TWI816135B - Methods and mobile communication devices for accessing a non-public network (npn) - Google Patents

Abstract

A mobile communication device, comprising: a Radio Frequency (RF) device, configured to perform wireless transmission and reception to and from a 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Public Network (PN); and a baseband processor, configured to use a first subscriber identity to establish one or more radio bearers with the 3GPP PN via the RF device, establish a secure tunnel with a non-3GPP interworking gateway of a 3GPP Non-Public Network (NPN) over the radio bearers, and use a second subscriber identity to access the 3GPP NPN over the secure tunnel.

Description

Mobile communication equipment and methods for accessing NPN

The present invention relates to wireless communications, and in particular, to a device and method for operating and accessing a Non-Public Network (NPN) using a dual Subscriber Identity Module (SIM).

In a typical mobile communication environment, mobile communication devices with wireless communication capabilities, such as mobile phones (also called cellular phones) or tablet computers, can communicate voice and/or data signals with one or more service networks. Wireless communication between the UE and the service network can be performed using various Radio Access Technology (RAT), such as Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) technology, General Packet Radio Service (General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) technology, Enhanced Data Rates for Global Evolution (EDGE) technology, Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) technology, Code Division Multiple Access (Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) 2000 technology, Time Division-Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access (TD-SCDMA) technology, Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) technology, long-term Evolution (Long Term Evolution, LTE) technology, time-division LTE (Time-Division LTE, TD-LTE) technology and advanced LTE (LTE-Advanced, LTE-A) technology, etc. In particular, GSM/GPRS/EDGE technology can also be called the second generation ( ^2nd Generation, 2G) mobile communication technology, and WCDMA/CDMA-2000/TD-SCDMA technology can also be called the third generation ( ^3rd Generation, 3G ) mobile communication technology, LTE/LTE-A/TD-LTE technology can also be called the fourth generation ( ^4th Generation, 4G) mobile communication technology.

The above-mentioned RAT technology has been adopted in various telecommunications standards to provide a common protocol, enabling different wireless devices to communicate at the municipal level, national level, regional level and even global level. An example of an emerging telecommunications standard is ^5th Generation (5G) New Radio (NR). 5G NR is a series of enhancements to the LTE mobile standard released by the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP). 5G NR is designed to better support mobile broadband Internet access by increasing spectral efficiency, reducing costs and improving services.

Release 16 of the 3GPP 5G NR specification includes support for NPN. Unlike a Public Network (PN) that provides mobile services to the public, NPN usually refers to a network that is for private use and is not accessible to public users. NPN can be deployed as an independent NPN (Stand-alone NPN, SNPN) or an NPN integrated with the public network (Public Network Integrated NPN, PNI-NPN). For example, SNPN can be operated by an NPN operator and does not rely on the network functions provided by the Public Land Mobile Network (PLMN). For example, PNI-NPN can be a non-public network deployed with the support of PLMN.

The present invention proposes to use the dual SIM operation to access the NPN when the mobile communication device equipped with dual SIM is located outside the coverage range of the NPN.

A mobile communications device, including a radio frequency device, is configured to wirelessly transmit to and wirelessly receive from a 3rd Generation Partnership Project public network. The mobile communication device further includes a baseband processor configured to: use the first subscriber identity to establish one or more radio bearers with the third generation partner project public network via the radio frequency device; through the radio Establishing a secure tunnel with a non-3rd Generation Partner Program interoperability gateway over a 3rd Generation Partner Program non-public network; and accessing the 3rd Generation Partner through the secure tunnel using a secondary subscriber identity Plan for a non-public network.

A method, performed by a mobile communication device equipped with a radio frequency device, the method includes: using a first subscriber identity to establish one or more radio bearers with a third generation partner project public network via the radio frequency device; The radio bearer establishes a secure tunnel with a non-3G Partner Program interoperable gateway on a 3G Partner Program non-public network; and uses a second subscriber identity to access the 3G through the secure tunnel. Partner program non-public network.

Other aspects and features of the present invention may become more apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art by reading the following description of specific embodiments of methods and mobile communication devices for accessing NPN using dual SIM operation.

The following description is intended to illustrate the general principles of the invention and should not be regarded as limiting. It is understood that these embodiments may be implemented in software, hardware, firmware, or a combination thereof. When the words "comprises", "includes", "contains" and/or "having" are used in this disclosure, it is stated that the stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements and/or components are present but does not exclude the presence or Attach one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components and/or combinations thereof.

Figure 1 is a block diagram of a wireless communication environment according to an embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in Figure 1, the wireless communication environment 100 may include a mobile communication device 110, a 3GPP PN 120, a 3GPP NPN 130, a non-3GPP interworking gateway 140, and a data network 150 (such as the Internet).

The mobile communication device 110 may be called a user equipment (User Equipment, UE) or a mobile station (Mobile Station, MS), such as a feature phone, a smart phone, a panel personal computer (Personal Computer, PC), or a notebook computer. Or any computing device that supports the RAT adopted by 3GPP PN 120 and 3GPP NPN 130.

The mobile communication device 110 may use two separate subscriber identities (also referred to as subscriber numbers) for wireless communication with the 3GPP PN 120 and/or the 3GPP NPN 130. According to the RAT adopted by 3GPP PN 120 and 3GPP NPN 130, the subscriber identity may be provided by one or two subscriber identity cards (not shown), such as a SIM card or a Universal SIM (Universal SIM, USIM) card. Alternatively, one or both of the subscriber identities may be provided by a programmable SIM/USIM (eg, embedded SIM (eSIM)/embedded Universal SIM (embedded USIM, eUSIM)), where the programmable SIM/ The USIM can be directly embedded in the mobile communication device 110 .

The 3GPP PN 120 may include an access network 121 and a core network 122, and the 3GPP NPN 130 may include an access network 131 and a core network 132. The access network 121 and the access network 131 are responsible for processing radio signals, terminating radio protocols, and connecting the mobile communication device 110 to the core networks 122 and 132 respectively. Core networks 122 and 132 may be responsible for performing mobility management, network-side authentication, and interfacing with public/external networks (such as data network 150).

In one embodiment, 3GPP PN 120 and 3GPP NPN 130 may use the same RAT. For example, 3GPP PN 120 may be a public 5G NR network, and 3GPP NPN 130 may be a private 5G network. Correspondingly, each access network 121 and 131 may be a Next Generation Radio Access Network (NG-RAN), and each core network 122 and 132 may be a Next Generation Core Network (Next Generation RAN). Generation Core Network, NG-CN). NG-RAN may include one or multiple Next Generation NodeB (Next Generation NodeB, gNB). And each gNB can also contain one or multiple transmission reception points (Transmission Reception Point, TRP), where each gNB or TRP can be called a 5G cell station. Some gNB functions can be dispersed across different TRPs, while other functions can be centralized, leaving the flexibility and scope for specific deployments to meet the needs of specific situations. NG-CN can support various network functions, including Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF), Session Management Function (SMF), Policy Control Function (PCF), Application Function (AF), Authentication Server Function (AUSF) and User Plane Function (UPF), each network function can be implemented as a network component on dedicated hardware, or Implemented as a software instance running on dedicated hardware, or as a virtualized function that generates entities on an appropriate platform (such as cloud infrastructure).

In another embodiment, 3GPP PN 120 and 3GPP NPN 130 may employ different RATs. For example, 3GPP PN 120 may be a public 4G network, and 3GPP NPN 130 may be a private 5G network. Correspondingly, the access network 121 may be an Evolved-Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN), and the core network 122 may be an Evolved Packet Core (EPC). . E-UTRAN may include at least one evolved NodeB (eNB) (such as macro eNB (macro eNB), femto eNB (femto eNB) or pico eNB (pico eNB)). EPC can include Home Subscriber Server (HSS), Mobility Management Entity (MME), Serving Gateway (S-GW) and Packet Data Network Gateway, PDN-GW or P-GW).

Non-3GPP Interoperability Gateway 140 may be deployed by an operator of 3GPP NPN 130 to provide access over non-3GPP radios (such as Wireless-Fidelity (WiFi) access) and/or access over 3GPP radios. (such as the radio bearer of 3GPP PN 120) external access to 3GPP NPN 130 to provide secure communication.

In an embodiment, if the 3GPP network 130 is a private 5G network, the non-3GPP inter-working gateway 140 may be a Non-3GPP Inter-Working Function (N3IWF).

Note that 3GPP PN 120 can be deployed to cover a larger area (eg, a country), while 3GPP NPN 130 can be deployed to cover a smaller area (eg, one or more locations in an enterprise). Generally, a UE can access a 3GPP NPN only when the UE is within the coverage of the 3GPP NPN. In a novel aspect of the invention, the mobile communication device 110 may be equipped with dual SIMs (eg, one SIM associated with the 3GPP PN 120 and the other SIM associated with the 3GPP NPN 130), and when the mobile communication device is located in the 3GPP NPN 130 When outside the coverage area, the mobile device is allowed to access 3GPP NPN 130 by utilizing dual SIM operation.

It should be understood that the wireless communication environment 100 described in the embodiment of FIG. 1 is for illustrative purposes only and is not intended to limit the scope of the present invention. For example, the 3GPP PN 120 may be a public 2G/3G/ ^6th Generation (6G) mobile communication network, and when a private 6G network is deployed with a non-3GPP interactive gateway, the 3GPP NPN 130 may be a private 6G network.

Figure 2 is a block diagram of an exemplary mobile communication device 110 according to an embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 2 , the mobile communication device 110 may include a wireless transceiver 10 , a controller 20 , a storage device 30 , a display device 40 and an input/output (Input/Output, I/O) device 50 .

The wireless transceiver 10 is configured to wirelessly transmit to and from the 3GPP PN 120 and/or 3GPP NPN 130 using two subscriber identity cards (denoted C1 and C2 in Figure 2). Wireless reception. In particular, the wireless transceiver 10 may include a baseband processing device 11, a radio frequency (Radio Frequency, RF) device 12 and an antenna 13, where the antenna 13 may include an antenna array for beam forming.

The baseband processing device 11 is configured to perform baseband signal processing and control communications between the subscriber identity cards C1, C2 and the RF device 12. The baseband processing device 11 may include a plurality of hardware components to perform baseband signal processing, including analog-to-Digital Conversion (ADC)/Digital-to-Analog Conversion (DAC), and gain adjustment. (gain adjusting), modulation/demodulation, encoding/decoding, etc. The RF device 12 may receive an RF wireless signal via the antenna 13, convert the received RF wireless signal into a base frequency signal, where the base frequency signal is processed by the base frequency processing device 11, or receive the base frequency signal from the base frequency processing device 11, and The received fundamental frequency signal is converted into an RF wireless signal, and the RF wireless signal is then transmitted via the antenna 13 . RF device 12 may also include a plurality of hardware devices to perform radio frequency conversion. For example, the RF device 12 may include a mixer to multiply the baseband signal with a carrier wave that oscillates in the radio frequency of the supported cellular technology, depending on the RAT used. The frequency can be any radio frequency used in 5G NR technology (such as 30 GHz to 300 GHz for millimeter wave (mmWave), or 3.3 GHz to 4.9 GHz for sub-6), or it can be used in 4G (such as , 900 MHz, 2100 MHz or 2.6 GHz used in LTE/LTE-A/TD-LTE) technology, or it can be 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz used in WiFi systems, or another radio frequency.

In an embodiment, a dual-card controller (not shown) may be included in the baseband processing device 11 , or may be coupled between the baseband processing device 11 and C1 and C2 to pass power management. The chip (Power Management Integrated Chip, PMIC) and battery provide the same or different voltage levels to C1 and C2 according to their requirements, where the voltage level of each subscriber identity card C1 and C2 can be determined during the initialization process. The baseband processing device 11 can read data from one of C1 and C2 and write data to one of C1 and C2 via the dual card controller. In addition, the dual-card controller can selectively transmit clock, reset and/or data signals to C1 and C2 according to instructions issued by the baseband processing device 11 .

In one embodiment, the baseband processing device 11 may include two interfaces (not shown) that may independently handle connections to C1 and C2. It can be understood that the hardware architecture shown in Figure 2 can be modified to include more than two subscriber identity cards or only one subscriber identity card, and the present invention is not limited thereto.

The controller 20 may be a general processor, a microcontroller (Micro Control Unit, MCU), an application processor, a digital signal processor (Digital Signal Processor, DSP), a graphics processor (Graphics Processing Unit, GPU), or a holographic processor. (Holographic Processing Unit, HPU) or neural processor (Neural Processing Unit, NPU), etc., the controller 20 may include various circuits to provide the following functions: data processing and calculation, control of the wireless transceiver 10 to coordinate and associate with two subscriber identities Transmit and receive operations, enable the storage device 30 to store and retrieve data, send a series of frame data (such as text messages, graphics, images, etc.) to the display device 40, and Signals are received or output via the I/O device 50 .

In particular, the controller 20 coordinates the operations of the wireless transceiver 10, the storage device 30, the display device 40 and the I/O device 50 to perform the method of accessing the NPN using dual SIM operation.

In another embodiment, the controller 20 may incorporate the baseband processing device 11 to serve as a baseband processor.

It will be appreciated that the circuitry of the controller 20 may typically include a transistor configured to control the operation of the circuitry in accordance with the functions and operations described herein. As further understood, the specific structure or interconnection of a transistor can typically be determined by a compiler, such as a Register Transfer Language (RTL) compiler. An RTL compiler can be operated by a processor on a script that is very similar to assembly language code to compile the script into a form that can be used for layout or fabrication of the final circuit. In fact, RTL is widely known for its role in facilitating the design process of electronic and digital systems.

Storage device 30 may be a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium, where the storage medium includes memory (such as flash memory or Non-Volatile Random Access Memory (NVRAM)) , or a magnetic storage device (such as a hard disk or tape), or an optical disk, or any combination thereof for storing data, including computer readable instructions and/or application code, 3GPP communication protocols and/or operating storage using dual SIM The method of taking NPN (or, the method of the present invention can be implemented as part of the 3GPP communication protocol).

The display device 40 may be a liquid crystal display (LCD), a light-emitting diode (LED) display, an organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display, or an electronic paper display (Electronic Paper Display) , EPD), etc. to provide display functions. Alternatively, the display device 40 may also include one or a plurality of touch sensors disposed above or below the display device 40 to sense touches, contacts, or near.

The I/O device 50 may include one or a plurality of buttons, keyboard, mouse, trackpad, camera, microphone and/or speaker, etc., as a Man-Machine Interface (MMI) for interacting with the user. ), such as receiving user input and outputting prompts to the user.

It will be appreciated that the components described in the embodiment of Figure 2 are for illustrative purposes only and are not intended to limit the scope of the invention. For example, the mobile communication device 110 may include more components, such as a power supply and/or a Global Positioning System (GPS) device, where the power supply may be a mobile/replaceable device that powers all other components of the mobile communication device 110 With the battery, the GPS device can provide the location information of the mobile communication device 110 for use by some location-based services or applications. Alternatively, the mobile communications device 110 may include fewer components. For example, the mobile communication device 110 may not include the display device 40 and/or the I/O device 50 .

Figure 3 is a flow chart of a method of accessing NPN using dual SIM operation according to an embodiment of the present invention.

In this embodiment, the method is applicable to a mobile communication device (such as the mobile communication device 110) capable of wireless communication with a 3GPP PN (such as 3GPP PN 120) and a 3GPP NPN (such as 3GPP NPN 130) using two separate subscriber identities. ), where the above two subscriber identities can be provided by one SIM card associated with 3GPP PN (which may be called PN SIM) and one SIM card associated with 3GPP NPN (which may be called NPN SIM).

First, the mobile communication device may determine whether the NPN SIM is activated (step S310). In particular, each PN SIM and NPN SIM can be activated or deactivated through user configuration.

After step S310, if the NPN SIM is not started, the method may end. Otherwise, if the NPN SIM is activated, the mobile communication device may detect whether it is outside the coverage of the 3GPP NPN (step S320).

After step S320, if the mobile communication device is located within the coverage of 3GPP NPN, the method may end. Otherwise, if the mobile communication device is outside the coverage of the 3GPP NPN, the mobile communication device may determine whether the PN SIM is activated (step S330).

After step S330, if the PN SIM is not activated, the method may end. Otherwise, if the PN SIM is activated, the mobile communication device can use the PN SIM to establish one or more radio bearers with the 3GPP PN (step S340).

After step S340, the mobile communication device may establish a secure tunnel with the non-3GPP interworking gateway of the 3GPP NPN through the radio bearer established using the PN SIM (step S350).

After step S350, the mobile communication device may use the NPN SIM to access the 3GPP NPN through the secure tunnel, where the secure tunnel is established using the PN SIM (step S360), and the method may end.

Figure 4 illustrates a message flow for dual SIM operation for accessing NPN according to an embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in Figure 4, the 3GPP PN can be exemplified as a public 4G/5G network, the 3GPP NPN can be exemplified as a private 5G network, and the non-3GPP interactive gateway can be exemplified as N3IWF.

In step S410, the mobile communication device may use the first subscriber identity (for example, provided by a SIM/USIM card associated with the public 4G/5G network) to establish one or more radio bearers with the public 4G/5G network. .

In step S420, the mobile communication device may establish a secure tunnel (such as an Internet Protocol Security (IPsec) tunnel) with the N3IWF of the private 5G network through the radio bearer, where the radio bearer uses the first subscriber identity. Establish.

In step S430, the mobile communication device may use the second subscriber identity (for example, provided by the SIM/USIM card associated with the private 5G network) to access the private 5G network through the above-mentioned secure tunnel, wherein the above-mentioned secure tunnel uses the third A subscriber identity is established.

It can be understood from reading the above embodiments that when the mobile communication device is outside the coverage of the NPN, by allowing the mobile communication device to access the NPN using dual SIM operation, the present invention can realize remote access to the NPN. Advantageously, PN SIM can be used to expand the access range of NPN SIM. Since only one device is needed to provide public network services and remote access services with NPN, user convenience can be improved.

Although the invention has been described in terms of preferred embodiments in an exemplary manner, it will be understood that the invention is not limited thereto. Various changes and modifications can still be made by those of ordinary skill in the art without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention. Accordingly, the scope of the invention should be defined and protected by the appended claims and their equivalents.

The ordinal words used in requests to modify request elements (such as "first", "second", etc.) do not in themselves imply that one request element is relative to another request element or to the execution method. any precedence, preference, or ordering of the chronological order of actions, but is used merely as a label to distinguish one request element with a specific name from another element with the same name (except for the use of an ordinal number). .

100:Wireless communication environment 110:Mobile communication equipment 120:3GPPPN 121, 122, 131, 132, 150:Internet 130:3GPP NPN 140:Gateway 10:Wireless transceiver 11, 12, 30, 40, 50: Equipment 13:Antenna 20:Controller S310~S360, S410~S430: steps

The present invention may be more fully understood by reading the following detailed description and examples with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1 is a block diagram of a wireless communication environment according to an embodiment of the present invention. Figure 2 is a block diagram of an exemplary mobile communication device 110 according to an embodiment of the present invention. Figure 3 is a flow chart of a method of accessing NPN using dual SIM operation according to an embodiment of the present invention. Figure 4 is a message flow for dual SIM operation for accessing NPN according to an embodiment of the present invention.

S310~S360: steps

Claims (8)

A mobile communication device for accessing a non-public network, including: a radio frequency device configured to wirelessly transmit to and from a 3rd Generation Partnership Project public network. The network performs wireless reception; and a baseband processor configured to: use a first subscriber identity to establish one or more radio bearers via the radio frequency device and the third generation partner project public network; using The first subscriber identity establishes a secure tunnel through the radio bearer with a non-3G Partnership Project interoperability gateway of a 3G Partnership Project non-public network; and using a second subscriber identity Access the third generation partner project non-public network through the secure tunnel, wherein the baseband processor is further configured to: detect whether the mobile communication device is located in the third generation via the radio frequency device. outside the coverage of the non-public network of the Third Generation Partnership Project; and in response to detecting that the mobile communication device is outside the coverage of the non-public network of the Third Generation Partnership Project, using the third generation A subscriber identity interacts with the non-3rd generation partner program gateway to establish the secure tunnel. The mobile communication device according to claim 1, wherein the baseband processor is further configured to: determine whether a second subscriber identity module associated with the second subscriber identity is activated; and if the third subscriber identity module is enabled; When the second subscriber identity module is activated, it is detected whether the mobile communication device is outside the coverage of the third generation partner project non-public network. The mobile communication device according to claim 2, wherein the baseband processor is further configured to: If the mobile communication device is located outside the coverage of the 3rd Generation Partnership Project non-public network, determining whether a first subscriber identity module associated with the first subscriber identity is activated; and if When the first subscriber identity module is activated, the first subscriber identity is used to establish the radio bearer with the third generation partner project public network. The mobile communication device of claim 1, wherein the coverage area of the 3rd Generation Partnership Project non-public network is smaller than the 3rd Generation Partnership Project public network. The mobile communication device of claim 1, wherein a fifth generation radio access technology is used in response to the third generation partnership project non-public network and the third generation partnership project public network Using the fifth generation radio access technology or a fourth generation radio access technology, the non-3rd generation partnership program interaction gateway is a non-3rd generation partnership program interaction function. The mobile communication device of claim 1, wherein each of the first subscriber identity and the second subscriber identity is provided by a universal subscriber identity module card or an embedded subscriber identity module. . A method for accessing a non-public network, performed by a mobile communication device equipped with a radio frequency device, the method comprising: using a first subscriber identity to communicate with a third generation partner project public network via the radio frequency device establishing one or more radio bearers; using the first subscriber identity to establish a non-3G Partnership Project interactive gateway with a 3G Partnership Project non-public network through the radio bearer a secure tunnel; and using a second subscriber identity to access the third generation partner project non-public network through the secure tunnel, wherein the baseband processor is further configured to: detect via the radio frequency device Whether the mobile communication device is located in the third-generation partner computer outside the coverage of the non-public network; and in response to detecting that the mobile communication device is outside the coverage of the non-public network of the third generation partnership project, using the first subscriber identity and the The non-3rd Generation Partner Program interactive gateway establishes the secure tunnel. The method for accessing a non-public network as described in claim 7, wherein the 3rd Generation Partnership Project non-public network has a coverage area larger than the 3rd Generation Partnership Project public network Small.

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