US-20260129428-A1 - ELECTRONIC DEVICE AND METHOD FOR TRANSFERRING SUBSCRIPTION BY USING EMBEDDED SIM IN THE ELECTRONIC DEVICE

US20260129428A1US 20260129428 A1US20260129428 A1US 20260129428A1US-20260129428-A1

Abstract

According to various embodiments, an electronic device may comprise at least one embedded universal integrated circuit card (eUICC) each storing at least one subscriber identity information and at least one processor electrically connected to the eUICC. The at least one processor may control to connect with an external electronic device through communication, receive a subscription information request for subscription transfer from the external electronic device, identify at least one transferable subscription information from profile information stored in the eUICC, in response to the reception of the subscription information request, transmit the identified at least one transferable subscription information to the external electronic device, receive to-be-transferred subscription information selected from among the at least one transferable subscription information from the external electronic device, request a server to authenticate the to-be-transferred subscription selected by the external electronic device, receive information corresponding to a result of the authentication from the server, in response to the request for the authentication, and transmit information for subscription transfer including the information corresponding to the authentication result to the external electronic device.

Inventors

Jieun JUNG
Jaehyeon SEO
Jimin PARK
Hyongjin Ban
Yejin YOON

Assignees

SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO., LTD.

Dates

Publication Date: 20260507
Application Date: 20260105
Priority Date: 20210730

Claims (19)

1 . An electronic device comprising: at least one embedded universal integrated circuit card (eUICC); at least one processor coupled with the eUICC; and memory storing one or more computer programs including computer-executable instructions that, when executed by at least one processor individually or collective, cause the electronic device to: transmit, to a first server, a request of an authentication for a subscription transfer to an external electronic device, based on first identification information of the electronic device; receive an authentication token corresponding to a result of the authentication from the first server; and transmit, to the external electronic device, subscription transfer information including the authentication token corresponding to the result of the authentication, wherein the authentication token is used by the external electronic device to receive, from the first server, address information of a second server that provides a profile corresponding to the subscription transfer.
2 . The electronic device of claim 1 , wherein the first identification information comprises at least one of a mobile country code (MCC) and a mobile network code (MNC), an international mobile subscriber identity (IMSI), an eUICC identity (EID), an international mobile equipment identity (IMEI), an integrated circuit card identity (ICCID), or a product model name identified from profile information.
3 . The electronic device of claim 1 , wherein the first server corresponds to an entitlement server.
4 . The electronic device of claim 1 , wherein the second server corresponds to a SM DP+ server.
5 . The electronic device of claim 1 , wherein the electronic device is connected with the external electronic device through short-range wireless communication.
6 . The electronic device of claim 5 , wherein the computer-executable instructions cause the electronic device to: transmit at least one transferable subscription information to the external electronic device through the short-range wireless communication.
7 . The electronic device of claim 1 , wherein the authentication comprises at least one operation based on an extensible authentication protocol authentication and key agreement (EAP-AKA) scheme.
8 . The electronic device of claim 1 , the computer-executable instructions cause the electronic device to: transmit, to the first server, the request of the authentication for the subscription transfer associated with first subscription information, based on selection information received from the external electronic device.
9 . The electronic device of claim 8 , the computer-executable instructions cause the electronic device to: identify at least one transferable subscription information from profile information stored in the eUICC; transmit the identified at least one transferable subscription information to the external electronic device; and receive the selection information in associated with the first subscription information selected from among the at least one transferable subscription information by the external electronic device.
10 . A method performed by an electronic device, the method comprising: transmitting, to a first server, a request of an authentication for a subscription transfer to an external electronic device, based on first identification information of the electronic device; receiving an authentication token corresponding to a result of the authentication from the first server; and transmitting, to the external electronic device, subscription transfer information including the authentication token corresponding to the result of the authentication, wherein the authentication token is used by the external electronic device to receive, from the first server, address information of a second server that provides a profile corresponding to the subscription transfer.
11 . The method of claim 10 , wherein the first identification information comprises at least one of a mobile country code (MCC) and a mobile network code (MNC), an international mobile subscriber identity (IMSI), an eUICC identity (EID), an international mobile equipment identity (IMEI), an integrated circuit card identity (ICCID), or a product model name identified from profile information.
12 . The method of claim 10 , wherein the first server corresponds to an entitlement server.
13 . The method of claim 10 , wherein the second server corresponds to a SM DP+ server.
14 . The method of claim 10 , wherein the electronic device is connected with the external electronic device through short-range wireless communication.
15 . The method of claim 14 , the method comprises: transmitting at least one transferable subscription information to the external electronic device through the short-range wireless communication.
16 . The method of claim 10 , wherein the authentication comprises at least one operation based on an extensible authentication protocol authentication and key agreement (EAP-AKA) scheme.
17 . The method of claim 11 , wherein the method comprises: transmitting, to the first server, the request of the authentication for the subscription transfer associated with first subscription information, based on selection information received from the external electronic device.
18 . The method of claim 17 , wherein the method comprises: identifying at least one transferable subscription information from profile information stored in the eUICC; transmitting the identified at least one transferable subscription information to the external electronic device; and receiving the selection information in associated with the first subscription information selected from among the at least one transferable subscription information by the external electronic device.
19 . A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by at least one processor of an electronic device individually or collectively, cause the electronic device to: transmit, to a first server, a request of an authentication for a subscription transfer to an external electronic device, based on first identification information of the electronic device; receive an authentication token corresponding to a result of the authentication from the first server; and transmit, to the external electronic device, subscription transfer information including the authentication token corresponding to the result of the authentication, wherein the authentication token is used by the external electronic device to receive, from the first server, address information of a second server that provides a profile corresponding to the subscription transfer.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION(S) This application is a continuation application of prior application Ser. No. 17/856,405, filed on Jul. 1, 2022, which has issued as U.S. patent Ser. No. 12/520,126 on Jan. 6, 2026, which is a continuation application, claiming priority under 35 U.S.C. §365(c), of an International application No. PCT/KR2022/007415, filed on May 25, 2022, which is based on and claims the benefit of a Korean patent application number 10-2021-0100920, filed on Jul. 30, 2021, in the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety. TECHNICAL FIELD The disclosure relates to an electronic device and a method for transferring a subscription using an embedded subscriber identity module (eSIM) in the electronic device. BACKGROUND ART In a wireless communication system, an electronic device (e.g., user equipment (UE)) may access a wireless communication network and use a voice communication or data communication service in a fixed position or on the move. To provide a communication service to an electronic device, an appropriate authentication process is required. In general, a universal integrated circuit card (UICC) is inserted into the electronic device, and authentication is performed between the electronic device and the server of the mobile network operator (MNO) through a universal subscriber identity module (USIM) installed in the UICC. UICC may be called subscriber identity module (SIM) in the case of global system for mobile communications (GSM) and universal subscriber identity module (USIM) in the case of wideband code division multiple access (WCDMA), long term evolution (LTE), and new radio (NR). If the user of the electronic device subscribes to a wireless communication service provided by the mobile network operator, the mobile network operator may provide a UICC (e.g., a SIM card or a USIM card) to the user. The user may insert the provided UICC into her electronic device. If the UICC is inserted into the electronic device, the USIM application installed in the UICC is executed, and an appropriate authentication process may be performed with the server the mobile network operator, which stores the same value, using to the international mobile subscriber identity (IMSI) value stored in the UICC and the encryption key value for authentication. After the appropriate authentication process is performed, the wireless communication service may be used. The UICC may be manufactured as a dedicated card for a specific communication carrier at the request of the specific communication carrier when manufacturing the card and may come equipped with authentication information (e.g., USIM application and subscriber identification ID (e.g., IMSI)) for network connection of the corresponding communication carrier and an encryption key (e.g., a known K value or Ki value). The UICC may be provided to subscribers of the communication service through the corresponding communication carrier and, as necessary later, the communication carrier may use technology, such as over the air (OTA), to install, modify, and delete applications within the UICC. The user may insert the UICC into the terminal and use the network and application services of the corresponding communication carrier. When replacing the terminal, the user may insert a removable UICC from the old terminal to the new terminal, thereby using the authentication information, phone number, and personal contact information stored in the UICC on the new terminal. Unlike UICCs, which are manufactured and distributed exclusively for a specific communication carrier, the user may purchase a specific UICC or the user may subscribe to (or purchase) a communication service after obtaining a UICC and the user may subscribe to and cancel, open a service from a specific wireless communication carrier or change to another communication carrier (e.g., line switching). Thus, there have been proposed methods for remotely installing the communication carrier's USIM application and subscriber identity ID and encryption key on the UICC, and safely and flexibly installing and managing authentication information for various communication carriers. For example, there has been proposed so-called embedded UICC (eUICC) capable of remotely installing a profile for providing a communication service through a network without replacing the UICC even when the user changes a communication carrier. The eUICC may be manufactured as a pre-mounted UICC, fixed in the form of a chip, in the terminal during the manufacturing process of the terminal. Accordingly, the eUICC may be used for various terminals that may have a structure in which it is not easy to mount or remove the UICC, such as machine to machine (M2M) or device to device (D2D) terminals, as well as general wireless terminal, such as mobile phones. The eUICC may also be referred to as an eSIM. The above information is presented as background informati