UMTS/LTE Dual IMSI Roaming Applet Application Abhijit Hota Introduction To enable Operator to roam in countries where there

is no roaming partner. Subscribers are connected to Home network when at home using home network IMSI Subscribers are connected to preferred network in countries where Home ne twork has bi-lateral agreements Subscribers are connected to Sponsor preferred network in countries where home network does not have bi-lateral agreements Implementation: By means of a USIM Applet which detects when there is no Home Network partner in the country and switches IMSI to Sponsor IMSI. Assumption In side the home network When the USIM is first used, HOME NETWORK IMSI is used by default After switching on the handset, if the handset cannot find HOME NETWORK within a specified time, the IMSI should switch. Once registered on HOME NETWORK for more than the specified time HOME NETWORK IMSI should be always used and not switch until the handset is reset or power cycled While overseas Last successfully registered IMSI is used after switching on the handset, if the handset cannot find any network within the specified time using current IMSI, the IMSI should switch Even after a successful registration, any loss of service for more than the specified time will trigger IMSI switching EFs Switched The following EFs in the USIM change when IMSI switches: EF IMSI EF KI EF SMSP EF LOCI EF PLMN EF FPLMN - cleared Proactive Command used TIMER MANAGEMENT REFRESH POLL INTERVAL PROVIDE LOCAL INFORMATION

USIM Architecture

Process Involved in IMSI switch 1. Initialisation The Applet starts when USIM receives PROFILE DOWNLOAD or STATUS commands after initialization. POLL INTERVAL command is used to set the polling interval to a set ti me value. Each STATUS command thereafter triggers the Applet to send PROVID E LOCAL INFORMATION. 2. Triggering mechanism The response to PROVIDE LOCAL INFORMATION will decide the next cours e of action for the Applet. No service will indicate to the Applet that there is no network availabl e and the Applet wont do anything. Limited service will indicate to the Applet that there is a network but cannot register successfully. This will increase an internal counter in th e Applet and eventually result in an IMSI switch, as it shows that there is no roaming network with the current IMSI. Full service will indicate to the Applet that the registration with curre nt IMSI is successful. Therefore the Applet wont do anything. If a response is not received by certain time (typically 2.5 minutes), a t imer will expire and this will trigger an IMSI switch. This is to deal with exceptional cases where device doesnt respond to USIM. 3. IMSI switch The Applet switches IMSI by replacing the values of relevant EFs and issui ng REFRESH command.Once REFRESH command is received, device must re-read EFs that have changed.

Roaming with Sponsor IMSI Registration UE sends Location Updating Request message to a visited network. VLR of the visited network has no record of the IMSI. Since Sponsor network has a roaming agreement with the visited network, VLR of the visited network sends a authenticate request to Sponsor . Sponsor recognises that the IMSI is assigned to Home network and forwar ds it to home network. Home network rejects the request with a specific reject cause if its coming from home network. Otherwise, it will check with home Network HLR. Home Network sends a response back to Sponsor. Sponsor masquerades the message as its own and forwards it to the visite d network. At times, the request may time out on the visited network before a respon se from Sponsor network is received. In this case, a specific reject cause is sent back to the UE. UE receives a response from the visited network. Real World Scenarios: A.In Home Operator Device will be switched on with Home Network IMSI, so it will register on Home Network. Once registered on HPLMN, IMSI wont change even if the device loses Ho me Network coverage. B. Going overseas where all operators are Home Network roaming partners Device will be switched on with Home Network IMSI, so it will register on Home Networks roaming partner. If the device loses coverage, since all operators have roaming agreement with Home Network, device should be able to register on another network. C. Going overseas where some operators are Home Network roaming partners and others are Sponsor roaming partners. Device will be switched on with Home Network IMSI, so it will try to regist er on Home Network roaming partner first. If the device cant find Home Network roaming partner after switch-on and responds to a specific number of (not necessarily consecutive) PROVIDE L OCAL INFORMATION with limited service, the Applet will switch IMSI (to S ponsor IMSI). As FPLMN is cleared after an IMSI switch, device should find Sponsor roaming partner immediately and register. If the device loses coverage after a successful registration and responds to a specific number of (not necessarily consecutive) PROVIDE LOCAL INFOR MATION with limited service, the Applet will switch IMSI. D. Going overseas where all operators are Sponsor roaming partners Device will be switched on with Home Network IMSI, so it will fail to find a ny network to register on. In countries without Home Network roaming partner, one response to PRO VIDE LOCAL INFORMATION with limited service will trigger an IMSI switch.

With the Sponsor IMSI, the device will find a suitable network and register successfully.

E. Coming back from overseas after roaming with Home Network IMSI As the device is switched on with Home Network IMSI, it will register on H ome Network immediately. F. Coming back from overseas after roaming with Sponsor IMSI Device is switched on with Sponsor IMSI and it wont be able to register o n any network as described in earlier When the device responds to specific number of (not necessarily consecut ive) PROVIDE LOCAL INFORMATION with limited service, the Applet will sw itch IMSI (to Home Network IMSI). With Home Network IMSI, the device will be able to register on Home Net work.