System and method for providing telephony services over WiFi for non-cellular devices

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10547651-B2
Application number	US-201414340825-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 25, 2014
Priority date	Jul 26, 2013
Publication date	Jan 28, 2020
Grant date	Jan 28, 2020

Abstract

A method performed by a provisioning server, the method including receiving registration data from a client station, transmitting activation data to a telephony service provider, the activation data generated as a function of the registration data, the activation data being used to generate telephony data for the user, the telephony data including access data to utilize a telephony network of the telephony service provider and transmitting the telephony data to the client station, wherein select portions of the telephony data and select portions of the activation data verify the client station as an authenticated device to utilize the telephony network.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method, comprising:
at a provisioning server connected to a WiFi network:
receiving registration data from a client station via the WiFi network, wherein the client station is a non-cellular enabled device;
generating activation data as a function of the registration data;
transmitting the activation data to a telephony service provider, the activation data being used to generate telephony data for the client station, the telephony data including access data to utilize a telephony network of the telephony service provider and a phone number assigned by the telephony service provider;
receiving the telephony data from the telephony service provider; and
transmitting the telephony data to the client station,
wherein a portion of the telephony data and a portion of the activation data verify the client station as an authenticated device to utilize the telephony network, at least one of the telephony data or the activation data comprising an access token.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving a request from the telephony service provider to authenticate the portion of the telephony data that is transmitted from the client station to the telephony service provider;
verifying the portion of the telephony data indicate the client station is the authenticated device; and
transmitting a response to the request to the telephony service provider.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the access token is generated by the provisioning server based at least in part on the registration data.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
storing the registration data;
receiving a request from the client station to generate further portions of the telephony data, wherein the further portions is a further access token;
generating the further access token based on the stored registration data; and
transmitting the further portions including the further access token to the client station.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the request is received in response to one of (a) a previous access token expiring, (b) the client station reconnecting to the WiFi network via which the telephony data was transmitted by the provisioning server to the client station, or (c) the client station connecting to a WiFi network that is different from the WiFi network via which the telephony data was transmitted by the provisioning server to the client station.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the telephony data further includes one of an X.509 certificate or a carrier evolved packet data gateway (ePDG).

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the registration data includes one of a user name of a user of the client station, a user address or payment information for the user.

8. A provisioning server connected to a WiFi network, comprising:
a processor; and
a non-transitory computer readable storage medium including a set of instructions executable by the processor, wherein the instructions, when executed, cause the processor to:
receive registration data from a client station via the WiFi network, wherein the client station is a non-cellular enabled device;
generate activation data as a function of the registration data;
transmit the activation data to a telephony service provider the activation data being used to generate telephony data for the client station, the telephony data including access data to utilize a telephony network of the telephony service provider and a phone number assigned by the telephony service provider;
receive the telephony data from the telephony service provider; and
transmit the telephony data to the client station,
wherein a portion of the telephony data and a portion of the activation data verify the client station as an authenticated device to utilize the telephony network, at least one of the telephony data or the activation data comprising an access token.

9. The provisioning server of claim 8 , wherein the instructions further cause the processor to:
receive a request from the telephony service provider to authenticate the portion of the telephony data that is transmitted from the client station to the telephony service provider;
verify the portion of the telephony data indicate the client station is the authenticated device; and
transmit a response to the request to the telephony service provider.

10. The provisioning server of claim 8 , wherein the instructions further cause the processor to:
store the registration data in the non-transitory computer readable storage medium;
receive a request from the client station to generate further portions of the telephony data, wherein the further portions comprise a further access token;
generate the further access token based on the stored registration data; and
transmit the further portions including the further access token to the client station.

11. A method, comprising:
at a WiFi enabled client station,
transmitting registration data to a provisioning server;
receiving from the provisioning server, activation data and telephony data including access data to utilize a telephony network of a telephony service provider;
establishing, based on the telephony data, a Virtual Private Network (VPN) tunnel between the WiFi enabled client station and the telephony network, wherein the VPN tunnel bypasses the provisioning server; and
transmitting, to the telephony network via the VPN tunnel, select portions of the activation data and the telephony data to activate telephony services on the telephony network for the WiFi enabled client station, wherein at least one of the telephony data or the activation data comprises an access token.

12. The method of claim 11 , further comprising:
transmitting a request to the provisioning server to generate further select portions of the telephony data, wherein the further select portions comprise a further access token;
receiving the further select portions including the further access token from the provisioning server; and
transmitting the further select portions including the further access token to the telephony network to continue activation of the telephony services.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein the request is generated in response to one of (a) a previous access token expiring, (b) the client station reconnecting to a WiFi network via which the telephony data was transmitted by the provisioning server to the client station, or (c) the client station connecting to a WiFi network that is different from the WiFi network via which the telephony data was transmitted by the provisioning server to the client station.

14. The method of claim 11 , further comprising:
transmitting a request for a telephony application to the provisioning server;
receiving the telephony application from the provisioning server.

15. A wireless enabled client station, comprising:
a processor; and
a non-transitory computer readable storage medium including a set of instructions executable by the processor, wherein the instructions, when executed, cause the processor to:
transmit registration data to a provisioning server;
receive from the provisioning server, activation data and telephony data including access data to utilize a telephony network of a telephony service provider;
establish, based on the telephony data, a Virtual Private Network (VPN) tunnel between the WiFi enabled client station and the telephony network, wherein the VPN tunnel bypasses the provisioning server; and
transmit, to the telephony network via the VPN tunnel, select portions of the activation data and the telephony data to activate telephony services on the telephony network for a WiFi en

Assignees

• Apple Inc

Inventors

• Mathias Arun
• Abdulrahiman Najeeb
• Lee Teck Yang
• Singh Ajoy
• Yerrabommanahalli Vikram

Classifications

• H04L67/30

  Profiles · CPC title

• H04L63/0807

  using tickets, e.g. Kerberos (cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication using tickets or tokens H04L9/3213) · CPC title

• H04W84/12

  WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks] · CPC title

• H04W88/06

  adapted for operation in multiple networks {or having at least two operational modes}, e.g. multi-mode terminals · CPC title

• H04L65/1016

  IP multimedia subsystem [IMS] · CPC title