Network Node Identity Mapping for IMS Authentication
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Solution Overview
Problem
IMS networks face challenges in processing data due to the requirement of both public and private user identities for authentication, despite underlying data being stored only at the scope of a private user identity, leading to inefficiencies in the Cx Multimedia-Auth-Request/Answer flow.
Innovation Solution
A network node separate from the subscriber configuration node retrieves and transmits a public user identity from a user identity database based on a provided private user identity, enabling authorization requests even when a public user identity is absent, by caching mappings between public and private user identities.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If both public and private user identities are required for authentication in the Cx Multimedia-Auth-Request/Answer flow, then authentication security is maintained, but processing efficiency deteriorates due to unnecessary complexity when data is stored only at private user identity scope
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts only the necessary identity information (private user identity) from the authentication request and retrieves the corresponding public user identity from a cached mapping table, rather than requiring both identities to be present in the original request. This selective extraction maintains security while improving processing efficiency.
Solution Approach 2:
The system pre-establishes and caches the mapping relationship between public and private user identities before authentication occurs. This preliminary action allows the authentication process to proceed efficiently by simply looking up the cached mapping rather than performing complex identity resolution during authentication.
2Adaptability or versatility
If the Cx interface requires both public and private user identities to be provided, then IMS standard compliance is maintained, but operational flexibility deteriorates when only private user identity is available
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an intermediary mapping table that stores the relationship between public and private user identities. This intermediary structure allows the system to comply with IMS standards requiring both identities while accepting requests that initially contain only the private user identity, thus maintaining both standard compliance and operational flexibility.
3Reliability
If a network node retrieves public user identity from a database during authentication, then authorization requests can be constructed with complete identity information, but authentication latency increases due to additional database lookup operations
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs the database lookup operation in advance and caches the mapping between public and private user identities in a local mapping table. During authentication, the system simply queries this pre-populated cache rather than performing a database lookup, thereby maintaining authorization completeness while significantly reducing authentication latency.
Solution Approach 2:
The system maintains a cached mapping table that may contain more mapping entries than immediately needed (excessive action), allowing rapid lookups during authentication without requiring real-time database access. This partial caching strategy balances storage overhead against authentication speed.
Data Source
AI summary
At a network node separate from a subscriber configuration network node configured to store subscriber configuration data for a plurality of subscriber devices, a request to access configuration data associated with a subscriber stored at the subscriber configuration network node is received. In response to the received access request comprising a private user identity for the subscriber, but not a public user identity for the subscriber, the network node retrieves, from a user identity database configured to store user identity data for identifying subscribers in the network, a public user identity for the subscriber, the retrieval being carried out on the basis of the private user identity for the subscriber comprised in the received access request, and transmits an authorization request to the subscriber configuration network node comprising the public user identity retrieved from the user identity database and the private user identity comprised in the received access request.