UE Route Selection Policy Screening for Network Privacy Control
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing telecommunications networks face challenges in balancing user privacy with the core network's awareness of user equipment route selection policy rules, leading to potential privacy violations.
Innovation Solution
User equipment is equipped with a user equipment route selection policy functionality that includes a security policy indication, allowing it to determine if incoming policy information contradicts its security policy. If a conflict is detected, the user equipment can reject the policy information and notify the core network, providing a confirmation or rejection prompt.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the core network mandates user equipment route selection policy rules to steer traffic, then network control and traffic management are improved, but user privacy is compromised due to core network awareness of policy rule usage
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the route selection policy functionality into two parts: the core network retains policy definition and distribution capabilities, while the user equipment gains autonomous evaluation and selection capabilities through the security policy indication. This segmentation allows the core network to control policy distribution without fully knowing which policies are actually applied, thus protecting user privacy while maintaining network control.
Solution Approach 2:
The user equipment route selection policy functionality acts as an intermediary between the core network and the actual traffic routing decisions. It receives policy information from the core network, evaluates it against locally stored security policy indications, and independently decides whether to apply each policy rule. This intermediary role prevents the core network from directly controlling or knowing about specific policy applications, thereby protecting user privacy.
2Object-affected harmful factors
If the user equipment autonomously evaluates and selects route selection policies based on security policy indications, then user privacy is protected, but network control and policy enforcement capability are reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The user equipment is pre-configured with security policy indications that establish evaluation criteria before receiving actual route selection policy information from the core network. These pre-stored security policies enable the user equipment to autonomously evaluate incoming policy rules against predetermined security criteria, protecting user privacy from the outset while maintaining a structured evaluation process that preserves essential network control.
Data Source
AI summary
A method for using or applying user equipment route selection policy information when operating a user equipment connected to a telecommunications network includes: in a first step, a user equipment route selection policy functionality determines whether a considered piece of user equipment route selection policy information is in accordance with or matches a user equipment route selection policy security policy indication; and in a second step and in case of the considered piece of user equipment route selection policy information being determined as contradicting or conflicting the user equipment route selection policy security policy indication, the considered piece of user equipment route selection policy information is not applied to user plane data, or a confirmation or rejection prompt is generated by the user equipment, prompting a user of the user equipment to either accept or to reject the considered piece of user equipment route selection policy information.