like must be set in the subscriber station. This is an essential procedure for distinguishing and providing services in an internet network in which various types of traffic are mixed. Due to such constraints, Internet operators are burdened in terms of opening and maintenance, and subscribers have complicated procedures for using terminals. There is a problem that the service satisfaction is lowered.

Therefore, attempts have been made to solve this problem in various ways. Typically, the network environment is provided as a dynamic IP environment using DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol). The reason why the Internet service provider dynamically allocates IP is because IP address resources are limited, so that not only the purpose of resolving resource shortages but also the convenience of opening and the service policy desired by subscribers are removed by eliminating manual configuration elements of subscriber devices. To do that.

In terms of service information, home networking related technologies such as universal plug and play (uPnP) have attempted to provide service information dynamically, and are expanding in the market. In addition, attempts have been made to provide VoIP services by managing the MAC of a terminal in a DHCP server and giving the terminal the same IP. However, the automatic activation of such service information and subscriber information has been mainly provided in the corporate environment to limited subscribers, and there is no solution applicable to the service provider that provides services to various subscribers.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention for solving the above-described problems is that the subscriber information and service information can be automatically set for the subscriber terminal of the various subscribers not specified so that the service can be used without the manual setup procedure of the subscriber. It's in the way.

Service automatic activation providing system of the present invention for achieving the above object, the subscriber information DB for storing the basic information for the service activation; A DHCP / TFTP server providing an IP address and location information of a bootstrap file for activating the service to a subscriber station to use the service; And perform authentication and registration with respect to the subscriber stations, obtain subscriber information and service information from the subscriber information DB and the DHCP / TFTP server, and transfer information necessary for activation of the service to the registered subscriber terminals without user intervention. It is provided with a connection management server.

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for automatically providing a service, comprising: a first step of transmitting an IP address and location information of a bootstrap file to a subscriber station upon receiving an IP allocation request from a subscriber station; Providing a bootstrap file corresponding to the location information of the bootstrap file according to a request of the subscriber station; A third step of performing authentication and registration for automatically providing a service according to a registration request of the subscriber station; And a fourth step of providing the registered subscriber station with information necessary for automatically activating the service including subscriber information and service information.

Hereinafter, with reference to the accompanying drawings will be described in detail a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

1 is a block diagram showing the overall configuration of a system for automatically providing service activation according to the present invention.

The system of FIG. 1 includes a subscriber information DB (Repository) 110, a DHCP / TFTP server 120, a connection management server 130, and a subscriber terminal 140.

The subscriber information DB 110 stores and provides basic information for automatically activating a service according to the present invention, such as terminal information, subscriber information, and service information corresponding to the MAC of the subscriber terminal 160.

The DHCP / TFTP server 120 allocates an IP address to the corresponding subscriber station according to the IP allocation request of the subscriber station 160. In addition, when the DHCP / TFTP server 120 of the present invention receives an IP allocation request from the subscriber station 140, the subscriber information DB 110 retrieves the terminal information corresponding to the MAC of the corresponding subscriber station 140, and retrieves it. By using this to identify the location information of the bootstrap (bootstrap) file containing the information necessary to activate the service and transmits it to the subscriber station 140 with the IP address. In addition, the DHCP / TFTP server 120 is responsible for the management of the DHCP session of the subscriber station (140). In this case, the bootstrap file contains information necessary for activating the service subscribed to by the subscriber station 140 according to a predetermined protocol.

The access management server 130 performs authentication on the subscriber terminal 140 requesting registration, and provides subscriber information DB 110 and DHCP / TFTP with subscriber information and service information about the authenticated and registered subscriber terminal 140. It obtains from the server 120 and provides various information necessary for service activation to the corresponding subscriber terminal 140 dynamically without user intervention.

When the subscriber station 140 is booted as the power is turned on, the subscriber station 140 requests an IP address from the DHCP / TFTP server 120 and receives the IP address and utilizes it as network information, and the bootstrap received from the DHCP / TFTP server 120 is provided. Obtain the bootstrap file using location information. The subscriber station 140 checks the OS information when obtaining the bootstrap file to upgrade the base OS of the terminal 140, and the network information based on information for activating the service defined in the obtained bootstrap file. Perform the setup procedure. When the subscriber station 140 completes the network information setting, the subscriber station 140 registers its information with the access management server 130 and also registers with various service servers (not shown) to receive the service. .

2 is a flowchart illustrating a method for automatically providing a service according to the present invention.

The subscriber station 140 boots when the user turns on the power and requests the DHCP / TFTP server 120 to allocate an IP address, which is network information, using DHCP (step 201).

The DHCP / TFTP server 120 receives an IP allocation request from the subscriber station 140 and allocates one of the IP addresses not yet assigned to the subscriber station 140 as network information (step 202).

In addition, the DHCP / TFTP server 120 retrieves the terminal information and the service information corresponding to the MAC of the subscriber terminal 140 in the subscriber information DB 110, and uses the same to determine the location information of the bootstrap file and then boot it. The location information of the SRAM file is transmitted to the subscriber station 140 together with the IP address.

After receiving the network information and the location information of the bootstrap file, the subscriber station 140 obtains the bootstrap file from the DHCP / FFTP server 120 by using the location information of the bootstrap file after setting the provided IP address. In addition, the subscriber station 140 performs a network information setting procedure based on the information for service activation defined in the obtained bootstrap file (step 203).

Next, the subscriber station 140 checks the OS information in the bootstrap file to check whether the OS currently installed in the subscriber station 140 is the latest OS (step 204), and if not, the OS file server not shown. Access to the latest OS (step 205) and perform an upgrade procedure to the latest OS (step 206).

In step 204, if the OS installed in the subscriber terminal 140 is the latest OS, the subscriber terminal 140 registers its network information with the access management server 130 after performing an authentication procedure with the access management server 130. (Step 207).

When the registration for the subscriber terminal 140 is completed, the access management server 130 from the subscriber information DB 110 and the DHCP / TFTP server 120 network information, subscriber information and service information for the subscriber terminal 140 Acquire and use it to provide a variety of information (subscriber information, service information and upgrade information for the software to use the service, etc.) necessary for the service activation to the subscriber terminal 140 dynamically without user intervention.

The subscriber station 140 sets the information provided from the access management server 130 and performs upgrade for the software as shown in FIG.

At this time, if necessary, a policy server that manages a network access system (not shown) for authenticating network access to the subscriber station 140 and a service policy for each subscriber to manage access authentication of the network access system (not shown). (Not shown), the policy to be applied to each subscriber can be inquired and a policy application process suitable for the corresponding service may be added.

After this process, the subscriber station 140 can use the corresponding service by registering with a desired service server (not shown) (step 208).

While receiving the service, the subscriber station 140 should be able to periodically transmit a DHCP request packet to the DHCP / FTFP server 120 to maintain the continuity of the DHCP session to extend the DHCP Lease time (step 209), If the DHCP / TFTP server rejects the extension request due to the change of the subscriber's service policy, it must be restarted from the initial operation upon receiving the delivered DHCP NACK packet (step 210).

This process continues until the user disconnects from the Internet.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a header portion among standards of a bootstrap file required for service activation, and FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a format of a body portion among standards of a bootstrap file.

The bootstrap file is basically composed of a combination of alphabets and numbers only for operational and administrative convenience, and each element division is a "CR" representing an end-of-line for easy parsing of the terminal. You will use "LF" or "CR / LF" characters.

In the header portion shown in FIG. 3, the subscriber terminal 140 can immediately determine whether the OS needs to be upgraded when the bootstrap file is acquired, and file length information for verifying the integrity of the bootstrap file. And, it contains information on the number of attributes that contain information needed to activate various services that will appear in the body part.

In addition, the body portion is composed of a continuous form of various attributes (Attribute), each attribute pair (Attribute Pair) is composed of "Type + Value + End of Line Delimiter". The attribute value can be defined and used according to the nature of the service and the nature of the terminal. Representative information includes an IP address of the access management server 130 and an IP address of a service server (not shown) that provides the service. Becomes

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating in more detail a process of automatically setting up mutual authentication and automatic setting of subscriber information / service information generated during registration between the subscriber station 140 and the access management server 130 in FIG. 2.

The subscriber station 140 must internally manage not only its own MAC information but also a key value of S / N for registration with the access management server 130. MAC exists as a network identifier for the DHCP process, and S / N exists as a private key for authentication processing. For mutual authentication, the present invention uses a hashing method such as md5, where S / N is used as a key for calculating a hash value together with a sequence number and a random number.

The subscriber station 140 generates an ID value for distinguishing a connection request and a random number for authentication (step 501), and then obtains the IP address of the access management server 130 obtained from the DHCP / TFTP server 120. Request a connection to the access management server 130 by using (step 502). In this case, first, ID values are sequentially used to distinguish each request. In addition, a random number is generated for authentication of the access management server 130 itself, a sequence number is assigned thereto, and a challenge is simultaneously attempted.

The access management server 130 obtains network information from the DHCP / TFTP server 120 and terminal information, service information, and subscriber information from the DHCP / TFTP server 120 to obtain network information of the requesting subscriber terminal 140. Obtained from The subscriber information DB 110 having the terminal, service, and subscriber information provides the connection management server 130 with various information including S / N using the MAC of the terminal as the primary key. The access management server 130 calculates a challenge request for the terminal authentication for the access-request and a hash value for the terminal challenge request based on these information, and delivers the result value to the access-request (step 503). , 504).

The subscriber station 140 calculates the hash value for the challenge request of the access management server 130 and delivers it through the Access-Request, and calculates the hash value for the Access-Request given by the access management server 130 in step 504. After comparing the result value, the authentication is completed and the response is responded through the Access-Response (steps 505 and 506).

The access management server 130 then calculates a hash value for the access-request of the terminal, compares the result value, informs the result of the subscriber terminal authentication through the access-response, and various services to be taken by the subscriber terminal 140. Information is informed (steps 507 and 508).

In FIG. 5, as an example of the service information, it is shown that the phone number information (Tel-URI, SIP-URI) of the terminal for the VoIP service is delivered. The subscriber station 140 sets the service information delivered in step 508 to activate the service (step 509), and notifies the access management server 130 of the completion of the setting (step 510).

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a process of automatically upgrading subscriber station 140 by managing various software versions including various application services.

This process may occur after the authentication process at the time of initial connection, or may occur from time to time at the request of the operator. In this embodiment, a case of using a service called godori will be described as an example.

The access management server 130 requests the subscriber terminal 140 through the Get-SW-List of the current installation version information of the software named NAME = godori (step 601). In this case, if the NAME item is not entered, it means that all software information installed in the terminal is requested, and a unique name of the software to be obtained can be specified.

In response, the subscriber station 140 confirms the installation information of the installation software "godori" (step 602), and responds to the information (step 603).

Based on this information, the access management server 130 determines whether the subscriber terminal 140 needs to be upgraded (step 604), and if necessary, sets the subscriber terminal (UR) information of the software image through the Set-SW-Info request. 140 to request the upgrade (605).

The subscriber station 140 performs the software upgrade without subscriber intervention by downloading a file for software upgrade from the file server based on this information (steps 606 and 607), and displays the upgrade result of the access management server 130. (608).

7 shows a table structure for holding terminal information, subscriber information, and service information to be managed in the subscriber information DB 110.

Here, the MAC information exists as the primary key of the record.

As described above, based on the information managed by the subscriber information DB 110, the DHCP / TFTP server 120 determines the IP allocation and bootstrap file by policy according to the type and service type of the terminal subscriber station 140 Inform the user, the access management server 130 obtains the subscriber information, service information and terminal information with reference to the subscriber information DB (110) to use for automatic service activation and terminal upgrade.

As described above, the service automatic activation providing system of the present invention enables subscriber information and service information to be automatically set for subscriber terminals of subscribers who use various services not specified through the Internet, without the manual setup procedure of subscribers. Make the service available.

Claims (8)

A subscriber information DB storing basic information for activating a service; A DHCP / TFTP server providing an IP address and location information of a bootstrap file for activating the service to a subscriber station to use the service; And Perform authentication and registration for the subscriber stations, obtain subscriber information and service information from the subscriber information DB and the DHCP / TFTP server, and provide the registered subscriber terminals with information necessary for activation of the service without user intervention. Service automatic activation providing system having a connection management server. The method of claim 1, A network access system for authenticating network access to the subscriber station; And And a policy server for controlling access authentication of the network access system by managing a service policy for each subscriber. The method of claim 1 or 2, wherein the DHCP / TFTP server When the IP allocation request is received from the subscriber station, the subscriber information DB retrieves the terminal information corresponding to the MAC of the subscriber station and uses the same to determine the location information of the bootstrap file, and the subscriber station together with the IP address. Service automatic activation providing system, characterized in that for transmitting. The method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the connection management server And requesting and receiving the version information of the specific software installed in the subscriber terminal from the subscriber terminal, and providing the subscriber terminal with information for upgrading the software when an upgrade is required. A first step of, upon receiving an IP allocation request from a subscriber station, transmitting location information of an IP address and a bootstrap file to the subscriber station; Providing a bootstrap file corresponding to the location information of the bootstrap file according to a request of the subscriber station; A third step of performing authentication and registration for automatically providing a service according to a registration request of the subscriber station; And And a fourth step of providing the registered subscriber station with information necessary for automatic activation of the service including subscriber information and service information. The method of claim 5, Checking and upgrading the version of the specific software installed in the subscriber terminal for the service using the service automatic activation providing method characterized in that it further comprises. 7. The method of claim 6 wherein the upgrade of the software is Requesting and receiving current installation version information of the software from the subscriber station; Determining whether to upgrade using the version information; And If necessary, the service automatic activation providing method comprising the step of providing information to the subscriber terminal to upgrade the software. 8. The method of any one of claims 5 to 7, wherein the first step is When receiving the IP allocation request from the subscriber station, it searches for the terminal information corresponding to the MAC of the subscriber station and uses it to determine the location information of the bootstrap file and transmits it to the subscriber station with the IP address. To provide automatic activation of services.

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