Remote Provisioning Service for Disaster Roaming
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing solutions for national roaming in disaster situations are limited by the requirement for both the user equipment (UE) and the PLMN to be compliant with Release 17 or higher, which is not feasible in the short term, especially in rural areas where disaster situations can occur.
Innovation Solution
A method for user equipment (UE) to manage national roaming in disaster situations by scanning for active base stations, sending a bootstrapping credential with a disaster situation indication to a remote provisioning service server, and receiving a temporary disaster identifier to connect to a visitor national PLMN.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the standardized Rel.-17 national roaming solution is implemented, then roaming capability is improved, but device compatibility and network availability are worsened because it requires both UE and PLMN to be compliant with Release 17 or higher
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a Remote Provisioning Service (RPS) server as an intermediary between the UE and the visited PLMN. The RPS server stores and manages credential sets for multiple PLMNs, including disaster roaming credentials. When a UE loses connection to its home PLMN, the RPS server provides appropriate credentials enabling the UE to connect to a visited PLMN without requiring the UE or visited PLMN to support Rel.-17 standards. This intermediary approach resolves the contradiction by decoupling the roaming capability from high-version requirements.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements preliminary provisioning of credential sets to UEs through the RPS server before disaster situations occur. The RPS server pre-stores credential sets for multiple PLMNs, including disaster roaming credentials. When needed, the appropriate credentials are quickly provisioned to the UE, enabling immediate connection to a visited PLMN without requiring complex real-time authentication or high-version protocol support.
2Power
If 5G standalone architecture is deployed first in urban areas, then network performance is improved, but rural area coverage and disaster response capability are worsened due to delayed upgrades
Solution Approach 1:
The patent makes the Remote Provisioning Service universal by enabling it to operate across different network generations and architectures. The RPS server can provide disaster roaming credentials for both 5G and legacy 4G/LTE networks, allowing UEs to connect to appropriate networks based on availability rather than requiring 5G standalone architecture. This multi-functionality ensures that rural areas with legacy infrastructure can still provide disaster response capabilities.
3Adaptability or versatility
If legacy devices are used in rural areas, then device availability is improved, but access to modern networks is worsened due to lack of Rel.-17 compliance
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the authentication parameter approach by introducing credential sets that work across different protocol versions. Instead of requiring UEs to support specific high-version protocols, the RPS server provides credential sets that enable legacy UEs to authenticate and connect to visited PLMNs using their existing capabilities. This parameter change in the authentication mechanism allows legacy devices to access modern networks during disaster situations.
Data Source
AI summary
The present invention relates to a method to manage national roaming in disaster situation, said method comprising the steps of, for the user equipment, when an outage of the home PLMN is detected:—scanning supported frequency domain to find an active base station, whatever is the PLMN,—sending to a remote provisioning service server, using said active base station, a message comprising a bootstrapping credential with a disaster situation indication for being provisioned with credentials,—receiving in return, from the remote provisioning service server, a temporary disaster identifier for a visitor national PLMN,—using the temporary disaster identifier, connecting to the visitor national PLMN.