Validating international mobile equipment identity (IMEI) in mobile networks
AssigneeAT&T Intellectual Property I, L.P.
InventorsRanjit Kumar Avasarala, Vamsidhar Sivadi
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A control plane entity can perform validation checks to confirm the validity of a device identifier, for example, an international mobile equipment identity (IMEI), received from a user equipment (UE) during registration of the UE with a communication network. In one aspect, the control plane entity can verify that the IMEI conforms to a defined format; for example, the IMEI is fifteen digits long, does not comprise alphabets and/or symbols, and/or comprises a valid type allocation code (TAC) of eight decimal digits, etc. The validation of the IMEI can reduce errors in billing that can otherwise result in revenue loss for the service provider.
Claims20
A control plane device, comprising:
- a processor;
- and
- a memory that stores executable instructions that, when executed by the processor, facilitate performance of operations, comprising:
- receiving request data indicative of a request to initiate a communication session associated with a user equipment that is served by the control plane device, wherein the request data comprises identifier data indicative of a hardware identifier of the user equipment;
- and
- prior to processing the request, validating the identifier data, wherein the validating comprises determining that the identifier data is valid in response to verifying, based on an analysis of the identifier data, that the hardware identifier conforms to a defined identifier format, and wherein the verifying is independent of a communication with a network data store.
A method, comprising:
- receiving, by a control plane device comprising a processor, request data indicative of a request for initiating a communication session associated with a user equipment that is served by the control plane device, wherein the request data comprises identifier data indicative of a hardware identifier of the user equipment;
- determining, by the control plane device, that the identifier data satisfies a defined format criterion, wherein the determining is based on an evaluation of the identifier data without querying a network data store;
- and
- in response to the determining, determining, by the control plane device, that the identifier data is valid.
A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium, comprising executable instructions that, when executed by a processor of a control plane device, facilitate performance of operations, comprising:
- receiving request data indicative of a request for initiation of a communication session associated with a user equipment that is served by the control plane device, wherein the request data comprises identifier data representative of a hardware identifier of the user equipment;
- in response to the receiving, performing a validation check to determine a validity of a structure of the identifier data, wherein the validation check comprises an analysis of the identifier data that is independent of a communication between the control plane device and a network register device;
- and
- in response to determining that the structure of the identifier data is valid, facilitating an establishment of the communication session.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.