terminal

Abstract

This terminal comprises: a wireless reception unit that receives, from a network, an activation code; and a wireless transmission unit that transmits, to the network, a request for a profile corresponding to the activation code. The activation code or the profile contains instruction information or a program for executing control causing terminal identity information to be transmitted to the network. A control unit sets the profile to an embedded subscriber identity module.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present invention relates to a terminal that performs wireless communication, particularly a terminal including an embedded subscriber identity module.

Background Art

[0002] In the GSM Association (GSMA), at the time of subscribing to a communication service, a Remote Subscriber Identity Module Provisioning (RSP) is defined to download a profile composed of data including subscriber information and an application for controlling the use of the communication service from the network to the terminal (see Non-Patent Document 1).

[0003] In RSP, the terminal sets the downloaded profile in an embedded subscriber identity module (eSIM: Embedded Subscriber Identity Module). Thereby, the terminal can perform the line activation process at the time of subscribing to a communication service via the network using the eSIM. Note that the software part where the profile can be rewritten is called eSIM, while the hardware part is called eUICC (Embedded Universal Integrated Circuit Card).

[0004] In actual use, it is necessary to activate (Activation) specific subscriber information in the eSIM. From the terminal / NW (Network), the eSIM is recognized only as a SIM in which only the activated subscriber information is written, and when there is no activated subscriber information, it is recognized as a SIM without subscriber information.

[0005] To activate the profile, the user first reads the Activation Code (AC), issued after signing a contract with their mobile carrier, on the device they wish to download the profile from. The AC contains the SM address and Matching ID (an identifier associated with the profile), allowing the user to download the profile without having to enter the carrier's SM address.

[0006] Furthermore, the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) has standardized Long Term Evolution (LTE) and has also standardized LTE-Advanced (hereinafter, LTE including LTE-Advanced) with the aim of further increasing the speed of LTE. 3GPP is also considering specifications for successor systems to LTE, such as 5G or New Radio (NR).

[0007] 3GPP specifies an identifier that is uniquely assigned to each terminal, specifically the International Mobile Equipment Identifier (IMEI) (see Non-Patent Document 2). [Prior art documents] [Non-patent literature]

[0008] [Non-Patent Document 1] GSMA SGP.21 RSP Architecture Version 2.2, September 2017 [Non-Patent Document 2] 3GPP TS 23.003 V15.7.0 3rd Generation Partnership Project; Technical Specification Group Core Network and Terminals; Numbering, addressing and identification (Release 15), 3GPP, June 2019 [Overview of the project]

[0009] In recent years, the number of eSIM-compatible devices has increased, and eSIMs have become part of the device components, making it difficult for telecommunications carriers to verify whether security is guaranteed. Therefore, it is necessary to appropriately control where profiles containing confidential information such as subscriber information are provided.

[0010] While the standard specification includes a mechanism to verify the EID (eUICC identifier) ​​when downloading a profile, verifying the device's IMEI is optional, not mandatory. Therefore, there is a risk of providing a profile containing confidential information to an unintended device because the device's IMEI cannot be verified. For example, if the AC is read on a device different from the one used for the contract, the profile may be downloaded to an unintended device.

[0011] Therefore, the present invention has been made in view of these circumstances, and aims to provide a terminal, server, communication system, and communication method that can prevent profiles containing confidential information such as subscriber information from being acquired by an unexpected device.

[0012] A terminal (200) according to one aspect of the present invention comprises a wireless receiving unit (220) that receives an activation code (AC) from a network (20), and a wireless transmitting unit (210) that transmits a request for a profile corresponding to the activation code to the network (20), wherein the activation code or profile includes a program or instruction information that controls the network (20) to transmit terminal identification information, and a control unit (260) sets the profile in an embedded subscriber identification module (250).

[0013] A server (400) according to one aspect of the present invention includes a transmitting unit (410) that transmits an activation code (AC) to a terminal (400), and a receiving unit (420) that receives a request from the terminal (200) for a profile to be set in an embedded subscriber identification module (250) corresponding to the activation code, wherein the activation code or profile includes a program or instruction information that controls the transmission of terminal identification information (IMEI).

[0014] A communication system according to one aspect of the present invention includes a terminal (200) comprising a receiving unit (220) that receives an activation code (AC) from a network (30), a transmitting unit that sends a request for a profile corresponding to the activation code to the network (20), and a control unit (260) that sets the profile in an embedded subscriber identification module (250); and a server (400) comprising a transmitting unit (410) that sends an activation code to the terminal (200) and a receiving unit (420) that receives a request for a profile corresponding to the activation code from the terminal (200), wherein the activation code or profile includes a program or instruction information that controls the terminal to transmit its terminal identification information (IMEI).

[0015] A communication method according to one aspect of the present invention includes the steps of transmitting an activation code (AC) from a network (30) to a terminal (200), and receiving a request from a terminal (20) for a profile corresponding to the activation code, wherein the activation code or profile includes a program or instruction information that controls the terminal (20) to transmit terminal identification information of the terminal (20) to the network (20). [Brief explanation of the drawing]

[0016] [Figure 1] Figure 1 is a schematic diagram of the overall configuration of the communication system 10. [Figure 2] Figure 2 is a functional block diagram of terminal 200. [Figure 3]Figure 3 is a functional block diagram of the SM server 400. [Figure 4] Figure 4 shows the operation sequence when AC includes instruction information such as a command to send the IMEI to the network. [Figure 5] Figure 5 shows the operation sequence when the profile includes a program such as an applet that sends the IMEI to the network. [Figure 6] Figure 6 shows an example of the hardware configuration of a wireless base station 100, terminal 200, contract site 300, SM server 400, customer management system 500, and information management server 600. [Modes for carrying out the invention]

[0017] The embodiments will be described below with reference to the drawings. Note that identical or similar reference numerals are used to denote the same functions and components, and their descriptions will be omitted as appropriate.

[0018] (1) Overall outline of the communication system Figure 1 is a schematic diagram of the overall configuration of the communication system 10 according to this embodiment.

[0019] As shown in FIG. 1, the communication system 10 includes a network 20 such as a 3GPP network, a network 30 such as a non-3GPP network, a radio base station 100, a terminal 200, a contract site 300, a subscription management (SM) server 400, an authentication server 600, and a customer management system 500. The terminal is also referred to as User Equipment (UE). The contract site is also referred to as an operator or a telecommunications carrier. Note that the specific configuration of the communication system 10 including the number of network devices (such as the contract site 300, the subscription management (SM) server 400, the authentication server 600, and the customer management system 500), the number of radio base stations, and the number of terminals is not limited to the example shown in FIG. 1. For example, the server on the network side may be only one device at the minimum for implementing the present invention. In the following embodiments, at least one device of the radio base station 100, the contract site 300, the subscription management (SM) server 400, the authentication server 600, and the customer management system 500 may be omitted, and the function of the device may be held by other devices.

[0020] The network 20 is a network compliant with the 5G (NR) (or 6G) such as a 3GPP network, and includes a Next Generation-Radio Access Network (NG-RAN, not shown) and a core network (5G-CN, not shown). The NG-RAN includes an NG-RAN Node, specifically, the radio base station 100 (gNB or ng-eNB), and is connected to the 5G-CN.

[0021] The radio base station 100 performs radio communication compliant with NR between the radio base station 100 and the terminal 200.

[0022] The radio base station 100 and the terminal 200 can support Massive MIMO that generates a more directional beam by controlling radio signals transmitted from a plurality of antenna elements, carrier aggregation (CA) that uses a plurality of component carriers (CCs), dual connectivity (DC) that simultaneously transmits CCs between a plurality of NG-RAN Nodes and the terminal, and Integrated Access and Backhaul (IAB) in which radio backhaul between radio communication nodes such as gNBs and radio access to the UE are integrated. Note that a CC is also referred to as a carrier.

[0023] Note that the network 20 may be a network compliant with LTE instead of NR or 6G. In this case, the 3GPP network 20 includes an Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN) and an Evolved Packet Core (EPC). The E-UTRAN includes radio base stations (eNBs or en-gNBs) and is connected to the EPC.

[0024] The network 30 is a non-3GPP network or the like, such as a wireless local area network (WLAN) like Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi), or a wired LAN. The network 30 is not particularly limited as long as it is a network through which the terminal 200 can access the subscription site 300 using a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) or the like.

[0025] When subscribing to a communication service, the terminal 200 executes an RSP that downloads a profile composed of data including subscriber information and an application that controls the use of the communication service from the 3GPP network 20. The profile may be referred to as an in-service profile.

[0026] Subscriber information includes an International Mobile Subscriber Identifier (IMSI) uniquely assigned to the user of the communication service, a telephone number uniquely assigned to the user of the communication service, and contract information including the rate plan applicable to terminal 200. Subscriber information is provided from contract site 300.

[0027] In this embodiment of RSP, as will be described later, when the terminal 200 attaches to the 3GPP network 20, it sends a request to the wireless base station 100 via the 3GPP network 20 to download a profile corresponding to the AC (Activation Code) that it received from the network 30 when it signed up for the communication service. When the wireless base station 100 receives the profile request from the terminal 200, it sends (forwards) it to the SM server 400.

[0028] In this embodiment, as will be described later, the terminal 200 downloads an AC-compatible profile from the SM server 400 via the 3GPP network 20 in the RSP. The terminal 200 installs the downloaded profile into the embedded subscriber identification module (eSIM) 250, which will be described later, and activates the profile, thereby enabling it to use communication services on the 3GPP network 20.

[0029] In this embodiment, the AC or profile includes instruction information such as a program or command, such as an applet, that controls the transmission of the IMEI, a terminal-specific identifier, to the network. Therefore, the terminal 200 may be configured in RSP to connect to the non-3GPP network 30, access the contract site 300 using a URL to receive the AC, and download a temporary profile from the SM server 400 via the non-3GPP network 30 and install it on the eSIM 250. In that case, the terminal 200 may be configured to attach to the 3GPP network 20 by activating the temporary profile only when the network authenticates that the IMEI transmitted from the terminal 200 by the program or instruction information matches the IMEI at the time of contract. In this embodiment, the network device that verifies the consistency between the IMEI transmitted from the terminal 200 by the program or instruction information and the IMEI at the time of contract may be described as the authentication server 600, but is not limited to this, and other devices (e.g., customer management system 500 or SM server 400) may perform the verification (matching).

[0030] Temporary profiles may have restrictions on use other than downloading the profile. They may also have a set validity period (e.g., 5 minutes). Temporary profiles are also referred to as provisional profiles.

[0031] The contract site 300 is connected to the network (network 20 and / or network 30). When the contract site 300 receives contract information (IMEI, EID, etc.) based on the communication contract, it transmits the contract information to the customer management system 500, and the customer management system 500 transmits a profile generation request to the SM server 400 based on the contract information. The customer management system 500 also transmits at least the IMEI included in the contract information to the authentication server 600.

[0032] The SM server 400 is connected to the network (network 20 and / or network 30). When the SM server 400 receives a profile generation request, it generates a profile and sends an AC containing the SM address and Matching ID (an identifier associated with the profile) to the customer server 500. The customer server 500 sends the AC to the contract site 300, and the contract site 300 sends the AC to the terminal 200 via network 30. In this case, as will be described later, the SM address or Matching ID that should be included in the AC may not be initially sent to the terminal 200, but may only be sent to the terminal 200 after the IMEI sent from the terminal 200 based on the program and instruction information included in the AC has been matched with the contractual IMEI. Note that the profile generated by the SM server 400 may be a temporary profile. In this case, the terminal 200 may initially receive a temporary profile instead of the production profile, and only after the IMEI sent from the terminal 200 based on the programs and instruction information included in the profile is matched with the contractual IMEI may be configured to send the production profile to the terminal 200.

[0033] When the SM server 400 receives a download request for an AC-compatible profile from terminal 200 via network 20, it sends the profile to terminal 200.

[0034] In this embodiment, the AC or profile includes instruction information such as an applet or command that controls the terminal 200 to send its IMEI to the network, and the network (including the SM server 400, customer management system 500, or authentication server 600, etc.) controls the terminal 200 so that the profile is activated only when the transmitted IMEI matches the IMEI in the contract information. For example, if the AC includes the above-mentioned applet or command, the network may send a profile corresponding to the AC (e.g., an activated profile) in response to a profile request sent from the terminal 200 only when the IMEI transmitted from the terminal 200 matches the IMEI in the contract information. As another example, the network may send a temporary profile (e.g., an inactive profile) corresponding to the AC sent from the terminal 200, including the above-mentioned applet or command, to the terminal 200, and only when the IMEI transmitted from the terminal 200 matches the IMEI in the contract information, send activation information (e.g., authentication authorization information or a production profile) to activate the temporary profile to the terminal 200.

[0035] The customer management system 500 is connected to the network and manages contract information such as subscriber information. In this embodiment, the customer management system 500 transmits at least the IMEI from the contract information to the authentication server 600. The customer management system 500 also transmits a profile generation request based on the contract information to the SM server 600 and receives or generates an AC corresponding to the profile. In this embodiment, the entity that includes programs or commands in the AC or profile, and the entity that controls the removal of the SM address etc. from the AC initially transmitted to the terminal 200, are arbitrary and may be, for example, the contract site 300, the SM server 400, the authentication server 600, and the customer management system 500.

[0036] The authentication server 600 is connected to the network, holds at least the IMEI included in the contract information, and verifies the consistency between the IMEI in the contract information and the IMEI transmitted from the terminal 200 (including transfer via another device). Alternatively, the authentication server 600 may also hold the IMEI and EID combination at the time of contract and verify (match) the consistency between this combination and the IMEI and EID combination transmitted from the terminal 200 (including transfer via another device). For example, the authentication server 600 stores the IMEI and EID of the contract information transmitted from the customer management system 500 in a reference table, and upon receiving the IMEI transmitted from the terminal 200, uses the reference table to verify (match) whether it matches the IMEI in the contract information. If they match, the authentication server 600 transmits the corresponding information (e.g., authentication authorization information, SM address, activation information, etc.) to other devices (terminal 200, customer management system 500, SM server 400, etc.).

[0037] (2) Functional block configuration of the communication system Next, the functional block configuration of the communication system 10 will be described. Specifically, the functional block configurations of the terminal 200 and the SM server 400 will be described. Below, only the parts related to the features of this embodiment will be described. Therefore, it goes without saying that the terminal 200 and the SM server 400 also have other functional blocks that are not directly related to the features of this embodiment.

[0038] Furthermore, as described above, some or all of the functions of the contract site 400, authentication server 600, customer management system 500, SM server 400, and wireless base station 100 may be performed or maintained by other devices, and these other devices may be equipped with the following functional block configuration of the SM server 400 (transmitter, receiver, and control unit).

[0039] For convenience, the functional block diagram of terminal 200 will be described first. Figure 2 is the functional block diagram of terminal 200. As shown in Figure 2, terminal 200 comprises a wireless transmitter 210, a wireless receiver 220, a local profile assistant (LPA) 240, an embedded subscriber identification module (eSIM) 250, and a control unit 240.

[0040] The wireless transmitter 210 transmits an uplink signal (UL signal) in accordance with NR to the wireless base station 100. In this embodiment, the wireless transmitter 210 functions as a transmitter that transmits AC to the network. The wireless receiver 220 receives a downlink signal (DL signal) in accordance with NR from the wireless base station 100. In this embodiment, the wireless receiver 220 functions as a receiver that receives a profile corresponding to AC from the network.

[0041] The wireless transmitter 210 and the wireless receiver 220 perform wireless communication via a control channel or a data channel.

[0042] Control channels include physical downlink control channels (PDCCH), physical uplink control channels (PUCCH), and physical random access channels (PRACH).

[0043] Data channels include physical downlink shared channels (PDSCH) and physical uplink shared channels (PUSCH).

[0044] The wireless transmitter 210 transmits contract information (IMEI, EID, etc.) to the contract site 300 via the network 30 when a contract for the use of a communication service is made. The wireless receiver 220 receives an AC based on the contract information from the customer management system 500 (or contract site 300) via the network 30. In this case, the AC may be configured not to include the SM address associated with the profile. For example, if the AC includes instruction information such as a program or command, such as an applet, that controls the transmission of the IMEI to the network, the IMEI may be transmitted from the terminal 200 based on the program or instruction information, and when authenticated by the authentication server 600, the network (e.g., servers such as the authentication server 600, customer management system 500, or SM server 400) may transmit the SM address to the terminal 200.

[0045] The wireless transmitter 210 sends a request for a profile corresponding to the received AC (adding the SM address, etc., if necessary) to the SM server 400 via the network 20. The wireless receiver 220 receives the profile corresponding to the AC from the customer management system 500 (or contract site 300) via the network 30. As described above, the initial profile is an inactive profile such as a temporary profile, and the wireless receiver 220 may receive information transmitted from the network (e.g., authentication permission information, production profile, etc.) only if the IMEI transmitted from the terminal 200 based on the program or commands included in the profile is authenticated by the network.

[0046] The control unit 240 has functions such as a Local Profile Assistant (LPA) and downloads profiles (temporary profiles, production profiles, etc.) from the SM server 400 and installs them on the eSIM 250. The control unit 240 activates the profiles installed on the eSIM 250. For example, the control unit 240 may overwrite the temporary profile installed on the eSIM 250 with a production profile, or it may activate the profile installed on the eSIM 250 based on authentication authorization information. As a result, the terminal 200 can attach to the 3GPP network 20 according to the activated profile.

[0047] The eSIM250 is the software portion on which the profile is written. The hardware portion on which the profile is written is called an embedded universal integrated circuit card (eUICC).

[0048] With eSIM250, users can use different profiles on terminal 200 without physically replacing the subscriber identification module (SIM).

[0049] If no activated profile exists on the eSIM250, the eSIM250 will be recognized by the network as a SIM card without a profile written to it.

[0050] The eSIM250 is in a form that cannot be removed from the terminal 200, but is not limited to this; it may also be in a form that can be removed from the terminal 200.

[0051] In addition, the control unit 240 controls each functional block that makes up the terminal 200. The control unit 240 also performs the operation of attaching to the 3GPP network 20.

[0052] Figure 3 is a functional block diagram of the SM server 400. As shown in Figure 3, the SM server 400 comprises a transmitting unit 410, a receiving unit 420, and a control unit 440.

[0053] The transmitting unit 410 transmits various types of information (e.g., AC, profile, etc.) over the network. In this embodiment, the transmitting unit 410 functions as a transmitting unit that transmits AC to the terminal 200 (including cases where it is transmitted via the customer management system 500, etc.).

[0054] The receiving unit 420 receives various types of information (e.g., AC generation requests, profile download requests, etc.) via the network. In this embodiment, the receiving unit 420 functions as a receiving unit that receives requests for AC-compatible profiles from the terminal 200.

[0055] The control unit 440 controls each functional block that constitutes the SM server 400 and controls the operation of the RSP. In this embodiment, the control unit 140 may, for example, perform a process to add a program or instruction information to the AC or profile that controls the transmission of the IMEI.

[0056] (3) Operation of the communication system Next, the operation of the communication system 10 will be described. Specifically, concrete examples of acquiring and activating the AC and profile in RSP will be explained using Figures 4 and 5. Needless to say, this embodiment is not limited to these concrete examples. For example, in the following, (3.1) an example in which instruction information is included in the AC and (3.2) an example in which a program is included in the profile will be described, but it is not limited to these, and a program may be included in the AC or instruction information may be included in the profile. Also, in the following, the entity that matches the IMEI will be described as the authentication server 600, but it is not limited to this, and other devices such as the SM server 400 may perform this action. Furthermore, the entity that adds programs or instruction information to the AC or profile, and the entity that removes the SM address from the AC or initially deactivates the profile, may also be other devices, not limited to the following.

[0057] (3.1) Example of AC containing instruction information Figure 4 shows the operation sequence when AC includes instruction information such as a command to send the IMEI to the network.

[0058] As shown in Figure 4, terminal 200 connects to network 30 and accesses contract site 300. At this time, terminal 200 transmits contract-related information (IMEI, EID, subscriber information, etc.) to contract site 300, and the contract information is transmitted to customer management system 500 (S11).

[0059] When the customer management system 500 receives contract information, it sends a profile generation request to the SM server 400 (S12). When the SM server 400 receives the profile generation request, it generates the profile (S13). The customer management system 500 also sends the IMEI and other contract information to the authentication server 600, and the authentication server 600 stores the IMEI and other information in a reference table, etc. (S14).

[0060] The customer management system 500 adds instruction information, such as a command to send the IMEI to the network (which may be stored in the AC as a parameter), to the AC corresponding to the profile of the profile generation request, and sends it to the terminal 200 (S15). The customer management system 500 does not include the SM address when sending the AC.

[0061] When terminal 200 receives an AC containing instruction information such as commands, it sends the IMEI to the authentication server 600 according to the received instruction information (parameters, etc.) (S16). For example, if parameters have been added to the AC, terminal 200 may send the IMEI to the authentication server 600 using the PROVIDE LOCAL INFO command corresponding to those parameters, in accordance with the eSIM OS program.

[0062] The authentication server 600 compares the contractual IMEI stored in the reference table with the IMEI sent from terminal 200 in S16. If they match, it sends authentication authorization information and the SM address to terminal 200 (S18).

[0063] As a result, terminal 200 can access SM server 400 and sends a profile download request to SM server 400 (S19).

[0064] The SM server 400, as before, checks the EID (S20) and then sends the profile to the terminal 200 (S21). The terminal 200 then sets the downloaded profile on the eSIM, enabling it to attach to the 3GPP network 20 and communicate.

[0065] (3.2) Example of a profile containing a program Figure 5 shows the operation sequence when the profile includes a program such as an applet that sends the IMEI to the network.

[0066] As shown in Figure 5, terminal 200 connects to network 30 and accesses contract site 300. At this time, terminal 200 transmits contract-related information (IMEI, EID, subscriber information, etc.) to contract site 300, and the contract information is transmitted to customer management system 500 (S31).

[0067] When the customer management system 500 receives contract information, it sends a profile generation request to the SM server 400 (S32). When the SM server 400 receives the profile generation request, it generates the profile (S33). The customer management system 500 also sends the IMEI and other contract information to the authentication server 600, and the authentication server 600 stores the IMEI and other information in a reference table, etc. (S34).

[0068] The customer management system 500 sends an AC corresponding to the profile that was requested to be generated to the terminal 200 (S35). In this case, the customer management system 500 sends the AC including the SM address.

[0069] When terminal 200 receives an AC, it accesses the SM server 400 according to the SM address and other information contained in the received AC, and sends a profile download request to the SM server 400 (S36).

[0070] The SM server 400 sends a profile to the terminal 200 that includes programs such as applets that control the transmission of the IMEI over the network (S37). At this stage, the SM server 400 sends an inactive profile.

[0071] Then, terminal 200 sends the IMEI and other information to authentication server 600 by executing the applet or other program included in the downloaded profile (S38).

[0072] The authentication server 600 compares the contractual IMEI etc. stored in the reference table with the IMEI etc. sent from terminal 200 in S16 (S39), and if they match, sends authentication permission information to terminal 200 (S40).

[0073] This allows terminal 200 to activate inactive profiles based on authentication authorization information, enabling it to attach to the 3GPP network 20 and communicate.

[0074] (4) Action and Effects According to the embodiment described above, when AC is sent from network 30 to terminal 200 and a request for a profile corresponding to AC is received from terminal 20, the AC or profile includes a program or instruction information that controls the terminal 20 to send its IMEI to network 20.

[0075] This configuration makes it possible to verify that the IMEI transmitted from the terminal 20 matches the IMEI at the time of contract when communication on the 3GPP network 20 begins. This prevents unauthorized devices from obtaining profiles containing confidential information such as subscriber information, and thus prevents the 3GPP network from being misused.

[0076] Therefore, the 3GPP network 20 can set a pricing plan that matches the classification of the terminal 200, and have the terminal 200 download a profile determined according to that pricing plan.

[0077] For example, a program to include in the AC or profile could be an applet that controls the transmission of the IMEI to the network. In another example, the instruction information to include in the AC or profile could include a command to transmit the IMEI to the network.

[0078] By including applets or commands that reliably send the IMEI to terminal 200, it is possible to prevent the active profile from being illegally obtained by an unexpected device.

[0079] (5) Other embodiments Although the present invention has been described above in accordance with the embodiments, it will be obvious to those skilled in the art that the present invention is not limited to these descriptions and that various modifications and improvements are possible.

[0080] The block diagrams (Figures 2 and 3) used in the description of the embodiments above show functional units. These functional blocks (components) are realized by any combination of at least one of hardware and software. Furthermore, the method of realizing each functional block is not particularly limited. That is, each functional block may be realized using one device that is physically or logically coupled, or it may be realized using two or more physically or logically separated devices that are directly or indirectly connected (for example, using wired or wireless connections). A functional block may be realized by combining the above one device or the above multiple devices with software.

[0081] Functions include, but are not limited to, judgment, decision, determination, calculation, calculation, processing, derivation, investigation, exploration, confirmation, reception, transmission, output, access, resolution, selection, selection, establishment, comparison, assumption, expectation, consideration, broadcasting, notifying, communicating, forwarding, configuring, reconfiguring, allocating (mapping), and assigning. For example, a functional block (configuration part) that enables transmission is called a transmitting unit or transmitter. In any case, as mentioned above, the method of implementation is not particularly limited.

[0082] Furthermore, the aforementioned wireless base station 100, terminal 200, contract site 300, SM server 400, customer management system 500, and authentication server 600 may function as computers that process the wireless communication method of this disclosure. Figure 6 shows an example of the hardware configuration of the device. As shown in Figure 6, the device may be configured as a computer device including a processor 1001, memory 1002, storage 1003, communication device 1004, input device 1005, output device 1006, and bus 1007.

[0083] In the following explanation, the term "device" can be replaced with "circuit," "device," "unit," etc. The hardware configuration of the device may include one or more of the devices shown in the diagram, or it may be configured to omit some of the devices.

[0084] Each functional block of the device is implemented by any hardware element of the computer device, or a combination of such hardware elements.

[0085] Furthermore, each function in the device is realized by loading predetermined software (programs) onto hardware such as the processor 1001 and memory 1002, which allows the processor 1001 to perform calculations, control communication by the communication device 1004, and control at least one of data reading and writing in the memory 1002 and storage 1003.

[0086] The processor 1001 controls the entire computer, for example, by running an operating system. The processor 1001 may consist of a central processing unit (CPU) that includes interfaces with peripheral devices, control units, arithmetic units, registers, and so on.

[0087] Furthermore, the processor 1001 reads programs (program code), software modules, data, etc., from at least one of the storage 1003 and the communication device 1004 into the memory 1002 and executes various processes accordingly. The program used is one that causes the computer to execute at least a part of the operations described in the above embodiment. Moreover, the above-mentioned various processes may be executed by one processor 1001, or by two or more processors 1001 simultaneously or sequentially. The processor 1001 may be implemented by one or more chips. The program may be transmitted from a network via a telecommunications line.

[0088] Memory 1002 is a computer-readable recording medium and may consist of at least one of the following: Read Only Memory (ROM), Erasable Programmable ROM (EPROM), Electrically Erasable Programmable ROM (EEPROM), Random Access Memory (RAM), etc. Memory 1002 may also be called a register, cache, main memory, etc. Memory 1002 can store a program (program code), software modules, etc., that can execute a method according to one embodiment of this disclosure.

[0089] Storage 1003 is a computer-readable recording medium and may consist of at least one of the following: an optical disc such as a Compact Disc ROM (CD-ROM), a hard disk drive, a flexible disk, a magneto-optical disk (e.g., a compact disc, a digital multipurpose disc, a Blu-ray® disc), a smart card, flash memory (e.g., a card, a stick, a key drive), a floppy® disk, a magnetic strip, etc. Storage 1003 may also be called an auxiliary storage device. The recording medium described above may also be, for example, a database, server, or other suitable medium including at least one of memory 1002 and storage 1003.

[0090] The communication device 1004 is hardware (transceiver / receiver device) for communicating between computers via at least one of a wired network and a wireless network, and is also called a network device, network controller, network card, communication module, etc.

[0091] The communication device 1004 may be configured to include, for example, a high-frequency switch, a duplexer, a filter, a frequency synthesizer, etc., in order to implement at least one of frequency division duplex (FDD) and time division duplex (TDD).

[0092] The input device 1005 is an input device that accepts input from an external source (e.g., a keyboard, mouse, microphone, switch, button, sensor, etc.). The output device 1006 is an output device that outputs to an external source (e.g., a display, speaker, LED lamp, etc.). The input device 1005 and the output device 1006 may be configured as an integrated unit (e.g., a touch panel).

[0093] Furthermore, each device, such as the processor 1001 and the memory 1002, is connected by a bus 1007 for communicating information. The bus 1007 may be configured using a single bus, or different buses may be configured for each device.

[0094] Furthermore, the device may include hardware such as a microprocessor, a digital signal processor (DSP), an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a programmable logic device (PLD), and a field-programmable gate array (FPGA), and some or all of the functional blocks may be implemented by such hardware. For example, processor 1001 may be implemented using at least one of these hardware components.

[0095] Furthermore, notification of information is not limited to the embodiments / models described herein and may be carried out by other means. For example, notification of information may be carried out by physical layer signaling (e.g., Downlink Control Information (DCI), Uplink Control Information (UCI)), upper layer signaling (e.g., RRC signaling, Medium Access Control (MAC) signaling, broadcast information (Master Information Block (MIB), System Information Block (SIB))), other signals, or combinations thereof. RRC signaling may also be called RRC messages, and may be, for example, RRC Connection Setup messages, RRC Connection Reconfiguration messages, etc.

[0096] Each aspect / embodiment described herein may be applied to at least one of the following: Long Term Evolution (LTE), LTE-Advanced (LTE-A), SUPER 3G, IMT-Advanced, 4th generation mobile communication system (4G), 5th generation mobile communication system (5G), Future Radio Access (FRA), New Radio (NR), W-CDMA®, GSM®, CDMA2000, Ultra Mobile Broadband (UMB), IEEE 802.11 (Wi-Fi®), IEEE 802.16 (WiMAX®), IEEE 802.20, Ultra-WideBand (UWB), Bluetooth®, and other appropriate systems, as well as next-generation systems extended based thereon. Furthermore, multiple systems may be applied in combination (for example, a combination of at least one of LTE and LTE-A with 5G).

[0097] The processing procedures, sequences, flowcharts, etc., of each aspect / embodiment described herein may be reordered, provided they are consistent with each other. For example, the methods described herein present various step elements in an exemplary order and are not limited to that specific order.

[0098] The specific operations described in this disclosure as being performed by a base station may, in some cases, be performed by its upper node. In a network consisting of one or more network nodes having a base station, it is clear that various operations performed for communication with a terminal can be performed by the base station and at least one other network node (for example, an MME or S-GW, but not limited to these). Although the above example illustrates the case where there is one other network node besides the base station, it may also be a combination of multiple other network nodes (for example, an MME and an S-GW).

[0099] Information and signals (such as data) can be output from a higher layer (or lower layer) to a lower layer (or higher layer). Input and output may occur via multiple network nodes.

[0100] Input and output information may be stored in a specific location (e.g., memory) or managed using a management table. Input and output information may be overwritten, updated, or appended to. Output information may be deleted. Input information may be sent to other devices.

[0101] The determination may be made by a value represented by 1 bit (0 or 1), by a boolean value (true or false), or by a numerical comparison (for example, a comparison with a predetermined value).

[0102] Each aspect / embodiment described herein may be used individually, in combination, or switched between as needed during implementation. Furthermore, notification of specific information (e.g., notification that "X is") is not limited to explicit notification, but may also be implicit (e.g., by not providing such notification).

[0103] Software should be broadly interpreted to mean instructions, instruction sets, code, code segments, program code, programs, subprograms, software modules, applications, software applications, software packages, routines, subroutines, objects, executable files, execution threads, procedures, functions, and so on, whether they are called software, firmware, middleware, microcode, hardware description languages, or by any other name.

[0104] Furthermore, software, instructions, information, etc., may be transmitted and received via a transmission medium. For example, if software is transmitted from a website, server, or other remote source using at least one of wired technology (such as coaxial cable, fiber optic cable, twisted pair, or Digital Subscriber Line (DSL)) and wireless technology (such as infrared or microwave), then at least one of these wired and wireless technologies is included in the definition of a transmission medium.

[0105] The information, signals, etc. described in this disclosure may be represented using any of the various different technologies. For example, the data, instructions, commands, information, signals, bits, symbols, chips, etc. that may be referred to throughout the above description may be represented by voltage, current, electromagnetic waves, magnetic fields or magnetic particles, optical fields or photons, or any combination thereof.

[0106] In addition, terms used in this disclosure and terms necessary for understanding this disclosure may be replaced with terms having the same or similar meanings. For example, at least one of the channel and symbol may be a signal (signaling). Also, a signal may be a message. Furthermore, a component carrier (CC) may be called a carrier frequency, cell, frequency carrier, etc.

[0107] The terms “system” and “network” as used in this disclosure are interchangeable.

[0108] Furthermore, the information, parameters, etc., described in this disclosure may be expressed using absolute values, relative values ​​from a given value, or other corresponding information. For example, wireless resources may be indicated by an index.

[0109] The names used for the parameters described above are not restrictive in any way. Furthermore, the formulas and other expressions using these parameters may differ from those expressly disclosed in this disclosure. Since various channels (e.g., PUCCH, PDCCH, etc.) and information elements can be identified by any suitable name, the various names assigned to these various channels and information elements are not restrictive in any way.

[0110] In this disclosure, terms such as "Base Station (BS)," "wireless base station," "fixed station," "NodeB," "eNodeB (eNB)," "gNodeB (gNB)," "access point," "transmission point," "reception point," "transmission / reception point," "cell," "sector," "cell group," "carrier," and "component carrier" may be used interchangeably. Base stations may also be referred to by terms such as macrocell, small cell, femtocell, and picocell.

[0111] A base station can house one or more (e.g., three) cells (also called sectors). If a base station houses multiple cells, the entire coverage area of ​​the base station can be divided into multiple smaller areas, each of which can also be provided with communication services by a base station subsystem (e.g., a small indoor base station (Remote Radio Head: RRH)).

[0112] The terms "cell" or "sector" refer to a portion or all of the coverage area of ​​at least one of the base stations and base station subsystems that provide communication services in this coverage.

[0113] In this disclosure, terms such as "Mobile Station (MS)," "user terminal," "User Equipment (UE)," and "terminal" may be used interchangeably.

[0114] A mobile station may also be referred to by those skilled in the art as a subscriber station, mobile unit, subscriber unit, wireless unit, remote unit, mobile device, wireless device, wireless communication device, remote device, mobile subscriber station, access terminal, mobile terminal, wireless terminal, remote terminal, handset, user agent, mobile client, client, or some other appropriate term.

[0115] At least one of the base station and the mobile station may be called a transmitting device, a receiving device, a communication device, etc. At least one of the base station and the mobile station may be a device mounted on a mobile body, the mobile body itself, etc. The mobile body may be a vehicle (e.g., a car, an airplane, etc.), an unmanned mobile body (e.g., a drone, an autonomous vehicle, etc.), or a robot (manned or unmanned). At least one of the base station and the mobile station may be a device that does not necessarily move during communication operation. For example, at least one of the base station and the mobile station may be an Internet of Things (IoT) device such as a sensor.

[0116] Furthermore, the term "base station" in this disclosure may be interpreted as "mobile station" (user terminal, hereinafter the same). For example, each aspect / embodiment of this disclosure may be applied to a configuration in which communication between a base station and a mobile station is replaced with communication between multiple mobile stations (which may be called, for example, Device-to-Device (D2D), Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X), etc.). In this case, the mobile station may have the functions that a base station has. Also, terms such as "uplink" and "downlink" may be interpreted as terms corresponding to terminal-to-terminal communication (for example, "side"). For example, uplink channel, downlink channel, etc. may be interpreted as side channel.

[0117] Similarly, the term "mobile station" in this disclosure may be interpreted as "base station." In this case, the base station may be configured to have the functions that a mobile station has.

[0118] A wireless frame may consist of one or more frames in the time domain. Each of these one or more frames in the time domain may be called a subframe.

[0119] A subframe may further consist of one or more slots in the time domain. A subframe may have a fixed time length that is independent of numerology (e.g., 1 ms).

[0120] Numerology may be communication parameters applied to at least one of the transmission and reception of a signal or channel. Numerology may include, for example, at least one of the following: subcarrier spacing (SCS), bandwidth, symbol length, cyclic prefix length, transmission time interval (TTI), number of symbols per TTI, radio frame configuration, specific filtering processes performed by the transceiver in the frequency domain, and specific windowing processes performed by the transceiver in the time domain.

[0121] A slot may consist of one or more symbols in the time domain (such as an Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) symbol or a Single Carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access (SC-FDMA) symbol). A slot may also be a time unit based on neurology.

[0122] A slot may include multiple minislots. Each minislot may consist of one or more symbols in the time domain. Minislots may also be called subslots. Minislots may consist of fewer symbols than a slot. A PDSCH (or PUSCH) transmitted in a time unit larger than a minislot may be called a PDSCH (or PUSCH) mapping type A. A PDSCH (or PUSCH) transmitted using a minislot may be called a PDSCH (or PUSCH) mapping type B.

[0123] Wireless frames, subframes, slots, minislots, and symbols all represent units of time when transmitting a signal. Different names may be used for each of these terms.

[0124] For example, one subframe may be called a Transmit Time Interval (TTI), multiple consecutive subframes may be called a TTI, or one slot or one minislot may be called a TTI. In other words, at least one of a subframe and a TTI may be a subframe (1 ms) in existing LTE, a period shorter than 1 ms (e.g., 1-13 symbols), or a period longer than 1 ms. Note that the unit representing the TTI may be called a slot, minislot, etc., instead of a subframe.

[0125] Here, TTI refers to, for example, the smallest unit of time for scheduling in wireless communication. For example, in an LTE system, the base station schedules each user terminal to allocate wireless resources (such as the frequency bandwidth and transmission power available to each user terminal) in TTI units. However, the definition of TTI is not limited to this.

[0126] TTI may be a transmission time unit for channel-encoded data packets (transport blocks), code blocks, code words, etc., or it may be a processing unit for scheduling, link adaptation, etc. Given a TTI, the actual time interval (e.g., number of symbols) to which the transport block, code block, code word, etc. are mapped may be shorter than the given TTI.

[0127] Furthermore, if one slot or one mini-slot is referred to as TTI, then one or more TTIs (i.e., one or more slots or one or more mini-slots) may constitute the minimum time unit of scheduling. In addition, the number of slots (number of mini-slots) that constitute this minimum time unit of scheduling may be controlled.

[0128] A TTI with a time length of 1ms may also be called a normal TTI, long TTI, normal subframe, long subframe, slot, etc. A TTI shorter than a normal TTI may also be called a shortened TTI, short TTI, partial or fractional TTI, shortened subframe, short subframe, mini slot, sub slot, slot, etc.

[0129] Furthermore, long TTIs (e.g., normal TTIs, subframes, etc.) may be interpreted as TTIs with a time length exceeding 1 ms, and short TTIs (e.g., shortened TTIs, etc.) may be interpreted as TTIs with a TTI length less than that of a long TTI but 1 ms or more.

[0130] A resource block (RB) is a resource allocation unit in the time domain and frequency domain, and in the frequency domain, it may include one or more consecutive subcarriers.

[0131] The number of subcarriers included in the RB may be the same regardless of the neurology, for example, it may be 12. The number of subcarriers included in the RB may be determined based on the neurology.

[0132] Furthermore, the time domain of the RB may contain one or more symbols and may be the length of one slot, one minislot, one subframe, or one TTI. One TTI, one subframe, etc., may each consist of one or more resource blocks.

[0133] One or more RBs may also be called a Physical RB (PRB), Sub-Carrier Group (SCG), Resource Element Group (REG), PRB pair, RB pair, etc.

[0134] Furthermore, a resource block may consist of one or more resource elements (REs). For example, one RE may be a radio resource area comprising one subcarrier and one symbol.

[0135] A Bandwidth Part (BWP), also known as a partial bandwidth, may represent a subset of consecutive common resource blocks (RBs) for a given neurology on a given carrier. Here, the common RBs may be identified by an index of the RBs relative to the carrier's common reference point. PRBs may be defined and numbered within a BWP.

[0136] A BWP may include BWPs for UL (UL BWP) and BWPs for DL ​​(DL BWP). One or more BWPs may be set within a single carrier for a UE.

[0137] At least one of the configured BWPs may be active, and the UE does not need to assume that it will send or receive a given signal / channel outside of the active BWP. In this disclosure, terms such as "cell" and "carrier" may be read as "BWP".

[0138] The structures described above, such as wireless frames, subframes, slots, minislots, and symbols, are merely illustrative. For example, the number of subframes included in a wireless frame, the number of slots per subframe or wireless frame, the number of minislots included in a slot, the number of symbols and RBs included in a slot or minislot, the number of subcarriers included in an RB, and the number of symbols, symbol length, and cyclic prefix (CP) length within the TTI can be varied in various ways.

[0139] The terms “connected,” “coupled,” or any variation thereof, mean any direct or indirect connection or coupling between two or more elements, and may include the presence of one or more intermediate elements between two elements that are “connected” or “coupled” with each other. The coupling or connection between elements may be physical, logical, or a combination thereof. For example, “connection” may be reinterpreted as “access.” As used in this disclosure, two elements may be considered to be “connected” or “coupled” with each other using at least one of one or more wires, cables, and printed electrical connections, and, in some non-limiting and non-exclusive examples, electromagnetic energy having wavelengths in the radio frequency domain, microwave domain, and optical (both visible and invisible) domain.

[0140] The reference signal can also be abbreviated as Reference Signal (RS), and may be called a pilot depending on the applicable standard.

[0141] In this disclosure, the phrase "based on" does not mean "based solely on" unless otherwise specified. In other words, the phrase "based on" means both "based solely on" and "based at least on."

[0142] Any reference to elements using designations such as “First,” “Second,” etc., as used in this disclosure does not generally limit the quantity or order of those elements. These designations may be used in this disclosure as a convenient way to distinguish between two or more elements. Accordingly, references to the First and Second elements do not imply that only two elements may be employed therein, or that the First element must precede the Second element in any way.

[0143] Where the terms “include,” “including,” and variations thereof are used in this disclosure, these terms are intended to be inclusive, as is the term “comprising.” Furthermore, the term “or” as used in this disclosure is not intended to mean exclusive OR.

[0144] In this disclosure, if articles are added through translation, such as a, an, and the in English, this disclosure may include the fact that the noun following these articles is plural.

[0145] As used in this disclosure, the terms “determining” and “determining” may encompass a wide variety of actions. “Determining” may include, for example, judging, calculating, computing, processing, deriving, investigating, looking up, searching, inquiry (e.g., searching in a table, database, or other data structure), and ascertaining. “Determining” may also include, for example, receiving (e.g., receiving information), transmitting (e.g., sending information), input, output, and accessing (e.g., accessing data in memory). Furthermore, "judgment" and "decision" can include considering something as having been "judged" or "decided" after resolving, selecting, choosing, establishing, comparing, etc. In other words, "judgment" and "decision" can include considering something as having been "judged" or "decided" after some action. Also, "judgment (decision)" can be reinterpreted as "assuming," "expecting," or "considering."

[0146] In this disclosure, the term "A and B are different" may mean "A and B are different from each other." Furthermore, the term may also mean "A and B are each different from C." Terms such as "separate" and "combine" may be interpreted in the same way as "different."

[0147] Although the present disclosure has been described in detail above, it will be clear to those skilled in the art that the present disclosure is not limited to the embodiments described herein. The present disclosure can be implemented in modified and altered forms without departing from the intent and scope of the present disclosure as defined by the claims. Therefore, the descriptions in the present disclosure are illustrative and not intended to be restrictive in any way. [Explanation of Symbols]

[0148] 10 Communication Systems 20 (3GPP) Networks 30 (non-3GPP) networks 100 wireless base stations 200 terminals 210 Wireless Transmitter 220 Wireless Receiver 240 Control Unit 300 contract sites 400 Subscriber (SM) Management Server 410 Transmitter 420 Receiver 440 Control Unit 500 Customer Management System 600 Authentication Server 1001 Processor 1002 memory 1003 Storage 1004 Communication device 1005 Input device 1006 Output device 1007 Bus

Claims

1. A transmitting unit that sends an activation code (AC) to the terminal, A receiving unit receives from the terminal side a request for a profile to be set in the embedded subscriber identification module, which corresponds to the activation code. Equipped with, The activation code or profile includes a server containing a program or instruction information that controls the transmission of terminal identification information.

2. The server according to claim 1, wherein the program is an applet that controls the transmission of the terminal identification information.

3. The server according to claim 1, wherein the instruction information is a command to transmit the terminal identification information.

4. A receiving unit that receives an activation code (AC) from the network, A transmission unit that transmits a request for a profile corresponding to the activation code to the network, A control unit that sets the aforementioned profile in an embedded subscriber identification module, A device equipped with, A transmitting unit that transmits the activation code to the terminal side, A receiving unit that receives a request for a profile corresponding to the activation code from the terminal side, The system includes a server which contains a program or instruction information that controls the activation code or profile to transmit terminal identification information of the terminal, A communication system equipped with this system.

5. The steps include sending an Activation Code (AC) from the network to the terminal, The steps include receiving a request for a profile corresponding to the activation code from the terminal, A communication method comprising a program or instruction information that controls the activation code or profile to transmit terminal identification information of the terminal to the network.

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