System and method for a network access service
AssigneeTaiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.
InventorsXuejun Lu, Nima Ahmadvand
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A network access system providing network access to a mobile terminal or other device via an untrusted access point such as a wireless access point in an untrusted network. The access point registers with a service gateway, and the wireless terminal connects with the access point and receives a first network address for use with the service gateway. The terminal registers with the service gateway via the access point, and a context identity is maintained at the service gateway, associating the terminal with the access point for the duration of the connection. The terminal can then access a wider network through the service gateway. The service gateway may maintain billing and reward data associated with the context identity.
Claims18
A method used by a terminal to communicate data over a network in a case that the terminal does not connect to its home access network and the network has a fixed account with associated security credentials maintained in a AAA server of a network access service provider associated with a service gateway for participating in a network access service, the method comprising:
- selecting an access node as a visiting access node or the network access service;
- establishing a connection with the access node which has a fixed address and has a service set identifier (SSID) specific for the network access service;
- obtaining a first terminal address from the access node;
- receiving an address/identity of a service gateway and a binding identity from the access node, the binding identity is transmitted from the access node to the terminal and assigned by either the access node or the service gateway to establish a context association between the terminal and the access node per the service gateway for uniquely identifying the terminal in the service gateway before performing the authentication and authorization procedure with the AAA server to authenticate the terminal with the network by the AAA server;
- establishing a connection for communications with the service gateway via the access node using the first terminal address with which the access node has registered to communicate with the service gateway and the address/identity of the service gateway before performing the authentication and authorization procedure with the AAA server to authenticate the terminal with the network by the AAA server;
- sending a registration request over the connection with the service gateway, providing the binding identity to the service gateway and registering an identity of the terminal in association with the binding identity at the service gateway before performing the authentication and authorization procedure with the AAA server to authenticate the terminal with the network by the AAA server;
- and
- perform an authentication and authorization procedure with the AAA server after sending the registration request over the connection with the service gateway, providing the binding identity to the service gateway and registering the identity of the terminal in association with the binding identity at the service gateway;
- then communicating data traffic with the service gateway via the access node, wherein the AAA servers is located in a core network portion of the network to authenticate the terminal to access the core network.
A method used by a terminal to communicate data over a network in a case that the terminal does not connect to its home access network and the network has a fixed account with associated security credentials maintained in a AAA server of a network access service provider associated with a service gateway for participating in a network access service, the method comprising:
- selecting an access node as a visiting access node or the network access service;
- establishing a connection with an access node;
- obtaining a first terminal address from the access node;
- receiving from the access node a registration initiation request message which comprises an address/identity of a service gateway before performing the authentication and authorization procedure with the AAA server to authenticate the terminal with the network by the AAA server;
- establishing a connection for communications with the service gateway via the access node using the first terminal address with which the access node has registered to communicate with the service gateway and the address/identity of the service gateway before performing the authentication and authorization procedure with the AAA server to authenticate the terminal with the network by the AAA server;
- sending a registration request to the service gateway using the established connection, the registration request uniquely identifying the terminal in the service gateway and also comprising an address or an SSID of the access node which has a fixed address and the SSID is specific for the network access service before performing the authentication and authorization procedure with the AAA server to authenticate the terminal with the network by the AAA server;
- perform an authentication and authorization procedure with the AAA server after sending the registration request to the service gateway using the established connection;
- receiving a context association notification from the service gateway via the access node;
- and
- then communicating data traffic with the service gateway via the access node wherein the AAA servers is located in a core network portion of the network to authenticate the terminal to access the core network.
A method used by an access node to communicate data between a terminal and a network in a case that the terminal does not connect to its home access network and the network has a fixed account with associated security credentials maintained in a AAA server of a network access service provider associated with a service gateway for participating in a network access service, and the access node has a fixed address and a SSID specific for the network access service, the method comprising:
- establishing a connection with a terminal, and before establishing the connection with the terminal, registering the access node with the service gateway before performing the authentication and authorization procedure with the AAA server to authenticate the terminal with the network by the AAA server;
- assigning a first terminal address to the terminal;
- sending a terminal context association request to a service gateway before performing the authentication and authorization procedure with the AAA server to authenticate the terminal with the network by the AAA server;
- responsive to receiving an acceptance of the terminal context association request from the service gateway, sending a binding identity and an address/identity of the service gateway to the terminal before performing the authentication and authorization procedure with the AAA server to authenticate the terminal with the network by the AAA server, wherein the binding identity is transmitted from the access node to the terminal and assigned by either the access node or the service gateway to establish a context association between the terminal and the access node per the service gateway;
- and
- facilitating an authentication and authorization procedure between the terminal and the AAA server after receiving the acceptance of the terminal context association request from the service gateway;
- then forwarding data traffic between the terminal and the service gateway, wherein the access node is configured to so that all traffic of user data to/from the terminal are received and transmitted to the service gateway with which the access node is registered, wherein the AAA servers is located in a core network portion of the network to authenticate the terminal to access the core network.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.