WO2011116713A2

WO2011116713A2 - Method, device and system for machine type communication (mtc) terminal communicating with network through gateway

Info

Publication number: WO2011116713A2
Application number: PCT/CN2011/073429
Authority: WO
Inventors: 郭雅莉
Original assignee: 华为技术有限公司
Priority date: 2011-04-28
Filing date: 2011-04-28
Publication date: 2011-09-29
Also published as: CN102204306A; WO2011116713A3

Abstract

The present invention discloses a method for a Machine Type Communication (MTC) terminal accessing a network through an MTC gateway, the method includes that: the MTC gateway accesses the network as a user equipment, establishes a communication connection with a server used for authentication authorization in the network, cooperates with the server used for authentication authorization to authenticate the accessed MTC terminal, and according to the authentication result determines whether to establish the communication connection between the MTC terminal and the network. The embodiments of the present invention also disclose the corresponding MTC gateway and communication system. By using the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present invention, equipments in the network can identify the accessed MTC terminal through the authentication process, then according to the authentication result determine whether to establish the communication connection between the MTC terminal and the network, thus can control whether the special MTC terminal is allowed to communicate with the network.

Description

Method, device and system for communication between MTC terminal and network through gateway

The present invention relates to the field of communications technologies, and in particular, to a method, device, and system for an MTC terminal to communicate with a network through an MTC gateway.

Background technique

Machine Type Communications (MTC) refers to network communication between one or more network elements without human intervention, such as traffic control and management, remote meter reading, remote monitoring, mobile payment, Location tracking, medical monitoring and other applications.

The widespread use of MTC has led to a rapid increase in the number of wireless communication terminals. To this end, the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) has introduced the MTC Gateway (GW) device, which acts as a normal user equipment ( The user equipment (UE) accesses the 3GPP network, and the MTC terminal (Device) can access the 3GPP network through the MTC gateway. As shown in FIG. 1, the MTC terminal and the MTC gateway are connected by a non-3GPP IP access system (hereinafter referred to as a non-3GPP system), for example, a short distance such as Bluetooth or a Zigbee. Communication technology; The MTC gateway is connected to the 3GPP access network through 3GPP air interface technology. The following is an example.

Referring to FIG. 2, in a System Architecture Evolution (SAE) communication system, a UE accesses a mobile network management entity (Mobile Management Entity, MME) and a serving gateway (Serving Gateway) through an evolved base station (eNodeB, eNB). S-GW), and connected to the Packet Data Network (PDN) gateway (P-GW) via the S-GW.

Referring to FIG. 3, in a Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) communication system, a UE is connected to a Radio Network Controller (RNC) through a base station (NodeB) and then accesses a core network. The Serving GPRS (General Packet Radio Service Support Node) of the General Packet Radio Service (SGSN) is connected to the Gateway GPRS Support Node (GGSN) of the General Packet Radio Service through the SGSN.

Introducing an MTC gateway device in the system so that the MTC terminal can access the network through the MTC gateway. The technology is not limited to the above-mentioned WCDMA communication system and Long Term Evolution (LTE) communication system, and can be applied to other communication systems such as Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) communication systems and the world. Global System for Mobile communication (GSM), which is not listed here.

In the above application, the MTC gateway accesses the carrier network as a common user equipment, and replaces the MTC terminal connected to it with the service server in the operator network, and the information sent by the MTC terminal carries the application layer service data of the MTC gateway. in the bag. For the carrier network, it can be seen that the MTC gateway communicates with the outside through the carrier network, but the MTC terminal connected to the MTC gateway is invisible. Therefore, as long as the MTC gateway successfully accesses the carrier network, any MTC terminal can access the carrier network through the MTC gateway to perform services, and the operator cannot control whether a specific MTC terminal is allowed to access the network, for example, one does not and the operator. The contracted MTC terminal can also conduct services through the MTC gateway.

Summary of the invention

Embodiments of the present invention provide a method, device, and system for an MTC terminal to communicate with a network through an MTC gateway.

A method for an MTC terminal to communicate with a network through an MTC gateway, including:

The MTC gateway accesses the network as a user equipment, and establishes a communication connection with a server for authentication and authentication in the network;

The MTC gateway authenticates the accessed MTC terminal with the server for authentication and authentication, and determines whether to establish a communication connection between the MTC terminal and the network according to the authentication result.

An MTC gateway, including:

a user equipment module, configured to access a network, and establish a communication connection with a server for authentication and authentication in the network;

An authentication and authentication service module, configured to perform authentication on the accessed MTC terminal by using the server for authentication and authentication;

And a communication connection establishing module, configured to determine, according to the authentication result, whether a communication connection is established between the MTC terminal and the network. A communication system comprising:

The above-mentioned MTC gateway, an MTC terminal connected to the MTC gateway through an air interface technology of a non-3rd Generation Partnership Project 3GPP, and a network connected to the MTC gateway through a 3GPP control interface technology, the network includes Authentication authentication server.

The method provided by the embodiment of the present invention uses the MTC gateway to cooperate with the server for authentication and authentication in the network to authenticate the accessed MTC terminal, and determines whether to establish a communication connection between the MTC terminal and the network according to the authentication result. Program. With the technical solution, the device in the network can identify the accessed MTC terminal through the authentication process, and further can determine whether to establish a communication connection between the MTC terminal and the network according to the authentication result, thereby controlling whether to allow a specific MTC terminal. Communicate with the network.

DRAWINGS

1 is a schematic diagram of a network architecture of an existing 3GPP system;

2 is a schematic diagram of a network architecture of a conventional S AE communication system;

3 is a schematic diagram of a network architecture of a conventional WCDMA communication system;

4 is a flow chart of a method for an MTC terminal to communicate with a network through an MTC gateway according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of an example of an application scenario used in the method of the embodiment of the present invention; FIG.

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of another embodiment of a method according to an embodiment of the present invention;

7 is a schematic diagram showing the logical structure of an MTC gateway according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram of a network architecture of a communication system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

detailed description

The embodiment of the present invention provides a method for the MTC terminal to communicate with the network through the MTC gateway, and the MTC gateway cooperates with the server for authentication and authentication in the network to authenticate the accessed MTC terminal, and determines whether the MTC is based on the authentication result. A technical solution for establishing a communication connection between a terminal and a network. With the technical solution, the device in the network can identify the accessed MTC terminal through the authentication process, and can further determine whether to establish a communication connection between the MTC terminal and the network according to the authentication certificate, thereby controlling whether to allow a specific MTC terminal. Communicate with the network. Embodiments of the present invention also provide a corresponding MTC gateway and communication system. The details are described below separately. Referring to FIG. 4, an embodiment of the present invention provides a method for a device type communication MTC terminal to communicate with a network through an MTC gateway, including:

101. The MTC gateway accesses the network as a user equipment, and establishes a communication connection with a server used for authentication and authentication in the network.

In the communication system to which the method of the present invention is applied, the network may be a 3GPP network, such as a PDN network, and the carrier network needs to include a server for authentication authentication, such as an authentication, authorization, and accounting server (Authentication Authorization Accounting, AAA), and Home Subscriber Server (HSS), to facilitate authentication and authentication of the MTC terminal. On the user side, the communication system needs to include a control module that is not a 3GPP air interface technology, so that the MTC gateway can be connected to the MTC terminal through a non-3GPP air interface technology such as Bluetooth or a pico bee; on the network side, the MTC gateway can pass the 3GPP air interface technology and operation. The business network is connected. It should be noted that the non-3GPP air interface technology is not limited to Bluetooth or pico bee technology, and any non-3GPP air interface access technology can be used.

102. The MTC gateway cooperates with the server for authentication and authentication to authenticate the accessed MTC terminal, and determines whether to establish a communication connection between the MTC terminal and the network according to the authentication result.

One end of the MTC gateway is connected to the MTC terminal, and the other end is connected to a server for authentication authentication of the MTC terminal, such as HSS/AAA. The MTC gateway is specifically configured to parse and encapsulate the authentication authentication request message sent by the MTC terminal to the server in the authentication and authentication process, and then forward the authentication authentication response message sent by the server to the MTC terminal. Therefore, the MTC gateway can obtain the authentication result from the received authentication authentication response message, and determine whether to establish a communication connection between the MTC terminal and the network according to the authentication result.

The MTC gateway cooperates with the server for authentication and authentication to authenticate the accessed MTC terminal, and specifically: the Internet Key Exchange (IKE) protocol is used to authenticate the accessed MTC terminal; Or use the Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP) to authenticate the accessed MTC terminal. If the IKE protocol is used, for example, IKEv2 performs authentication and authentication, the MTC gateway needs to have the IKEv2-based authentication and authentication function. If EAP is used for authentication and authentication, the MTC gateway needs to have the EAP-based authentication and authentication function. Since the control module of the non-3GPP air interface technology has an authentication and authentication function for the terminal, in one implementation manner, The control module of the non-3GPP air interface technology is integrated in the MTC gateway, so that the MTC gateway can directly use the control module to authenticate the accessed MTC terminal with the server for authentication and authentication.

After receiving the authentication and authentication response message that is sent by the server and carrying the authentication and authentication result, the MTC gateway parses the authentication and authentication response message, and obtains the authentication result, that is, whether the communication between the MTC terminal and the network is established according to the authentication result. connection. If the authentication is passed, a communication connection is established between the MTC terminal and the network; otherwise, the MTC terminal is denied access to the carrier network. The step of establishing a communication connection between the MTC terminal and the network may be: connecting the MTC terminal with a gateway in the carrier network, establishing a communication connection between the MTC terminal and the gateway, for example, in the carrier network. In the case of a PDN network, a communication connection is established between the MTC terminal and the PDN gateway.

Wherein, establishing a communication connection between the MTC terminal and the PDN gateway may take various manners. In one embodiment, a tunneling technique can be used to establish a communication connection between the MTC terminal and the PDN gateway for data exchange. For example, a tunnel establishment technique based on Proxy mobile IP (Internet Protocol), PMIP may be employed. The specific steps may be: establishing a data tunnel from the MTC gateway to the PDN gateway, and establishing a data tunnel from the MTC gateway to the MTC terminal, where the two tunnels are connected at the MTC gateway, so that the MTC terminal and the PDN gateway can perform data through the data tunnel. exchange.

After the MTC gateway establishes the data tunnel of the MTC gateway to the PDN gateway and the MTC gateway to the MTC terminal, the MTC gateway also needs to receive the IP address of the PDN address space allocated by the PDN gateway for the MTC terminal, and send the IP address to the MTC terminal. The IP address is an IP address that the MTC terminal should use in the PDN network, and is used by the MTC terminal in the upper application layer communication.

In another embodiment, a Net Address (NAT) technology can be used to establish a communication connection between the MTC terminal and the PDN gateway for data exchange. NAT belongs to

The MTC gateway can locally establish a NAT forwarding item for data forwarding, so that the MTC gateway can exchange data between the MTC terminal and the PDN gateway through the NAT forwarding item.

After the MTC gateway establishes a network address translation NAT forwarding item for data forwarding, it also needs to allocate an IP address belonging to the MTC gateway address space to the MTC terminal, and send the IP address to the MTC terminal. Not for the PDN network, so the MTC gateway can assign any available IP address to the MTC terminal. This IP address will be used by the MTC terminal in the upper application layer communication.

The method provided by the embodiment of the present invention, the server used for authentication and authentication in the MTC gateway cooperation network authenticates the accessed MTC terminal, and the MTC terminal is visible to the network, and the device in the network can identify through the authentication process. Accessing the MTC terminal; establishing a communication connection between the MTC terminal and the network through a NAT or tunneling method in the data plane. The MTC gateway needs to have the function of authenticating the authentication client, and can cooperate with the server for authentication and authentication to authenticate the MTC terminal to realize the visibility of the MTC terminal to the operator network; and also has the control capability, and can determine whether the authentication result is based on the authentication result. A communication connection is established between the MTC terminal and the network.

With the technical solution of the embodiment of the present invention, the device in the network can identify the accessed MTC terminal through the authentication process, and further can determine whether to establish a communication connection between the MTC terminal and the network according to the authentication result, so as to control whether a specific The MTC terminal communicates with the network. On the basis of being able to identify the MTC terminal, it is also possible to charge a specific MTC terminal. The method provided by the embodiment of the present invention is further described below in conjunction with a specific application scenario. Referring to FIG. 5, in an application scenario, the carrier network is a PDN network, the PDN network includes a PDN gateway, and a server HSS/AAA for authentication; the user side includes an MTC terminal, and a non-3GPP system; the MTC terminal can pass The MTC gateway is connected to the PDN network. The MTC gateway has an IKEv2-based authentication function, and the MTC gateway also has a UE module for accessing the network. The method of the present invention implemented in this application scenario includes:

201. After the MTC gateway is started, the built-in UE module first completes the network access process. This process enables the MTC gateway to gain access to the network.

202. After the MTC terminal is started, first search for the available non-3GPP systems around, and complete the process of accessing the non-3GPP system. The non-3GPP system will assign a local IP address to the MTC terminal. At this point, the MTC terminal has the IP access capability at this time.

203. The MTC terminal initiates an IKEv2-based authentication process, and the MTC gateway cooperates with the PDN network.

The HSS/AAA completes the authentication authentication of the MTC terminal by the HSS/AAA.

204. The MTC gateway determines, according to the authentication result, whether to establish a PDN to the PDN network for the MTC terminal. The data tunnel of the gateway implements establishing a communication connection between the MTC terminal and the network.

205. If the MTC terminal passes the authentication, the PDN gateway establishes a data tunnel to the PDN gateway for the MTC terminal based on the PMIP tunnel establishment procedure.

206. After the data tunnel is established, the MTC gateway returns the IP address that should be used in the PDN network to the MTC terminal. The IP address is assigned by the PDN gateway and will be used by the MTC terminal for upper layer application layer communication.

In this application scenario, the MTC gateway can cooperate with the HSS/AAA to authenticate the MTC terminal, and determine whether to establish a data tunnel to the PDN gateway for the MTC terminal according to the authentication result. Therefore, the device in the network can identify the accessed MTC terminal through the authentication process, and can further determine whether to establish a communication connection between the MTC terminal and the network according to the authentication result, thereby controlling whether to allow a specific MTC terminal to communicate with the network. Please refer to Figure 6. In another application scenario, the MTC gateway can use NAT technology to establish a communication connection between the MTC terminal and the network to implement data exchange. Therefore, the MTC gateway device does not need to support the PMIP function, which will greatly reduce the implementation complexity. The method of the present invention implemented in this application scenario includes:

301. After the MTC gateway is started, its built-in UE module first completes the network access process. This process enables the MTC gateway to gain access to the network.

302. After the MTC terminal is started, first search for the available non-3GPP systems around, and complete the process of accessing the non-3GPP system. The non-3GPP system will assign a local IP address to the MTC terminal. At this point, the MTC terminal has the IP access capability at this time.

303. The MTC terminal initiates an IKEv2-based authentication process, and the MTC gateway cooperates with the HSS/AAA in the PDN network to complete the authentication and authentication of the MTC device by the HSS/AAA.

304. The MTC gateway determines, according to the authentication result, whether a NAT forwarding entry for data forwarding is established for the MTC terminal, so as to establish a communication connection between the MTC terminal and the network.

305. If the MTC terminal passes the authentication, the PDN gateway will establish a NAT forwarding entry, and the NAT^3⁄4 is a port technology. Therefore, an IPSec tunnel to the MTC terminal will correspond to a port that leads to the PDN network, and the identifier of the IPSec tunnel. The character can be used to identify the MTC terminal. Thereby, data exchange between the data on the IPSec tunnel of the MTC terminal and the PDN network is implemented. 306. After the NAT forwarding item is established, the MTC gateway allocates an IP address to the MTC terminal and sends the IP address to the MTC terminal. However, due to the use of NAT, the IP address is only used by the MTC terminal on the non-3GPP network, and not for the PDN network. Therefore the MTC gateway can assign any available IP address to the MTC terminal. This IP address will be used by the MTC interrupt for upper layer application layer communication.

In this application scenario, the MTC gateway can cooperate with the HSS/AAA to authenticate the MTC terminal, and determine whether to establish a NAT forwarding entry for the MTC terminal according to the authentication result. Therefore, the device in the network can identify the accessed MTC terminal through the authentication process, and can further determine whether to establish a communication connection between the MTC terminal and the network according to the authentication result, thereby controlling whether to allow a specific MTC terminal to communicate with the network. Referring to FIG. 7, an embodiment of the present invention provides an MTC gateway, including: a user equipment module 701, configured to access a network, and establish a communication connection with a server for authentication and authentication in a network;

The authentication service module 702 is configured to perform authentication on the accessed MTC terminal by using a server for authentication and authentication;

The communication connection establishing module 703 is configured to determine whether to establish a communication connection between the MTC terminal and the network according to the authentication result.

In one embodiment, the carrier network may be a packet data network PDN, the PDN includes a PDN gateway, and the communication connection establishing module 703 may include: a first establishing module 703a;

The first establishing module 703a is configured to establish a data tunnel from the MTC gateway to the PDN gateway and the MTC gateway to the MTC terminal, so that the MTC terminal and the PDN gateway can exchange data through the data tunnel.

Further, the communication connection establishing module 703 may further include: a second establishing module 703b, and a second establishing module 703b, configured to establish a network address translation NAT forwarding item for data forwarding, so that the MTC gateway can pass the NAT The forwarding item exchanges data between the MTC terminal and the PDN gateway.

The MTC gateway of the embodiment of the present invention can cooperate with the server for authentication and authentication in the network to authenticate the accessed MTC terminal, and determine whether it is in the MTC terminal and the network according to the authentication result. The communication connection is established; thus, the device in the network can identify the accessed MTC terminal through the authentication process, and further can determine whether to establish a communication connection between the MTC terminal and the network according to the authentication result, thereby controlling whether a specific MTC is allowed. The terminal communicates with the network. Referring to FIG. 8, an embodiment of the present invention further provides a communication system, including:

The MTC gateway 700 provided by the foregoing embodiment, the MTC terminal 600 connected to the MTC gateway 700 through the non-3GPP air interface technology, and the network connected to the MTC gateway 700 through the 3GPP control interface technology, the network includes authentication authentication. Server 500;

In the communication system of the embodiment of the present invention, the device in the network can identify the accessed MTC terminal through the authentication process, and further can determine whether to establish a communication connection between the MTC terminal and the network according to the authentication certificate, thereby controlling whether to allow specific The MTC terminal communicates with the network. A person skilled in the art may understand that all or part of the steps of the foregoing embodiments may be implemented by a program to instruct related hardware. The program may be stored in a computer readable storage medium, and the storage medium may include: Read only memory, random access memory, disk or optical disk, etc.

The method for accessing the network by the MTC gateway and the corresponding MTC gateway and the communication system are described in detail in the above embodiments of the present invention. The principles and implementation manners of the present invention are described in the specific examples. The illustrations are only intended to aid in understanding the method of the invention and its core idea, and should not be construed as limiting the invention.

Claims

Rights request

1. A machine type communication method in which an MTC terminal communicates with a network through an MTC gateway, and the features thereof include:

2. The method of claim 1 wherein:

The network is a packet data network PDN, and the PDN includes a PDN gateway;

Determining whether to establish a communication connection between the MTC terminal and the network according to the authentication result includes:

If the authentication is passed, the data tunnel of the MTC gateway to the PDN gateway and the MTC gateway to the MTC terminal is established, so that the MTC terminal and the PDN gateway can perform data exchange through the data tunnel.

The method according to claim 2, wherein after the establishing the MTC gateway to the PDN gateway and the data tunnel of the MTC gateway to the MTC terminal, the method further includes:

Receiving an IP address belonging to the PDN address space allocated by the PDN gateway to the MTC terminal; and sending the IP address to the MTC terminal.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein:

The operator network is a packet data network PDN, and the PDN includes a PDN gateway; and determining, according to the authentication result, whether to establish a communication connection between the MTC terminal and the network includes:

If the authentication is passed, a network address translation NAT forwarding entry for data forwarding is established, so that the MTC gateway can perform data exchange between the MTC terminal and the PDN gateway by using the NAT forwarding item.

The method according to claim 4, wherein the establishing a network address translation NAT forwarding item for data forwarding further comprises:

Allocating an IP address belonging to the MTC gateway address space to the MTC terminal; Sending the IP address to the MTC terminal.

The method according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the MTC gateway cooperates with the server for authentication and authentication to authenticate the accessed MTC terminal, including:

The MTC gateway cooperates with the server for authentication and authentication, and uses the Internet Key Exchange IKE protocol or the extended authentication protocol EAP to authenticate the accessed MTC terminal.

7. A machine type communication MTC gateway, characterized in that it comprises:

And a communication connection establishing module, configured to determine, according to the authentication result, whether a communication connection is established between the MTC terminal and the network.

8. The MTC gateway according to claim 7, wherein:

The carrier network is a packet data network PDN, and the PDN includes a PDN gateway, and the communication connection establishing module includes: a first establishing module;

The first establishing module is configured to establish a data tunnel of the MTC gateway to the PDN gateway and the MTC gateway to the MTC terminal, so that the MTC terminal and the PDN gateway can exchange data through the data tunnel.

9. The MTC gateway according to claim 7, wherein:

The carrier network is a packet data network PDN, the PDN includes a PDN gateway, and the communication connection establishing module includes: a second establishing module;

The second establishing module is configured to establish, after the authentication is passed, a network address translation NAT forwarding item for data forwarding, so that the MTC gateway can perform the between the MTC terminal and the PDN gateway by using the NAT forwarding item. Data exchange.

10. A communication system, comprising:

The MTC gateway according to any one of claims 7 to 9, an MTC terminal connected to the MTC gateway through an air interface technology other than the 3rd Generation Partnership Project 3GPP, and a control interface through the 3GPP with the MTC gateway a technology-connected network, the network including authentication Right server.