Connectivity Service Platform Subscription Fall-back Mechanism
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Radio devices with embedded Universal Integrated Circuit Cards (eUICC) face challenges in maintaining network connectivity due to the loss of subscription management, as they may not have an active secondary subscription to fall back to when primary connectivity is lost, preventing them from switching to another operator's network.
Innovation Solution
A connectivity service platform is enabled to fall back to a secondary subscription, sending a reject message to the radio device with a fall-back indication, allowing the device to switch from the primary to the secondary subscription for network connectivity, thereby maintaining communication.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the eUICC is configured with a fall-back mechanism to switch to a secondary subscription when primary connectivity is lost, then network connectivity reliability is improved, but the device complexity increases due to multiple subscription management requirements
Solution Approach 1:
The eUICC is pre-configured with a fall-back subscription and the fall-back mechanism is established in advance through remote provisioning. When the primary subscription becomes unavailable, the device can immediately switch to the pre-configured fall-back subscription without requiring complex real-time decision-making or additional configuration actions, thus improving reliability while managing complexity through advance preparation
Solution Approach 2:
A connectivity service platform acts as an intermediary between the device and multiple network operators. This platform manages the fall-back subscription and coordinates the switching process, reducing the complexity burden on the device itself while ensuring reliable connectivity through centralized management of multiple subscription profiles
2Ease of operation
If the device maintains only a single primary subscription to simplify device complexity, then ease of operation is improved, but reliability deteriorates when the primary subscription becomes unavailable and no fall-back option exists
Solution Approach 1:
The fall-back mechanism is designed to operate autonomously without requiring manual user intervention. When the primary subscription fails, the device automatically detects the connectivity loss and switches to the fall-back subscription based on pre-configured parameters, maintaining ease of operation while improving reliability through automated failover
Solution Approach 2:
The fall-back subscription and switching parameters are pre-configured in the eUICC before deployment. This preliminary configuration allows the device to maintain operational simplicity while having reliable fallback options available, as the complexity of subscription management is resolved in advance rather than during operation
Data Source
AI summary
A method is described herein that is performed by a connectivity service platform in a communication network. The platform is enabled to communicate with a radio device via a wireless network connection of a first subscription of the radio device. The method comprises falling back to a second subscription, thereby enabling the connectivity service platform to communicate with the radio device via a wireless network connection of said second subscription of the radio device instead of the first subscription. The method also comprises receiving a request message from the radio device via the network connection of the first subscription. The method also comprises sending a reject message to the radio device, in response to the received request message and in view of the platform having fallen back to the second subscription. The reject message comprises a fall-back indication for instructing the radio device to fall back from the first subscription.