IP Proxy for T8 API and IoT Device Interworking
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Solution Overview
Problem
Mobile network operators face challenges in supporting both T8 API and IP-based devices due to incompatibilities, particularly in providing services to IoT devices in eDRX and PSM modes, maintaining legacy data interfaces, and ensuring security and computational efficiency across various protocols like LWM2M, CoAP, and MQTT.
Innovation Solution
The introduction of an IP Proxy within the NEF/SCEF node that translates messages between T8 API and IP-based devices, enabling the AF node to service IoT devices by converting T8 messages to IP messages and vice versa, thus addressing interworking issues and extending services to IP devices.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If an AF node maintains both T8 API and legacy data interfaces to service older devices, then compatibility with legacy devices is improved, but device complexity and computational load increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a gateway as an intermediary component that translates between T8 API messages and legacy data interface protocols. This gateway acts as a mediator, allowing the AF node to communicate with both T8 API-compliant IoT devices and older devices using legacy protocols without requiring the AF node to maintain multiple interfaces directly. The gateway handles protocol conversion, reducing the complexity at the AF node while maintaining compatibility with legacy devices.
2Reliability
If certificate-based security or MVPN is provided for IP devices, then security is improved, but computational load increases due to managing T8 IoT devices
Solution Approach 1:
The gateway serves as an intermediary that handles security management for IP devices, implementing certificate-based security or MVPN protections. By placing the security management functions in the gateway rather than in the AF node, the patent reduces the computational load on the AF node while maintaining robust security for IP device communications. The gateway manages the complexity of security protocols while the AF node focuses on application-level operations.
3Use of energy by moving object
If T8 API framework is used for IoT devices with eDRX and PSM capabilities, then energy efficiency of devices is improved, but network compatibility and service availability worsen
Solution Approach 1:
The gateway acts as an intermediary that bridges T8 API messages with IP-based network protocols, enabling IoT devices using energy-efficient modes like eDRX and PSM to communicate over IP networks. The gateway handles the protocol translation and network compatibility issues, allowing devices to operate in low-power modes while maintaining network compatibility and service availability through the gateway's mediation capabilities.
Data Source
AI summary
A system may receive a request from the UE device to establish a session over a user plane of a network; establish a session over the user plane in response to the request from the UE device; receive, at a first node, uplink IP data from the UE device over the session; redirect the received IP data at the first node to a second node for translating IP data to a T8 message; translate, at the second node, the redirected IP data to a first T8 message; and forward the first T8 message to an application server or an application function (AF) node.