Provisioning an embedded universal integrated circuit card (eUICC) of a mobile communication device

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11057827-B1
Application number	US-202016907107-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Jun 19, 2020
Priority date	Jun 19, 2020
Publication date	Jul 6, 2021
Grant date	Jul 6, 2021

Abstract

A method of provisioning an eUICC of a mobile communication device. The method comprises sending a GSMA confirm order request from an eUICC provisioning application executing on a computer system to a SM-DP+ server, wherein the confirm order comprises an ICCID and a FQDN of a discovery server; in response to receiving a GSMA confirm order response indicating a failure of the discovery server, determining by the eUICC provisioning application that a mobile communication device associated with the ICCID is configured with an LPA application that is able to complete an alternative eSIM profile provisioning process using a scanning device to capture an activation code; generating an activation code by the eUICC provisioning application that encodes an address of the SM-DP+ server and the ICCID; and sending the activation code by the eUICC provisioning application to an email account associated with a user of the mobile communication device.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of provisioning an embedded universal integrated circuit card (eUICC) of a mobile communication device, comprising:
sending a global system for mobile communications association (GSMA) download order request by an embedded universal integrated circuit card (eUICC) provisioning application executing on a computer system to an SM-DP+ server, where the download order request comprises an embedded identity document (EID) that identifies an embedded universal integrated circuit card (eUICC) of a mobile communication device and an integrated circuit card identifier (ICCID) that identifies an eSIM profile stored on the SM-DP+ server;
sending a first GSMA confirm order request by the eUICC provisioning application to the SM-DP+ server, wherein the first GSMA confirm order request comprises the ICCID and a fully qualified domain name (FQDN) of a discovery server, where the ICCID identifies an eSIM profile stored on the SM-DP+ server;
receiving a first GSMA confirm order response by the eUICC provisioning application from the SM-DP+ server, where the first GSMA confirm order response indicates a failure of the discovery server;
in response to the failure of the discovery server indicated in the first GSMA confirm order response, determining by the eUICC provisioning application that a mobile communication device associated with the ICCID has a local profile assistant (LPA) that is configured to complete an alternative eSIM profile provisioning process based on using a scanning device to capture an activation code;
in response to determining by the eUICC provisioning application that the mobile communication device has the LPA that is configured to complete the alternative eSIM profile provisioning process, sending a second GSMA confirm order request by the eUICC provisioning application to the SM-DP+ server, wherein the second GSMA confirm order request comprises the ICCID and does not comprise the EID of the eUICC of the mobile communication device, whereby the ICCID is disassociated with the EID by the SM-DP+ server;
generating an activation code by the eUICC provisioning application, where the activation code encodes an address of the SM-DP+ server and the ICCID; and
sending the activation code by the eUICC provisioning application to an email account associated with a subscriber of the mobile communication device associated with the ICCID, whereby the mobile communication device is enabled to scan the activation code presented in a screen of an email application executing on a computer system associated with the user, to decode the activation code to extract the address of the SM-DP+ server and the ICCID from the activation code, to establish a data communication session with the SM-DP+ server, to provide the ICCID to the SM-DP+ server, to download the eSIM profile stored on the SM-DP+ server identified by the ICCID, and to install the eSIM profile into an eUICC of the mobile communication device.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the mobile communication device is a mobile phone, a cell phone, a smart phone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a wearable computer, a headset computer, a laptop computer, a notebook computer, or a tablet computer.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the eSIM profile comprises radio access network credentials associated with one of a 5G, a long term evolution (LTE), a code division multiple access (CDMA), or a global system for mobile communications (GSM) telecommunication protocol.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the eSIM profile comprises a preferred roaming list (PRL).

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the eSIM profile comprises branding content and executable applications.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the activation code is an encrypted message.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the activation code is a 2-dimensional barcode.

8. A computer system, comprising:
a processor;
a non-transitory memory; and
an embedded universal integrate circuit card (eUICC) provisioning application stored in the non-transitory memory that, when executed by the processor:
sends a global system for mobile communications association (GSMA) confirm order request to a SM-DP+ server, wherein the confirm order comprises an ICCID and a fully qualified domain name (FQDN) of a discovery server, where the ICCID identifies an eSIM profile stored on the SM-DP+ server,
receives a GSMA confirm order response from the SM-DP+ server, where the GSMA confirm order response indicates a failure of the discovery server,
in response to the failure of the discovery server indicated in the GSMA confirm order response, determines that a mobile communication device associated with the ICCID is configured with a local profile assistant (LPA) application that is able to complete an alternative eSIM profile provisioning process based on using a scanning device to capture an activation code,
generates an activation code that encodes an address of the SM-DP+ server and the ICCID, and
sends the activation code to an email account associated with a subscriber of the mobile communication device associated with the ICCID, whereby the mobile communication device is enabled to scan the activation code presented in a screen of an email application executing on a computer system associated with the user, to decode the activation code to extract the address of the SM-DP+ server and the ICCID from the activation code, to establish a data communication session with the SM-DP+ server, to provide the ICCID to the SM-DP+ server, to download the eSIM profile stored on the SM-DP+ server identified by the ICCID, and to install the eSIM profile into an eUICC of the mobile communication device.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the activation code is a 2-dimensional barcode.

10. The method of claim 8 , wherein the activation code is an encrypted message.

11. The method of claim 8 , wherein the address of the SM-DP+ server is an internet protocol (IP) address.

12. The method of claim 8 , wherein the address of the SM-DP+ server is a uniform resource locator (URL).

13. The method of claim 8 , wherein the mobile communication device is a mobile phone, a cell phone, a smart phone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a wearable computer, a headset computer, a laptop computer, a notebook computer, or a tablet computer.

14. The method of claim 8 , wherein the eSIM profile comprises radio access network access keys, a preferred roaming list (PRL), branding information, or executable applications.

15. A method of provisioning an embedded universal integrated circuit card (eUICC) of a mobile communication device, comprising:
sending a global system for mobile communications association (GSMA) confirm order request from an embedded universal integrated circuit card (eUICC) provisioning application executing on a computer system to a SM-DP+ server, wherein the confirm order comprises an ICCID and a fully qualified domain name (FQDN) of a discovery server, where the ICCID identifies an eSIM profile stored on the SM-DP+ server;
receiving a GSMA confirm order response by the eUICC provisioning application from the SM-DP+ server, where the GSMA confirm order response indicates a failure of the discovery server;
in response to the failure of the discovery server indicated in the GSMA confirm order response, determining by the eUICC provisioning application that a mobile communication device associated with the ICCID is configured with a local profile assistant (LPA) application that is able to complete an alternative eSIM profile provisioning process based on using a scanning device to capture an activation code;
generating a

Assignees

• Sprint Communications Co Lp
• T Mobile Innovations Llc

Inventors

• Dreiling Ryan P
• Guru Balasubramaniam
• Khurana Rima
• Uehling Philip W

Classifications

• H04W8/205

  Transfer to or from user equipment or user record carrier · CPC title

• H04W8/04

  Registration at HLR or HSS [Home Subscriber Server] · CPC title

• H04W12/71

  Hardware identity · CPC title

• H04W12/40 Primary

  Security arrangements using identity modules · CPC title

• H04W12/35

  Protecting application or service provisioning, e.g. securing SIM application provisioning · CPC title