Dynamic Preferred Roaming List Update for Unauthorized Access Control
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Solution Overview
Problem
Continuous registration attempts by unauthorized user equipment (UE) consume network traffic channel resources, leading to network overload and performance issues in wireless service provider networks.
Innovation Solution
A wireless service provider updates the preferred roaming list (PRL) of a UE to prioritize a different network, allowing the UE to search for and register with another service provider's network, thereby freeing up resources and maintaining control over unauthorized access.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the UE continuously attempts to register with the highest priority network in its PRL, then the UE maintains its preference for the original service provider network, but the network resources are consumed and overloaded by unauthorized access attempts
Solution Approach 1:
The PRL is made dynamic and adjustable rather than fixed. The wireless service provider can modify the PRL by reordering network entries based on authentication status, moving authorized networks to higher priorities and unauthorized networks to lower priorities or removing them entirely. This dynamic adjustment allows the system to adapt to changing authentication states while optimizing resource utilization.
Solution Approach 2:
The priority parameters of network entries in the PRL are changed based on authentication status. Authorized networks are assigned higher priority values while unauthorized networks are assigned lower priority values or removed from the list. This parameter modification enables the UE to automatically adjust its registration behavior and reduce unnecessary network resource consumption.
2Ease of operation
If the PRL lists the home network at the highest priority, then the UE naturally prefers to register with the home network, but unauthorized UEs continue to consume network resources through continuous registration attempts
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements feedback mechanisms where the wireless service provider monitors authentication status and uses this information to modify the PRL. The feedback loop detects unauthorized registration attempts and responds by adjusting network priority ordering in the PRL, thereby automatically reducing resource consumption by unauthorized UEs while maintaining normal operation for authorized users.
Solution Approach 2:
Unauthorized network entries are extracted or removed from the PRL, or their priority is reduced to the bottom of the list. This extraction eliminates the harmful effect of unauthorized UEs continuously attempting to register with the home network, freeing up network resources while preserving the ease of operation for authorized users who can still register normally with authorized networks.
3Reliability
If the wireless service provider maintains control over unauthorized UEs through continuous authentication attempts, then authentication security is preserved, but network channel resources become overloaded
Solution Approach 1:
The wireless service provider performs preliminary action by pre-configuring the PRL with appropriate network priority orderings before authentication issues arise. When unauthorized access is detected, the provider can immediately implement PRL modifications without needing to establish complex real-time authentication frameworks, thereby maintaining security while reducing network management complexity.
Data Source
AI summary
Methods and systems for modifying a preferred roaming list (PRL) of a subscriber user equipment (UE) are provided. In a wireless communication system, a first wireless service provider is associated with a first radio access network (RAN) and maintains a subscriber account associated with a given UE. When the first RAN receives a registration request from the UE, the first RAN responsively (i) attempts to authenticate the UE, and (ii) upon a failure to authenticate the UE, the first RAN updates the PRL to then list a second RAN associated with a second wireless service provider as the highest priority network in the PRL.