Patent Application
20080151912
The invention relates to a method and apparatus for providing a secure transmission of packet data between user equipments (UEs).
Wireless broadband access is becoming more readily available. With 3G networks' deployments, WiFi hotspots and Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) as defined by the WiMAX forum www.wimaxforum.org in June 2001. Therefore, a user of a user equipment (UE) may have multiple broadband networks to choose from and to subscribe simultaneously. Also, with Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology, voice communication can now also occur over IP broadband networks.
Since law enforcement agencies are provided with tools that can intercept and decrypt communication between communicating parties, an encryption protocol can easily be hacked and decrypted. Thus, it is becoming feasible for a fraudulent party to take advantage of this situation.
Thus, a secure communication or transmission of packet data is becoming of great importance for users of wireless equipments. Communicating parties may request to be certain that no one is able to listen or intercept their voice or data communication. However, dedicated physical lines or dedicated circuits are expensive and impossible to deploy in a mass ubiquitous network.
For these reasons, there is a need to provide a secure communications between sending and receiving UEs in a packet data network. The invention provides a solution to that problem.
It is a broad aspect of the present invention to provide a method for providing a secure transmission of packet data on a plurality of network access modes in a packet data network, the method comprising the steps of:
initiating communication from a sending user equipment (UE-1) with one or more receiving UE-2;
retrieving available access modes for the one or more receiving UE-2;
randomly breaking up an uplink transmission of packet data on multiple transmissions of packet data on available access modes of the sending UE-1; and
sending packet data of the transmissions on available access modes of the sending UE-1.
It is another broad aspect of the present invention to provide a user equipment (UE-1) for communicating in a packet data network, the UE-1 comprising:
a processing module for initiating communication with one or more receiving UE-2, operating a spread spectrum access (SS) middleware for retrieving available access modes of the one or more receiving UE-2; and
wherein the processing module retrieves available access modes for the one or more receiving UE, randomly breaks up an uplink transmission of packet data on multiple transmissions of packet data on available access modes of the UE-1 and sends packet data of the transmissions on available access modes of the UE-1.
The foregoing and other aspects, features, and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following more particular detailed description as illustrated in the accompanying drawings in which reference characters refer to the same parts throughout the various views. The drawings are not necessarily to scale, emphasis instead being placed upon illustrating the principles of the invention.
In the following description, for purposes of explanation and not limitation, specific details are set forth such as particular architectures, interfaces, techniques. In order to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention. However, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the present invention may be practiced in other embodiments that depart from these specific details. In other instances, detailed descriptions of well known devices, circuits, and methods are omitted so as not to obscure the description of the present invention with unnecessary detail.
Reference is now made to
The SA 30 comprises processing module 31 for receiving/sending information message from/to UEs (e.g. UE-110 or UE-240) and network elements interconnected in the network 100. The communication between the SA 30 and the UE in the network 100 are transmitted on the signaling connection 20. The communication messages 22 to 25 can be sent using known technologies such as Short Message Service (SMS), IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS), Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) as defined and published by the third generation (3G) partnership project (3GPP) and 3G partnership project 2 (3GPP2) or any technology that can provides a real-time exchange between a UE and the SA 30. The processing module 31 operates the SA 30 and generates messages that are sent from the server 30. The SA also comprises a user data repository 32 for storing information that can be accessed by the processing module 31. Reference is now made to
The repository 32 stores UE information for each UE in accordance to the invention, gives an example of what may be the content of the repository. The user data repository 32 may include IDs 201 such as, while not being limited to, an International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI), a username or a Network Access Identifier (NAI) of the UE 10 and that can be a common identity used by the SA 30, available network access 202, an IP address for each network access 203 and the status 204 of the UE on each network access 203. More particularly, the repository 32 is a sort of routing table for storing the different network access modes used from the Spread Spectrum access (SS) middleware 13 of a sending UE for randomly breaking up the transmission of packet data into multiple transmissions and used from the SS middleware 13 of a receiving UE for receiving the multiple transmissions of packet data on multiple network access modes.
The network 100 is a simplified network and the cells and access points (APs) e.g. base stations (BSs), which provide packet data radio access to a UE, are not represented in
The UE can be wirelessly connected or physically connected to one of the network elements that provide network access to one of the multiple types of networks in the network 100. The processing modules 11 and 31 can be hardware, software, or any combination thereof. In particular, the UE refers to a device that is operable on, while not being limited to, the different access modes (3GSM, WiMAX, WLAN, UMTS, etc.) described above for the network 100.
The SS middleware 13 is ultimately connected to the SA 30 for providing a secure transmission of packet data from a sending UE to a receiving UE. Reference is now made to
Thus, UE-110 and UE-240 is the given example of
Within the packet stream of each available network access 202 of the sending UE-110 party A, the packet data's destination address for the receiving UE-240 are also randomized to take on an IP address 203 associated with one of the available interfaces of the receiving UE-240. For example, the available interfaces 202 of the receiving UE-2 can be WLAN (connection 18), EVDO (connection 19).
The SS middleware 13 on the receiving UE-240 is be responsible for buffering packets on all its available interfaces and then reordering it appropriately before feeding it to the appropriate applications. More particularly, the packet data are then sent on the available network access mode (step 346) and then buffered at the SS middleware 13 of the receiving UE-240 (step 348). Following this, the SS middleware 13 of the receiving UE-240 reorders the packet data in order to obtain the transmission of packet data originally sent from the UE-1 before the sending UE-1 randomly breaks up an uplink transmission of packet data on multiple transmissions (step 350). The receiving UE-240 performs the same steps (324 to 344) for its uplink communication with the UE-110. The method is described having regard on an example of transmission from the UE-1 being the sending UE-110 and UE-240 being the receiving UE. Thus, it can be understood that both the UE-110 and the UE-240 can receive and send packet data at any time during the execution of the steps (304 to 350) of the method. Furthermore, it can also be appreciated that the UE-110 or UE-240 can be involved in a teleconference call or a videoconference call with multiple other UEs (not shown) and that the packet data can also be transmitted in a secure manner. Some of the steps (304 to 350) can be performed simultaneously or in a continuous manner to steps 304 to 350. The SS middleware 13 can also be used for load balancing purposes between the different network access modes 202. Furthermore, The UE-110 and UE-240 are considered authenticated on the respective network access modes 202 before initiating a communication or that they may be authenticated at a later time during the transmission of packet data. In this case an update is sent to the SA from the appropriate SS middleware 13.
It can be understood that the present invention is not limited to VoIP services, Gaming or Internet Protocol Television (IPTV), and it should be clear that any real-time transmissions and non real-time transmissions of packet data (File Transfer Protocol (FTP), e-mail packet data service) to be secured and balanced that can be provided by the present network 100 is also encompassed.
In general, some messages and therefore some parameters sent between network elements of the packet data network 100 are omitted for clarity reasons. More particularly, it should also be understood that
While the invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to the preferred embodiments thereof, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various alterations may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.
