Telecommunications – Radiotelephone system – Security or fraud prevention
Reexamination Certificate
1999-10-05
2001-05-15
Maung, Nay (Department: 2681)
Telecommunications
Radiotelephone system
Security or fraud prevention
C455S411000, C455S422100, C455S461000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06233446
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an arrangement for improving security in a communications system, especially a telecommunications system, said system comprising distributed hardware and software components which interact in order to provide services to one or more users.
More specifically the present invention concerns a user access control for distributed systems that support user mobility, i.e. users are allowed to move and use different terminals to access services.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The Access control is the procedure used by the telecom system domain to ensure that the user accesses the telecom system domain in accordance with the restrictions specified at subscription [
1
]. When mobility is supported, every user will have the possibility to use any terminals at any access points. The access control procedure is also intended to limit the access capability of a user for the protection and privacy of third party. The third party can be the owner of the terminal or the access point, and must have the right to block or deblock, suspend or reset the service delivery at his terminal or access point to a user.
When the user is allowed to move and access to the telecommunication services anywhere and at any time, the risk of threats increases dramatically at the same time as the mechanisms necessary to enforce security become more difficult to realise. In systems supporting general mobility, fraudulent use of anyone's subscription can be attempted from any terminal and at any network access point. In this way the user may be exposed to various forms of fraud as, for example, fraudulent use of the user's resources by unauthorised parties who manage to take up the identity of the user, eavesdropping, unauthorised tapping or modification of information exchanged during communication, and disclosure of the user's physical location [
4
]. Another security problem arises because the user is allowed to use any terminal and at any network access point. Such a temporary usage may conflict with the use of the terminal by the terminal owners, also referred to as third parties [
6
]. In principle, third parties should not suffer in terms of loss of privacy or freedom of actions as a result of activities by the mobile user.
STATE OF THE ART
With mobility, users may make use of any existing and available terminals and network access points. However, this does not mean that the terminal owner (the third party) has to accept such actions on his terminal. He must have the rights to restrict the usage of the terminal, e.g. only allowing certain users while others are prohibited from using the terminal.
This may be done in many ways, e.g. by keeping the terminal in a secured place, use local password, etc., but such measures are cumbersome for the owner and often not secure enough. This is commonly referred as the protection of third parties.
The UPT (Universal Personal Telecommunication) [
4
] system comprises some sort of access control mechanisms but they are limited to telephony services and to voice terminals or telephone.
Consequently, there is a need for an improved user access control for distributed systems supporting user mobility.
OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION
The present invention has for an objective to address any mobile distributed system, any types of applications, i.e. voice, data, image, video, interactive, multimedia, etc., for in such mobile distributed systems to introduce an improved access control.
A further object of the present invention is to introduce a generic access control in such distributed systems.
Still another object of the present invention is to introduce such a generic access control for distributed systems supporting user mobility which can be used in mobile distributed systems comprising public or private, local-area or wide-area, wireline or wireless networks.
BRIEF DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION
The above objects are achieved in an arrangement as stated in the preamble, which primarily is characterised by introducing in said system a user access control, for thereby enforcing security in communications systems.
In other words, the invention also suggests that this type of generic access control is related to personal mobility.
Further features and advantages of the present invention will appear from the following description taken in conjunction with the enclosed drawings, as well as from the appending patent claims.
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IEEE 46thVehicular Technology Conference, Apr. 28-May 1, 1996, Atlanta, Georgia, pp. 1825-1829, van Thanh et al., “Making Mobility Transparent to the Applications”.
Telektronikk, vol. 90, No. 2, 1994, Norway, pp. 72-79, T. Handegærd, “The TINA Consortium”.
International Conference on Network Protocols, Nov. 1995, Tokyo, Japan, pp. 296-304, Choong Seon Hong et al., “Service and connection management architecture for distributed multimedia application”.
IEEE Communication Magazaine, vol. 36, No. 3, Mar. 1998, France, Juan Pavón et al., pp. 72-79, “COBRA for Network and Service Management in the TINA Framework”.
Maung Nay
Nixon & Vanderhye P.C.
Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson
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