Encryption in wireless communication systems

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10361839-B2
Application number	US-201715400346-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 6, 2017
Priority date	Jan 6, 2017
Publication date	Jul 23, 2019
Grant date	Jul 23, 2019

Abstract

A method for encryption in a wireless communication system includes encrypting, at a base station, data of a physical layer control channel using at least one of a control channel type, a radio resource aggregation level of the control channel, a radio resource index of the control channel, or a subcarrier frequency of the control channel; and transmitting the encrypted data to a user equipment (UE), where the UE is in a cell of the base station.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method, comprising:
encrypting, by a base station, data of a physical layer control channel using at least one of a control channel type, a radio resource aggregation level of the control channel, a radio resource index of the control channel, or a subcarrier frequency of the control channel, wherein the data comprises at least a user identity identifying a user equipment (UE), and the encrypting the data of the physical layer control channel comprises generating an encrypted user identity;
scrambling a plurality of cyclic redundancy check (CRC) parity bits by using the encrypted user identity; and
transmitting the scrambled CRC to the UE, wherein the UE is in a cell of the base station.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the control channel type is a downlink control information (DCI) format, the radio resource aggregation level of the control channel is a control channel element (CCE) aggregation level, and the radio resource index of the control channel is a CCE index.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
encrypting the data using a current time.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
encrypting the data using at least one of a frame number or a subframe number.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprises:
encrypting the data using a reference parameter generated based on a frame number.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the data further comprises:
a message payload of the control channel.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the user identity is a radio network temporary identifier (RNTI).

8. The method of claim 6 ,
wherein the plurality of CRC parity bits are generated based on the message payload of the control channel.

9. A base station, comprising:
a memory; and
at least one hardware processor communicatively coupled with the memory and configured to:
encrypt data of a physical layer control channel using at least one of a control channel type, a radio resource aggregation level of the control channel, a radio resource index of the control channel, or a subcarrier frequency of the control channel, wherein the data comprises at least a user identity identifying a user equipment (UE), and the encrypting the data of the physical layer control channel comprises generating an encrypted user identity;
scramble a plurality of cyclic redundancy check (CRC) parity bits by using the encrypted user identity; and
transmit the scrambled CRC to the UE, wherein the UE is in a cell of the base station.

10. The base station of claim 9 , wherein the control channel type is a downlink control information (DCI) format, the radio resource aggregation level of the control channel is a control channel element (CCE) aggregation level, and the radio resource index of the control channel is a CCE index.

11. The base station of claim 9 , wherein the at least one hardware processor is further configured to encrypt the data using at least one of a current time, a frame number, a subframe number, or a reference parameter generated based on a frame number.

12. The base station of claim 9 , wherein the data further comprises:
a message payload of the control channel.

13. The base station of claim 12 ,
wherein the plurality of CRC parity bits are generated based on the message payload of the control channel.

14. A tangible, non-transitory computer-readable medium containing instructions which, when executed, cause a base station to perform operations comprising:
encrypting data of a physical layer control channel using at least one of a control channel type, a radio resource aggregation level of the control channel, a radio resource index of the control channel, or a subcarrier frequency of the control channel, wherein the data comprises at least a user identity identifying a user equipment (UE), and the encrypting the data of the physical layer control channel comprises generating an encrypted user identity;
scrambling a plurality of cyclic redundancy check (CRC) parity bits by using the encrypted user identity; and
transmitting the scrambled CRC to the UE, wherein the UE is in a cell of the base station.

15. The tangible, non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 14 , wherein the control channel type is a downlink control information (DCI) format, the radio resource aggregation level of the control channel is a control channel element (CCE) aggregation level, and the radio resource index of the control channel is a CCE index.

16. The tangible, non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 14 , wherein the operations further comprise:
encrypting the data using at least one of a current time, a frame number, a subframe number, or a reference parameter generated based on a frame number.

17. The tangible, non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 14 , wherein the data further comprises:
a message payload of the control channel.

18. The tangible, non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 17 , wherein the plurality of CRC parity bits are generated based on the message payload of the control channel.

19. A method, comprising:
receiving, by a user equipment (UE), data of a physical layer control channel, wherein the received data includes a scrambled cyclic redundancy check (CRC), the scrambled CRC is generated by scrambling a plurality of cyclic redundancy check (CRC) parity bits by using an encrypted user identity, and the encrypted user identity is generated by encrypting a user identity identifying the UE using at least one of a control channel type, a radio resource aggregation level of the control channel, a radio resource index of the control channel, or a subcarrier frequency of the control channel;
determining, at the UE, the encrypted user identity; and
determining a message payload of the control channel using the determined encrypted user identity.

20. The method of claim 19 , wherein the control channel type is a downlink control information (DCI) format, the radio resource aggregation level of the control channel is a control channel element (CCE) aggregation level, and the radio resource index of the control channel is a CCE index.

21. The method of claim 19 , wherein the encrypted user identity is generated further using at least one of a current time, a frame number, a subframe number, or a reference parameter generated based on a frame number.

22. The method of claim 19 , wherein the user identity is a radio network temporary identifier (RNTI).

23. The method of claim 19 ,
wherein the plurality of CRC parity bits are generated based on the message payload of the control channel.

Assignees

• Blackberry Ltd

Inventors

• Buckley Michael Eoin
• Chen Shu-Lin
• Arzelier Claude Jean-Frederic

Classifications

• H04W12/02 Primary

  Protecting privacy or anonymity, e.g. protecting personally identifiable information [PII] · CPC title

• H04L9/002 Primary

  Countermeasures against attacks on cryptographic mechanisms (network architectures or network communication protocols for protection against malicious traffic H04L63/1441) · CPC title

• H04L5/00

  Arrangements affording multiple use of the transmission path · CPC title

• H04W76/11

  Allocation or use of connection identifiers · CPC title

• H04L9/0861

  Generation of secret information including derivation or calculation of cryptographic keys or passwords · CPC title