KR20210088325A - Communication apparatus transmitting nssai and control method thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a communication terminal transmitting network slice selection assistance information (NSSAI) and a control method thereof. The method is to control a communication terminal provided with a card mounting interface for detachable user identification card mounting. The method includes: a step of detecting a network access procedure execution request event; a step of obtaining NSSAI stored in a specific area of a user identification card by communicating with the user identification card through the card mounting interface as the network access procedure execution request event is detected; and a step of generating a network access procedure request signal including the NSSAI obtained from the user identification card and transmitting the signal to a communication network.

Description

A communication terminal for transmitting NSSAI information and a control method therefor {COMMUNICATION APPARATUS TRANSMITTING NSSAI AND CONTROL METHOD THEREOF}

The present invention relates to a communication terminal and a method for controlling the same, and more particularly, to a communication terminal for transmitting NSSAI, which is information necessary for network slicing, and a method for controlling the same.

Network slicing is a form of Virtual Network Architecture that corresponds to Software Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Function Virtualization (NFV) in a fixed network. By creating a logically separated end-to-end network including Device, Access, Transport, and Core through the network of

Each network slice is guaranteed resources (virtualized server resources, virtualized network resources), and since each slice is insulated from each other, even if an error or failure occurs within a specific slice, communication of other slices is not affected.

In particular, in the field of wireless communication, as 5G (Fifth-Generation) communication is introduced, interest related to such a network slice is increasing.

Until 4G (Fourth Generation), the terminal handled by the mobile communication network is a mobile phone, and a network structure optimized only for mobile phones is required. In 5G, services must be provided for various terminals with different properties. In particular, it is a representative use case of the 5G era. Mobile Broadband, Massive IoT, and Mission-critical IoT have different properties and network requirements in terms of Mobility, Charging, Security, Police Control, Latency, and Reliability.

Therefore, with the advent of the 5G era, network slicing technology is receiving more attention. In order to provide a network slicing service, information for providing a network slicing service is required, and this information is provided by a communication terminal.

The information provided by the communication terminal for network slicing is called network slice selection assistance information (NSSAI), and the NSSAI is a plurality of parameters required to select a network slice instance belonging to RAN and CN. ), and is used to select CCNF and NSI along with the capability of the communication terminal, subscription information, and the like.

However, in the prior art, such an NSSAI is stored in the device memory of each communication terminal, so there are various inconveniences.

Terminal users who use communication services have different subscription services, and accordingly, NSSAI also varies from user to user. As such, if the NSSAI is stored in the device memory of the communication terminal itself, the characteristics of each user cannot be reflected. there is a problem

Of course, even if the NSSAI stored in the device memory of the communication terminal is configured to be updated later through the communication network, this is only a post-problem solution, and a problem of causing unnecessary traffic for information update occurs.

Registered Patent No. 10-2050201

The present invention has been devised to solve the above problems of the prior art, and its object is to classify information necessary for using a network slice for each user, that is, a communication subscriber, and to enable immediate use of such information, and a communication terminal thereof To provide a control method.

In order to achieve the above object, a communication terminal having a card mounting interface on which a user identification card is detachably mounted according to the present invention comprises: an event detecting unit for detecting a network access procedure progress request event; NSSAI information for acquiring network slice selection assistance information (NSSAI) stored in a specific area of the user identification card by communicating with the user identification card through the card loading interface as a network access procedure progress request event is detected management department; and a communication unit for generating and transmitting a network access procedure request signal including the NSSAI information obtained from the user identification card to the communication network.

In addition, in order to achieve the above object, according to the present invention, there is provided a control method of a communication terminal having a card loading interface on which a user identification card is detachably mounted, the method comprising the steps of: detecting a network connection procedure progress request event; acquiring network slice selection assistance information (NSSAI) stored in a specific area of the user identification card by communicating with the user identification card through the card loading interface as a network access procedure progress request event is detected; ; and generating and transmitting a network access procedure request signal including the NSSAI information obtained from the user identification card to a communication network.

As described above, according to the present invention, the network access procedure can be performed by using the NSSAI information included in the USIM card, so that the network slice processing for each user can be performed quickly.

That is, by performing the network access procedure by using the information contained in the USIM card in advance when registering with a telecommunication company, it is possible to immediately process and configure a network slice corresponding to the corresponding user without a separate update process, and also, even with the same communication terminal, the USIM card By replacing, different network slice service processing can be made, improving user choice.

1 is a schematic configuration diagram of an entire system including a communication terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention;
Figure 2 is a functional block diagram of the communication terminal of Figure 1,
3 to 5 are an example of the configuration in the USIM card mounted on the communication terminal of Figure 1,
6 is a control flowchart of a communication terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention.

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

Hereinafter, each embodiment according to the present invention is merely an example for helping understanding of the present invention, and the present invention is not limited to these embodiments. In particular, the present invention may be composed of a combination of at least any one of individual components, individual functions, or individual steps included in each embodiment.

In particular, for convenience, some of the claims include an alphabet such as '(a)', but the alphabet does not define the order of each step.

A schematic configuration of the entire system including the communication terminal 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention is shown in FIG. 1 .

In FIG. 1 , the communication system 200 performs various processes according to the request of the communication terminal 100 . For example, when a network access procedure request signal received from the communication terminal 100 is received, the corresponding network access procedure request signal , and performs a function that enables data communication or a call with the other party.

In particular, the communication system 200 may extract network slice selection assistance information from the network access stop request signal of the communication terminal 100 and perform network slice processing using the extracted network slice selection assistance information. Since the technology is only known as mentioned in 'Technology in the Background', a more detailed description is omitted. Hereinafter, the network slice selection assistance information is referred to as Network Slice Selection Assistance Information (NSSAI) information.

In addition, the communication system 200 transmits an NSSAI information update request message to the communication terminal 100 in an over-the-air (OTA) method to update the NSSAI information provided in the communication terminal 100 . Since the signal transmission/reception process itself for updating predetermined information provided in the communication terminal 100 between the communication system 200 and the communication terminal 100 in an OTA method corresponds to a known technology, a more detailed description thereof will be omitted.

Meanwhile, the communication terminal 100 is a user terminal that communicates with the communication system 200 as described above, and may correspond to, for example, a wireless communication terminal 100 such as a smart phone, a feature phone, and a personal digital assistant (PDA). can

In particular, the communication terminal 100 may have a card mounting interface to which a user identification card is removably mounted, wherein the user identification card includes user identification information, such as, for example, a Universal Subscriber Identify Module (USIM) card. it means.

Specifically, the USIM card 300 or UICC (Universal Integrated Circuit Card) and the like include a subscriber identification module (USIM) corresponding to an application for communication network access and subscriber authentication such as WCDMA, wherein the USIM application is a subscriber It stores important information such as information, network information, authentication information, and personal value-added service information such as text messages, e-mails, and phone books, and shares a secret key (K) with the authentication center (AuC: Authentication Center) for communication subscriber authentication Thus, it performs functions such as reading subscriber information (reading subscriber information (IMSI, ICCID) from the USIM card 300 and transmitting it to the network (HLR/AuC)), generating an authentication vector, network authentication, and authentication of the USIM card 300 .

That is, the user identification card allows each communication subscriber who has purchased a terminal of the same model to be distinguished, and the communication subscriber mounts his or her user identification card (USIM card 300) in another communication terminal 100, It is possible to receive the same communication service.

Such a user identification card may be issued, for example, by visiting a telecommunication company agency to open a communication network. At this time, the telecommunication company agency staff may store information corresponding to the communication service subscribed by the customer in the user identification card.

In particular, an employee of a telecommunication company agency may include network slice selection assistance information corresponding to each customer in an area of the user identification card.

An example of a specific functional block of the communication terminal 100 is shown in FIG. 2 .

As shown in the figure, the communication terminal 100 is configured to include an event detection unit 110 , an NSSAI information management unit 120 , a communication unit 130 , a card loading interface unit 140 , and a storage unit 150 . can

The storage unit 150 includes various information, data, and applications necessary for the operation of the communication terminal 100 , and further stores or updates information newly generated or received from the outside during the operation of the communication terminal 100 . can do.

The storage unit 150 may be configured as a non-volatile memory in which stored information is preserved even when power is cut off, for example.

In particular, the storage 150 may store a default value (hereinafter referred to as 'basic NSSAI information') of network slice selection assistance information (NSSAI: Network Slice Selection Assistance Information) required for network slice processing. , a more detailed description thereof will be omitted.

The card mounting interface unit 140 has a structure to allow the above-described user identification card to be detachably mounted and to communicate with the mounted user identification card, as well as the form of the user identification card (USIM card 300). and the structure and function of the card mounting interface unit 140 on which the user identification card is mounted corresponds to a known technology, and thus a more detailed description thereof will be omitted.

The event detection unit 110 performs a function of detecting a network access procedure progress request event, for example, when the communication terminal 100 is switched from an off state to an on state, or when a user uses the mobile communication module If you deactivate and then re-enable it, you can detect that a network access procedure request event has occurred.

The NSSAI information management unit 120 communicates with the user identification card through the card loading interface unit 140 as a network access procedure progress request event is detected, and the network slice selection auxiliary information stored in a specific area of the user identification card, that is, NSSAI information. function to acquire.

That is, the NSSAI information management unit 120 first communicates with the user identification card through the card loading interface unit 140 when the event detection unit 110 detects a network access procedure progress request event, and the user identification card is specified in detail. As described above, it is possible to request and receive NSSAI information stored by an agent of a telecommunication company, etc.

In particular, as described above, the so-called 'basic NSSAI information' may be stored in the storage unit 150, and the NSSAI information management unit 120 may store the NSSAI information of the user identification card when the NSSAI information of the user identification card is unavailable. ) may extract basic NSSAI information stored in 150 .

That is, the 'basic NSSAI information' may not be a removable user identification card, but may be stored in the storage unit 150, which is a kind of hardware configuration of the communication terminal 100. In this case, the NSSAI information management unit 120 proceeds with the network access procedure. When a request event occurs, the acquisition of NSSAI information included in the user identification card is first performed, and when valid NSSAI information is not obtained through the user identification card, 'basic NSSAI information' stored in the storage unit 150 is extracted secondarily. it can be

For example, the NSSAI information management unit 120 may first refer to the user service table provided in the user identification card to determine whether the NSSAI information of the corresponding user identification card is available, and use the NSSAI information of the user identification card according to the determination. If this is possible, the transmission of the NSSAI information may be received by requesting the user identification card.

Of course, 'basic NSSAI information' may also be stored as a default value in the user identification card, and in this case, the NSSAI information management unit 120 may receive 'basic NSSAI information' from the user identification card.

In addition, when an NSSAI information update request message is received from the communication system 200, the NSSAI information management unit 120 transmits the NSSAI information included in the corresponding NSSAI information update request message to the user identification card to be updated.

The communication unit 130 generates a network access procedure request signal including the NSSAI information obtained from the user identification card and transmits it to the communication network.

Of course, as described above, when the NSSAI information management unit 120 extracts the basic NSSAI information from the storage unit (ie, the device memory) 150, the communication unit 130 receives the network access procedure request signal including the basic NSSAI information. It can be created and transmitted to the communication network.

Hereinafter, the structure of the user identification card, that is, the USIM card 300, which enables the operation as described above with reference to FIGS. 3 to 5 will be described.

3 is a file system structure diagram of the USIM card 300 .

가 기존의 USIM 카드(300) 파일 시스템 내에 추가되었음을 알 수 있다.Referring to FIG. 3 , for storage of NSSAI information in the USIM card 300 as described above.

It can be seen that has been added to the existing USIM card 300 file system.

For reference, as shown in FIG. 3, the USIM file has a tree structure, and in FIG. 3 MF (Master File) means the highest node in the File Tree.

In addition, ADF (Application DF) corresponds to the top node of EFs used in a specific application within USIM. For example, to read and write EF of 'A' Application, be sure to select 'A' Application and select the lower EF (SELECT) should be done.

A DF (Dedicated File) is a file including file control information (FCI) and memory allocation (option), and may be a parent file of an element file (EF) or another dedicated file (DF).

Each EF (Elementary File) refers to an element file and corresponds to a set of data units or records having the same file identifier.

The USIM card 300 may update each EF under the control of the communication terminal 100 .

MF, ADF, DF, and EF themselves corresponding to the data structures in the USIM card 300 correspond to known technologies, and thus a more detailed description thereof will be omitted.

가 추가되었다는 점이 중요한 특징이라 할 수 있다.However, in this embodiment, on the tree structure as shown in FIG.

It can be said that it is an important feature that has been added.

파일 구조의 일 예가 도시되었다.4 shows these

An example of a file structure is shown.

파일은 최대 8 개의 NSSAI 정보(각각 S-NSSAI 정보)를 저장할 수 있다.As shown in Figure 4

The file can store up to 8 pieces of NSSAI information (each S-NSSAI information).

At this time, each S-NSSAI information may be composed of SST and SD, and it is configured to determine whether the SD value of the S-NSSAI value exists according to the Length value of the S-NSSAI information.

Meanwhile, FIG. 5 shows an example of the above-described user service table, and may be referred to as a so-called USIM service table (UST: USIM SERVICE TABLE).

은 ETSI(European Telecommunications Standards Institute) TS 31.101에서 정의된 것으로서, 도 5에 도시된 바와 같이 마지막 25바이트 영역에 NSSAI 지원 여부에 대한 정보가 포함되도록 구성할 수 있다.These USIM service table files i.e.

As defined in European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) TS 31.101, as shown in FIG. 5 , information on whether NSSAI is supported may be included in the last 25-byte area.

의 25번째 바이트 중 특정 비트가 1 또는 0인지를 판독하여 해당 USIM 카드(300)를 통해 NSSAI 정보 획득 가능 여부를 판단할 수 있다.At this time, the communication terminal 100

It is possible to determine whether NSSAI information can be obtained through the corresponding USIM card 300 by reading whether a specific bit among the 25th byte of the byte is 1 or 0.

Hereinafter, an overall control flow of the communication terminal 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. 6 .

When the power is switched from the off state to the on state (step S1), the communication terminal 100 checks whether NSSAI is supported in the USIM card 300 (step S3).

To this end, the communication terminal 100 may use a user service table (eg, a USIM service table) file included in the USIM card 300 . Of course, if the user service table is configured to be stored in a separate space instead of in the USIM card 300, the communication terminal 100 may read the user service table file from the corresponding storage space and perform the above-described determination.

As a result of the determination, if NSSAI support in the USIM card 300 is confirmed, the communication terminal 100 requests NSSAI information from the USIM card 300 (step S5).

, READ Binary 의 순서로 USIM 카드(300)로부터 필요한 정보를 획득할 수 있는데, USIM 카드(300)와 통신하는 방식 그 자체는 공지된 기술에 해당하므로 보다 상세한 설명은 생략한다.Taking the structure of FIG. 3 as an example, the communication terminal 100 selects MF, SELECT

, READ Binary, it is possible to obtain the necessary information from the USIM card 300 in the order, since the communication method itself with the USIM card 300 corresponds to a known technology, a more detailed description will be omitted.

Subsequently, the communication terminal 100 may determine whether the NSSAI information obtained from the USIM card 300 is valid (step S7), for example, information on whether the NSSAI information is valid in a specific bit of the NSSAI information is included. In this case, the communication terminal 100 may analyze the specific bit to determine whether the NSSAI information is valid.

When it is determined that the NSSAI information is valid, the communication terminal 100 extracts the NSSAI information (step S9), generates a network access procedure request signal including the extracted NSSAI information, and transmits it to the communication system 200 (step S11) .

As another example, if the NSSAI information is not supported in the USIM card 300, or the NSSAI information is not valid, the communication terminal 100 obtains basic NSSAI information from the storage unit 150 (step S13), A network access procedure request signal including the obtained basic NSSAI information may be generated and transmitted to the communication system 200 (step S15).

Meanwhile, it goes without saying that the process of performing each of the above-described embodiments may be performed by a program or application stored in a predetermined recording medium (eg, computer-readable). Here, the recording medium includes an electronic recording medium such as a random access memory (RAM), a magnetic recording medium such as a hard disk, and an optical recording medium such as a compact disk (CD).

In this case, the program stored in the recording medium may be executed on hardware such as a computer or a smart phone to perform each of the above-described embodiments. In particular, at least one of the functional blocks of the communication terminal according to the present invention described above may be implemented by such a program or application.

In addition, the present invention is not limited to the specific embodiments described above, but can be practiced with various modifications and modifications within the scope without departing from the gist of the present invention. It will be apparent that such modifications and variations are included in the present invention provided they fall within the scope of the appended claims.

100: communication terminal 200: communication system
300: USIM card 110: event detection unit
120: NSSAI information management unit 130: communication unit
140: card mounting interface unit 150: storage unit

Claims (10)

A method for controlling a communication terminal having a card mounting interface to which a user identification card is detachably mounted, the method comprising:
(a) detecting a network access procedure progress request event;
(b) Acquire Network Slice Selection Assistance Information (NSSAI) stored in a specific area of the user identification card by communicating with the user identification card through the card loading interface as a network access procedure progress request event is detected step of;
(c) generating a network access procedure request signal including the NSSAI information obtained from the user identification card and transmitting it to a communication network. According to claim 1,
When the NSSAI information update request message is received from the communication network in an over-the-air (OTA) manner, transmitting the NSSAI information included in the corresponding NSSAI information update request message to the user identification card to process update control A control method of a communication terminal, characterized in that. According to claim 1,
In the step (b), when the NSSAI information of the user identification card is not available, the basic NSSAI information stored in the device memory is extracted,
In step (c), a network access procedure request signal including basic NSSAI information extracted from the device memory is generated and transmitted to a communication network. 4. The method of claim 3,
In step (b), referring to the user service table provided in the user identification card, the control method of the communication terminal, characterized in that it is determined whether the NSSAI information of the user identification card is available. A computer-readable recording medium in which a program for executing the method of any one of claims 1 to 4 is recorded. An application program stored in a computer-readable recording medium in combination with hardware to execute the method of any one of claims 1 to 4. A communication terminal having a card loading interface to which a user identification card is detachably mounted, the communication terminal comprising:
an event detection unit for detecting a network access procedure progress request event;
NSSAI information for acquiring network slice selection assistance information (NSSAI) stored in a specific area of the user identification card by communicating with the user identification card through the card loading interface as a network access procedure progress request event is detected management department;
and a communication unit for generating and transmitting a network access procedure request signal including the NSSAI information obtained from the user identification card to a communication network. 8. The method of claim 7,
When the communication unit receives the NSSAI information update request message from the communication network in an over-the-air (OTA) manner, the NSSAI information management unit transmits the NSSAI information included in the corresponding NSSAI information update request message to the user identification card to control the update A communication terminal, characterized in that processing. 8. The method of claim 7,
The NSSAI information management unit extracts the basic NSSAI information stored in the device memory when the NSSAI information of the user identification card is not available,
The communication unit generates a network access procedure request signal including the basic NSSAI information extracted from the device memory by the NSSAI information management unit and transmits it to the communication network. 10. The method of claim 9,
The NSSAI information management unit refers to a user service table provided in the user identification card, the communication terminal characterized in that it determines whether the NSSAI information of the corresponding user identification card is available.

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