System and method for handling inactive sim cards
AssigneeBuzzinbees
InventorsMichel ANSLOT, Philippe BOUCKAERT, Jean-Rene BOUVIER
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method in a cellular communication network comprising the steps of: marking a SIM card as inactive when said SIM card has not been used for at least a quarantine duration, provisioning a recycler node by backing up managing parameters related to said inactive SIM card, in a database.
Claims22
A method in a cellular communication network comprising a plurality of managing node that store an identifier of a subscription (MSISDN) and managing parameters related to a SIM card associated to a cellular terminal configured to be connected to the network, one managing node among the plurality of managing nodes being a home location register/home subscriber server (HLR/HSS) and said managing parameters comprising at least an International Mobile Subscriber Identifier (IMSI) of the SIM card, wherein:
- when said SIM card has not been used for at least a quarantine duration the method performs the following steps:
- de-provisioning at least a given managing node among the plurality of managing nodes by removing from said given managing node at least the identifier of a subscription (MSISDN) characterized in that the method also comprises the following steps performed when said SIM card has not been used for at least the quarantine duration:
- modifying in a database of the HLR/HSS in charge of the SIM card the status of the SIM card from active to inactive;
- provisioning a recycler node which comprises backing up in at least a database of said recycler node:
- at least some of said managing parameters comprising at least said IMSI and at least an identification information for identifying the subscriber of said SIM card;
- after the provisioning of the recycler node, after the de-provisioning of at least the given managing node and upon reception at the recycler node of an attachment request comprising an identification number, uniquely identifying the SIM card, the method comprises reactivating the SIM card through performing the following steps:
- identifying the subscriber based on identification data received from the user of the SIM card and on the identification information stored in the recycler node;
- and authorizing the reactivation only if the identification data received from the user of the SIM card matches the identification information stored in the recycler node;
- allocating to the SIM card a new identifier of a subscription and associating the new identifier of a subscription to said IMSI;
- re-provisioning said given managing node which comprises sending to said given managing node the association of the new identifier of a subscription and said IMSI;
- modifying in the database of the HLR/HSS in charge of the SIM card the status of the SIM card from inactive to active.
A Computer-program product that contains software program instructions, where execution of the software program instructions by at least one data processor results in performance of operations that comprise execution of at least the following steps:
- when said SIM card has not been used for at least a quarantine duration the method performs the following steps:
- identifying that a SIM card has not been used for at least a quarantine duration, then:
- provisioning a recycler node which comprises:
- backing up in at least a database stored in at least a data storage device of said recycler node:
- managing parameters comprising at least an International Mobile Subscriber Identifier of the SIM card;
- modifying in a database of a HLR/HSS in charge of the SIM card the status of the SIM card from active to inactive;
- after the provisioning of the recycler node, and upon reception of an attachment request for said SIM card;
- allocating an identifier of a subscription;
- providing to a managing node the set of managing parameters related to said reactivated SIM card restored from the database in association with the new identifier of a subscription;
- modifying in the database of the HLR/HSS in charge of the SIM card the status of the SIM card from inactive to active.
A Recycler node configured to be connected in a cellular communication network comprising a plurality of managing nodes that store an identifier of a subscription and managing parameters related to a SIM card associated to a cellular terminal configured to be connected to the network, the managing parameters comprising at least an International Mobile Subscriber Identifier of the SIM card characterized in that:
- the recycler node is configured to execute the following steps when said SIM card has not been used for at least a quarantine duration:
- provisioning a database of the recycler node which comprises backing up in at least a database stored in at least a data storage device of said recycler node:
- the set of managing parameters comprising said IMSI;
- sending an instruction to modify in a database of a HLR/HSS in charge of the SIM card the status of the SIM card from active to inactive;
- the recycler node being also configured to execute the following steps after the provisioning of the recycler node, and upon reception of an attachment request for said SIM card:
- allocating a new identifier of a subscription;
- providing to a managing node the set of managing parameters comprising said IMSI, related to said reactivated SIM card and restored from the database, in association with the new identifier of a subscription;
- sending an instruction to modify in the database of the HLR/HSS in charge of the SIM card the status of the SIM card from inactive to active.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.