Encrypted Paging Identifier for Wireless Privacy
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current wireless communication systems face challenges in preserving user privacy during paging, as they often rely on long-term subscriber identities that can be traced by eavesdroppers, especially when temporary identifiers are lost or unavailable, leading to potential privacy breaches.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a method where wireless devices are paged using an encrypted or pseudonym subscription identifier, allowing them to respond with a different identifier, thereby protecting user privacy even without a security context or temporary subscription identifier.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a long-term subscription identifier (e.g., IMSI) is used in paging messages, then the device can be reliably paged even when temporary identifiers are lost or unavailable, but the subscriber's privacy is exposed to eavesdroppers who can track and identify the subscriber
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an encrypted subscription identifier as an intermediary between the long-term identifier and the paging message. This intermediary conceals the actual IMSI while still enabling reliable device identification and paging, thus resolving the contradiction between paging reliability and privacy protection
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates a copy of the subscription identifier in encrypted form to be used in paging messages. This encrypted copy serves the same functional purpose as the original IMSI for device identification but without exposing the actual identifier, thereby maintaining reliability while protecting privacy
2Object-affected harmful factors
If a temporary subscription identifier (e.g., TMSI) is used in paging messages, then the subscriber's privacy is protected from tracking, but the network cannot page the device when the temporary identifier has not been assigned or has been lost
Solution Approach 1:
The patent performs preliminary encryption of the subscription identifier and stores the encrypted version in the network before it is needed for paging. This preliminary action ensures that when temporary identifiers fail, the encrypted identifier is already available to maintain paging reliability without compromising privacy
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the parameter of the subscription identifier from plaintext to encrypted form. This parameter change allows the identifier to serve dual purposes: maintaining privacy protection while ensuring paging reliability even when temporary identifiers are unavailable
Data Source
AI summary
A wireless device (16) configured to receive from a network node (20) a page (18) that includes a paging identifier (18A) 4 for the wireless device (16). The paging identifier (18A) may identify as a target of the page (18) a wireless device (16) associated with a particular subscriber. In fact, in some embodiments, the paging identifier (18A) is based on an encrypted subscription identifier for the wireless device (16) or is a pseudonym subscription identifier for the wireless device (16). In any event, the wireless device (16) is also configured to transmit to the network node (20) a response (22) to the page (18) that indicates the wireless device (16) was paged but that includes an identifier for the wireless device (16) that is different than the paging identifier (18A) included in the page (18).