Over the air provisioning of embedded subscriber identification module devices

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11228885-B2
Application number	US-201916658631-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 21, 2019
Priority date	Oct 21, 2019
Publication date	Jan 18, 2022
Grant date	Jan 18, 2022

Abstract

Techniques for provisioning electronic devices that may not have a local provisioning agent (LPA), such as Internet of Things (IoT) devices, to a mobile network of a mobile network operator (MNO), are discussed herein. The IoT devices and/or the associated embedded subscriber identity module (eSIM) may have one or more device profile templates stored thereon, where individual ones of the device profile templates are associated with a particular MNO. A device provisioning system of an MNO may provision the IoT device in a machine-to-machine (M2M) manner over the air (OTA) by communicating, such as via a radio node, one or more configuration parameters to the IoT device. The IoT device may identify a device profile template associated with the MNO to which the IoT device is to be provisioned and configure that device profile template based at least in part on the configuration parameters received from the device provisioning system.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system comprising:
one or more processors; and
one or more computer-readable media storing a first device profile template associated with a first mobile network operator (MNO) and a second device profile template associated with a second MNO;
the one or more computer-readable media further storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform acts comprising:
receiving, from a device provisioning system associated with the first MNO, provisioning data comprising a first configuration parameter;
determining, based at least in part on the provisioning data, that the first device profile template is to be configured using the provisioning data;
generating a device profile by configuring, based at least in part on the first configuration parameter, a profile element associated with the first device profile template; and
storing the device profile to communicate via a communications network associated with the first MNO,

wherein a size of the device profile is greater than a size of the provisioning data.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein receiving the provisioning data comprises receiving the provisioning data via short message service (SMS) messaging.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the profile element is a service provider name (SPN).

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the device profile comprises greater than 3 kilobytes (KB) of data and the provisioning data comprises less than 12 bytes of data.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the profile element is a first profile element, wherein the provisioning data comprises a second configuration parameter, and wherein generating the device profile further comprises configuring, based at least in part on the second configuration parameter, a second profile element.

6. The system of claim 1 , the acts further comprising:
receiving, from a second device provisioning system of the second MNO, second provisioning data comprising a second configuration parameter;
determining, based at least in part on the second provisioning data, that the second device profile template is to be configured using the second provisioning data;
generating a second device profile by configuring, based at least in part on the second configuration parameter, a second profile element; and
storing the second device profile to communicate via a second communications network associated with the second MNO.

7. The system of claim 1 , further comprising a first segment of the one or more computer-readable media and a second segment of the one or more computer-readable media, wherein the first device profile template and the second device profile template are stored in the first segment of the one or more computer-readable media, and wherein storing the device profile further comprises storing the device profile in the second segment of the one or more computer-readable media.

8. The system of claim 1 , the acts further comprising:
receiving, from a third MNO, second provisioning data, wherein a device profile template associated with the third MNO is unavailable on the one or more computer-readable media;
receiving a plurality of messages carrying a second device profile associated with the third MNO;
generating, based at least in part on the plurality of messages the second device profile; and
storing the second device profile to communicate via a second communications network associated with the third MNO.

9. A computer-implemented method, comprising:
identifying a device profile template associated with a mobile network;
receiving, from a device provisioning system, a provisioning message;
determining, based at least in part on the provisioning message, that the device provisioning system is associated with the device profile template;
receiving, from the device provisioning system, one or more configuration parameters;
configuring, based at least in part on the one or more configuration parameters, the device profile template to generate a device profile; and
using the device profile to communicate via the mobile network,
wherein a size of the device profile is greater than a size of the provisioning message, the configuration parameters, or both the provisioning message and the configuration parameters.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 9 , wherein the one or more configuration parameters indicate a service provider name (SPN).

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 9 , wherein the one or more configuration parameters are carried by the provisioning message.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 9 , wherein the provisioning message includes at least one of an International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) or International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI) associated with an Internet of Things (loT) device.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 9 , wherein determining that the device provisioning system is associated with the device profile template further comprises:
identifying, based at least in part on the provisioning message, an identity of a mobile network operator (MNO) associated with the mobile network; and
determine that the device profile template is associated with the MNO.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 9 , further comprising:
identifying a second device profile template associated with a second mobile network;
receiving, from a second device provisioning system, a second provisioning message;
determining, based at least in part on the second provisioning message, that the device provisioning system is associated with the second device profile template;
receiving, from the second device provisioning system, one or more second configuration parameters;
configuring, based at least in part on the one or more second configuration parameters, the second device profile template to generate a second device profile; and
using the second device profile to communicate via the second mobile network.

15. A system comprising:
one or more processors; and
one or more computer-readable media further storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform acts comprising:
identifying that an Internet of Things (IoT) device is to be provisioned to communicate via a mobile network;
determining that the IoT device includes a device profile template; and
sending, to the IoT device, one or more configuration parameters to configure the device profile template to generate a device profile,
wherein a size of the device profile is greater than a size of the configuration parameters.

16. The system of claim 15 , further comprising:
receiving, from the IoT device a message confirming that the IoT device is configured to communicate via the mobile network.

17. The system of claim 15 , wherein the one or more configuration parameters are sent in a provisioning message which includes an identity of the mobile network.

18. The system of claim 17 , wherein the provisioning message includes an identity of the IoT device.

19. The system of claim 15 , wherein the one or more configuration parameters indicate at least one of a service provider name (SPN) or one or more roaming partner names.

20. The system of claim 15 , further comprising:
identifying that a second IoT device is to be provisioned to communicate via the mobile network;
determining that the second IoT device does not include any device profile templates; and
sending, t

Assignees

• T Mobile Usa Inc

Inventors

• Roy Tanmay
• King Ryan
• George Mathew
• Ramisetty Phani
• Asandului Cristian
• An Kyeong Hun

Classifications

• H04W4/60

  Subscription-based services using application servers or record carriers, e.g. SIM application toolkits · CPC title

• H04L67/303 Primary

  Terminal profiles · CPC title

• H04W8/205

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

• H04W4/14

  Short messaging services, e.g. short message services [SMS] or unstructured supplementary service data [USSD] · CPC title

• H04W4/70

  Services for machine-to-machine communication [M2M] or machine type communication [MTC] · CPC title