IDENTIFYING WIRELESS DATA USERS FOR LOCATION BASED APPLICATIONS
Technical scape The present invention involves a process and a system for integrity positioning of a mobile station on a communication network for mobile stations and in relation to a positioning service provider.
Prior art A small number of systems for positioning are currently in operation,
They are managed and used by telecom providers to offer services to their customers. A provider's customer requests a function, which is based on positioning of a few or several telephones on the provider's network,
A subscription telephone is directly linked to a subscriber, and positioning a telephone is thereby a positioning of a physical person. The right to access this position information is critical, since the integrity of subscribers is directly connected to the ssibility of controlling who can or may see their position.
Telecom providers cannot currently produce position information as part of tlie external service provider's positioning solutions and simultaneously guarantee the integrity of the subscriber, unless the subscriber himself requests the positioning from his telephone and has logged on to the provider's portal with user identity and password. Such solutions entail additional steps in executing a positioning service, reduce the security and risk the personal integrity when SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) cards are exchanged. Part of the problem is that the mobile telephone is anonymous on the
Internet; i,e,, no connection to the identity of tlie mobile station or subscriber is known to outsiders; sμch a connection is required for positioning said mobile station.
Summary of the Invention The present invention intends to solve problems associated with mobile positioning with regard to the personal integrity of a user of a mobile station that is connected to a communication network for such a mobile station and also to position the mobile station without its identity being known on the telephone network.
To achieve said integrity, a process for positioning a mobile station on a communication network for mobile stations and in relation to a positioning service provider is indicated. The process comprises the following steps:
a subscriber to the communication network connects to a web page of a positioning service provider on an open computer network, which provider offers a positioning service; the subscriber activates a positioning procedure by choosing a link on the web page; the positioning procedure is controlled by the network computer with which the web page is associated, said network computer records IP address and port which the subscriber uses as source, and based on this information determines tlie provider via which the subscriber is logged on; said network computer requests the telephone's position from the telecom provider's positionmg platform and indicates said ΪP address and port as parameters; the telecom provider's positioning platform receives the request and authenticates the positioning service provider; upon successful authentication the following steps are executed; the telecom provider's positioning platform contacts, if necessary, one or more IP address translation functions on the telecom provider's network to obtain IP address and port which the telephone uses on the telecom provider's internal network; the telecom provider's positioning platform contacts an authentication function for subscribers, alternatively a dial-up server, to translate port and IP address to a subscriber number; the telecom provider's positioning platform requests a position from the telecom provider's positioning system with said subscriber number as parameter; the positioning platform obtains the position from the positioning system and relays the position to said network computer; said network computer generates a web page based on the returned position and sends it to the subscriber, One embodiment of the invention indicates that said IP address translation function ia implemented on the telecom provider's positioning platform, on which pairs of IP addresses are stored.
In an additional embodiment of the invention) said IP address translation function is placed between said dial-up function and tlie telecom provider's connection to the Internet.
In an additional embodiment of the invention, said IP address translation function is placed on one or more of the nodes that comprise the provider's connection to the Internet,
In an additional embodiment of the invention, said IP address translation function is placed on the node that implements the dial-up function.
In an additional embodiment of the inventions said IP address translation function is placed on the WAP gateway, with which, the specialist is very familiar. In an additional embodiment of the invention, said authentication function is implemented as a stand-alone server,
In an additional embodiment of the invention said authentication function is implemented on the dial-up server.
Jn an additional embodiment of the invention! said authentication ftmciion is implemented as a RADIUS server, a term with which the specialist in the technical field is very familiar.
In an. additional embodiment of the invention, said network computer requests the position from an intermediate gateway system instead of directly from the telecom provider's positioning platform. Such a step simplifies the positioning procedure far the network computer. In this embodiment, said choice of telecom provider and contact with the telecom provider's positioning platform is handled by said mtermediate gateway system,
Brief description of the figure Further, the text of the description refers consecutively to the attached figure for α better understanding of the present invention and its embodiments or exemplifications, the figure schematically illustrating a system according to the present invention,
Detailed description of presented embodiments
The figure illustrates a system 100 for integrity positioning of mobile stations. The subscriber 101 connects via the lelecom provider's telecommunication network 103 to a computer network via a dial-up server 105. The connection to the dial-up server 105 is of the PPP type, and the subscriber 101 is thus assigned an IP address. In the connection procedure the dial-up server 105 τecorda the subscriber's number, the so-called CUD (Caller Line ID). In the connection procedure the user is authenticated, In this authentication procedure, assigned IP address and CUD, among other things, are stored, either on the dial-up server or on a separate server 119. In the example it is assumed that the dial-up server belongs to the subscriber's telecom provider, but this is not a restriction.
Tlie subscriber connects further to a WAP gateway 109, which in die example is assumed to belong to the subscriber's telecom provider, but this iβ not a restriction. The existence of an address translation function 1Q7 somewhere between
the dial-up server and the WAP gateway is assumed, but it is not necessary. This address translation function is a logical function that can be realized, physically on the dial-up server 105, the WAP gateway 109 or on a separate network node, for example a router. Furthermore, there can be address translation functions between the WAP gateway and tlie telecom provider's Internet connection,
The telecom provider's network 114 is connected to the Internet 116 via the interface 115,
The service provider's server 111 is connected to the Internet 116, The subscriber connects to the server 11 1 by downloading a eb page located on the server 111. The subscriber activates a positioning procedure by sending an HTTP inqutiy to the server 111,
The server I J I notes the subscriber's HTTP inquiry and in turn sends an HTTP inquiry about the subscriber's position to the gateway server 113. This inquity advantageously takes place over an encrypted connection (HTTPS). The following parameters are included in thiδ inquiry, but are not limited to: source IP address the subscriber uses on the Internet, source port the subscriber uses, identity for the service provider, password for the service provider.
The gateway server 113 receives the inquiry ftoro the server 111 and. based on the source TP address, chooses the telecom provider. This choice takes place by means of stored information about which source TP addresses belong to which telecom provider,
The gateway server 113 in turn sends an HTTP inquiry to the chosen telecom provider's positioning platform 117, Parameters entere in this inquiry include, but are not limited to, source IP address the subscriber uses on the Internet, source port the subscriber uses, identity for the service provider, password for the service provider.
The telecom provider's positioning platform H7 authenticates the service provider and, provided such authentication is successful, a positioning procedure internal to the telecom provider is started. The positioning platform 117 contacts the address translation function
107 to obtain the IP address and port the subscriber uses internally on the telecom provider's network,
Given the internal IP address, the positioning platform contacts either the dial-up server 105 or the authentication server 119 to obtain the subscriber's subscriber number,
Given the subscriber number, the positioning platform first confirms that the subscriber allows positioning to be executed by tlie current service provider.
Given a positive confirmation, the positioning platform requests the position irom the provider's positioning system 121.
When the position is returned from the positioning system 121, tlie positioning platform in turn replies to the request from the gateway server 113. The gateway server in turn returns the position and other information, if any, to the service provider's server 113.
Using the returned position and other information, the service provider's server 111 generates a page, which is returned to the subscriber.
If any of the above steps is unsuccessful, the service provider's server 1 1 generates instead a relevant error message, which is returned to the subscriber; alternatively, another positioning procedure is initiated.
In the above inquiry the subscriber's identity never leaves the telecom provider's network. The personal integrity is thus not compromised.
The present invention has been described here with examples and embodiments, but it is the attached claims that define additional embodiments for a specialist in the technical Held,