EP-4107916-B1 - PRIVACY PROTECTION FOR SIDELINK COMMUNICATIONS

Inventors

• FU, Zhang
• HANHISALO, Markus
• SULTANA, SHABNAM
• BEN HENDA, Noamen

Dates

Publication Date

20260506

Application Date

20210205

Claims (11)

1. A method of groupcasting (300) implemented by a user equipment, UE, configured for device-to-device, D2D, communication, comprising: sending (320) a groupcast message to members of a device group including the UE, the groupcast message including a first group identifier for the device group as a destination layer 2, L2, identifier of the groupcast message and a second group identifier for the device group as the source L2 identifier for the groupcast message, wherein the first and second group identifiers for the device group are the same, and wherein the groupcast message further comprises an application identifier that identifies a source of the groupcast message and further comprising encrypting the application identifier prior to sending the groupcast message.
2. The method of claims 1, wherein the groupcast message further comprises a source Internet protocol, IP, address and a destination IP address.
3. The method of claim2 wherein the source IP address and destination IP address comprise group IP addresses.
4. The method of claim 3, wherein the group IP addresses corresponding respectively to the source IP address and destination IP address are the same.
5. A method of groupcasting (350) implemented by a user equipment, UE, configured for device-to-device, D2D, communication, comprising: receiving (370) a groupcast message from a members of a device group including the UE, the groupcast message including a first group identifier for the device group as a destination Layer 2, L2, identifier of the groupcast message and a second group identifier for the device group as the source L2 identifier for the groupcast message, wherein the first and second group identifiers for the device group are the same, wherein the groupcast message further comprises an application identifier that identifies a source of the groupcast message and, wherein the application identifier is encrypted and further comprising decrypting the application identifier prior to sending the groupcast message.
6. The method of claim 5, wherein the groupcast message further comprises a source Internet protocol, IP, address and a destination IP address.
7. The method of claim 6, wherein the source IP address and destination IP address comprise group IP addresses.
8. The method of claim 7, wherein the group IP addresses corresponding respectively to the source IP address and destination IP address are the same.
9. A user equipment, UE, configured to perform the method of any one of claims 1 - 4.
10. A user equipment, UE, configured to perform the method of any one of claims 5 - 8.
11. A computer program (450) comprising executable instructions that, when executed by a processing circuit (430) in a user equipment in a wireless communication network, causes the user equipment to perform any one of the methods of claims 1 - 8.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD The present disclosure relates generally to device-to-device (D2D) communications and, more particularly to security and privacy measures for sidelink communications over the PC5 interface. BACKGROUND Sidelink is a feature in Long Term Evolution (LTE) systems that enables direct device-to-device (D2D) communications between user equipment (UE) without sending data to the network. Sidelink also enables a UE outside of cell coverage to reach the network via a relay UE. The remote UE communicates with the relay UE over the sidelink interface and the relay UE relays communications between the network and the remote UE. Sidelink was first introduced in Release 12 (Rel-12) of the LTE standard and targeted public safety use cases. Sidelink has been extended in Releases 13 and 14 (Rel-13 and Rel-14) to enlarge the use cases that could benefit from the D2D technology. In LTE Rel-14 and Rel-15, sidelink is enhanced to support vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communications that enables any combination of direct communications between vehicles, pedestrians and the infrastructure. Sidelink is also implemented in the New Radio (NR) standard, also known as Fifth Generation (5G). While LTE V2X mainly aims at traffic safety services, NR V2X has a much broader scope including not only basic safety services but also non-safety applications, such as sensor/data sharing between vehicles with the objective to strengthen the perception of the surrounding environment. Hence a new set of applications such as vehicle platooning, cooperative maneuvering between vehicles, and remote/autonomous driving may enjoy such enhanced sidelink framework. Currently, there is an ongoing study in the 3GPP SA3 working group looking into the security issues and solutions for the support of V2X in NR/5G systems. The study is being documented in the third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) TR (Technical Report) 33.836, v.0.5.0. Among the issues identified, a few are related to privacy for communication over the PC5 interface. One issue being discussed is the from the disclosure of the Layer 2 (L2) identifiers over the PC5 interface and the risk that an eavesdropper can track UEs based on the L2 identifiers. Huawei et AL: "Clarification on groupcast L2 IDs for privacy", 3GPP Draft, S2-2000411, 7 January 2020, discloses a change request to add a clause to clarify the details of the Layer-2 IDs update for groupcast mode V2X communication. "3rd Generation Partnership Project; Technical Specification Group Services and System Aspects; Study on Security aspects of 3GPP support for Advanced V2X Services (Release 16), 3GPP Standard; Technical report; #GPP TR 33.836, 9 July 2019, discloses on page 9 Key Issue #4: Security of identifier conversion in group communication. SUMMARY According to a first aspect, there is provided a method of groupcasting implemented by a user equipment configured for device-to-device communication. The method comprises the UE sending a groupcast message to members of a device group including the UE, the groupcast message including a first group identifier for the device group as a destination layer 2, L2, identifier of the groupcast message and a second group identifier for the device group as the source L2 identifier for the groupcast message, wherein the first and second group identifiers for the device group are the same. The groupcast message further comprises an application identifier that identifies a source of the groupcast message and further comprising encrypting the application identifier prior to sending the groupcast message. According to a second aspect, there is provided a method of groupcasting implemented by a UE configured for D2D communication. The method comprises the UE receiving a groupcast message from a members of a device group including the UE, the groupcast message including a first group identifier for the device group as a destination Layer 2, L2, identifier of the groupcast message and a second group identifier for the device group as the source L2 identifier for the groupcast message, wherein the first and second group identifiers for the device group are the same. The groupcast message further comprises an application identifier that identifies a source of the groupcast message and the application identifier is encrypted and further comprising decrypting the application identifier prior to sending the groupcast message. According to a third aspect, there is provided a UE configured to send a groupcast message to members of a device group including the UE. The groupcast message includes a first group identifier for the device group as a destination layer 2, L2, identifier of the groupcast message and a second group identifier for the device group as the source L2 identifier for the groupcast message, wherein the first and second group identifiers for the device group are the same. The groupcast message further comprises an application identifier that identifies a source of the groupcast m