A Method, A System, A First Device, A Second Device, A Database, A Computer Program And A Computer Program Product For Lawful Interception In A Communications Network

Abstract

A method, a system, a first device, a second device, a database, a computer program and a computer program product for lawful interception in a communications network The invention concerns a method for lawful interception of a communication between a predetermined target (110) and a third party (120) in a communications network (100), wherein said communication is either intercepted (101, 102, 103) if a content type of said communication matches a predetermined content type, or not intercepted (103) otherwise. Figure 1

Information

Applicants

Inventors

Specification

FORM 2
The Patent Act 1970
(39 of 1970)
&
The Patent Rules, 2005

COMPLETE SPECIFICATION
(SEE SECTION 10 AND RULE 13)

TITLE OF THE INVENTION

“A method, a system, a first device, a second device, a database, a com-puter program and a computer program product for lawful intercep-tion in a communications network”

APPLICANTS:

Name Nationality Address
Alcatel Lucent France 54 rue de la Boétie, 75008 Paris, France

The following specification particularly describes and ascertains the nature of this invention and the manner in which it is to be performed:-
Field of the invention
The invention relates to a method, a system, a first device, a second device, a database, a computer program and a computer program product for lawful interception in a communications network.
Background
In an implementation of a system capable of lawful interception in a communications network a lawful interception gateway is connected via data links to a traffic node and to a monitoring center of a law-enforcement agency. In such system, a predetermined target is typically connected to a third party via said traffic node.
The lawful interception gateway and the traffic node are configured to intercept all communications of a predetermined target for a predetermined period of time.
Intercepting means that a copy of communications of said predetermined target is sent from said traffic node via said lawful interception gateway to said monitoring center.
Methods for lawful interception are well known to persons skilled in the art, for example from the specification ETSI TR 101943 V.2.2.1 (2006-11).
Costly infrastructure is required to provide the bandwidth to intercept all communications of said predetermined target.

Summary
The object of the invention is thus to reduce the bandwidth required for the lawful interception and hence the cost of lawful interception.
The main idea of the invention is to intercept a communication between a predetermined target and a third party in a communications network, wherein said communication is either intercepted if a content type of said communication matches a predetermined content type or not intercepted otherwise. This way, not all communication of said predetermined target is intercepted, but only the communication of a certain content type, such as phone calls or SMS messages.
Advantageously, said communications network comprises a first device, in particular a lawful interception gateway, and information about said predetermined content type is received by said first device, in particular said lawful interception gateway. This provides a flexible way of configuring the content type that shall be intercepted.
Advantageously, said communications network comprises a second device, in particular a monitoring center of a law-enforcement agency, and information about said predetermined content type is sent by said second device, in particular said monitoring center of said law-enforcement agency. This way, said law-enforcement agency can easily configure the content type that shall be intercepted.
Advantageously, information about said communication is determined by a first device, in particular a lawful interception gateway, and said information about said communication is either sent to a second device, in particular a monitoring center of a law-enforcement agency, if said content type of said communication matches said predetermined content type, or not sent otherwise. This means that the lawful interception gateway filters said information about said communication and forwards it to said monitoring center only if said communication is of the content type requested by said law-enforcement agency. This way, the bandwidth required for lawful interception and hence the cost of the infrastructure for the data link between the lawful interception gateway and the monitoring center is reduced.
Advantageously, said information about said communication is either stored in particular in a database, if said content type of said communication matches said predetermined content type, or not stored otherwise. This way, the cost for the infrastructure required to store said information about said communication is reduced.
Advantageously, information about said predetermined content type is sent from a first device, in particular a lawful interception gateway, to a second device, in particular a monitoring center of a law-enforcement agency. This way, said monitoring center receives information about the content type that is going to be sent by the lawful interception gateway. This way, said information about said communication received from said lawful interception gateway is processed according to said content type by said monitoring center.
Advantageously, information about said predetermined content type is sent from a first device, in particular a lawful interception gateway, to a database. This way, said database is configured to receive information about said communication of said predetermined content type.
Further developments of the invention can be gathered from dependent claims and the following description.
Brief description of the figures
In the following the invention will be explained further making reference to the attached drawings.
Fig. 1 schematically shows a first part of a communications network.
Fig. 2 schematically shows a first flowchart.
Description of the embodiments
Fig. 1 schematically shows a first part of a communications network 100.
Said communications network 100 comprises a first device, hereafter labeled lawful interception gateway 101. Said lawful interception gateway 101 comprises a first receiver 132, adapted to receive information about a predetermined content type and a first processor 131 adapted to intercept a communication between a predetermined target 110 and a third party 120, depending on said information about said predetermined content type.
Said lawful interception gateway 101 comprises a first sender 133, adapted to send information about said communication if a content type of said communication matches said predetermined content type.
For example said communication comprises a data element and said lawful interception gateway 101 is adapted to send a copy of a data element or information about said data element, if the content type of said data element matches said predetermined content type, or to not send said copy of said data element or said information about said data element otherwise.
Said lawful interception gateway 101 comprises a second receiver 134, adapted to receive information about said communication.
Said first receiver 132, said second receiver 134, said first sender 133 and said processor 131 are for example connected via a data link, e.g. a serial data bus.
Said communications network 100 comprises a second device, hereafter labeled monitoring center 102. Said monitoring center is for example a server that is owned by a law-enforcement agency.
Said monitoring center 102 comprises a second sender 141, adapted to send information about said predetermined content type.
Said monitoring center 102 comprises a third receiver 142, adapted to receive said information about said predetermined content type.
Said communications network 100 comprises said predetermined target 110, for example a Voice over Internet Protocol phone (well known as VoIP-phone). Said predetermined target 110 may be any other type of communications terminal or node, for example a personal computer or an analogue telephone.
Said communications network 100 comprises said third party 120, for example a second VoIP-phone. Said third party 120 may be any other type of communications terminal or node, for example a personal computer or an analogue phone.
Said communications network 100 comprises a traffic node 103, adapted to connect said predetermined target 110 and said third party 120. Said traffic node 103 is adapted to transmit communication between said predetermined target 110 and said third party 120 and to transmit information about said communication to said lawful interception gateway.
Said information about said communication is for example Interception Related Information (well known as IRI) or Content of Communication (well known as CC) or both.
Said lawful interception gateway 101 and said monitoring center 102 are connected via a first data link 151, for example according to the Internet Protocol Multimedia Subsystem (well known as IMS). Said lawful interception gateway 101 and said monitoring center 102 may be connected via any other type of data link, for example a Point-to-Point connection.
Said lawful interception gateway 101 and said traffic node 103 are connected via a second data link 152, for example according to said Internet Protocol Multimedia Subsystem. Said second data link 152 may also be any other type of data link, for example a Point-to-Point connection.
Said predetermined target 110 and said third party 120 are connected via said traffic node 103 via a third data link 153 and a fourth data link 154, for example according to the Real Time Transport Protocol, well known as RTP. Signaling may be performed using the Session Initiation Protocol (well known as SIP).
Said third data link 153 or said fourth data link 154 may be any other type of data link, for example a wire-line link, using pulse code modulation (well known as PCM).
To set up lawful interception of said predetermined target 110 in a provisional step, said lawful interception gateway 101 and said traffic node 103 are configured to intercept all communications of said predetermined 110 for a predetermined period of time. Alternatively to configuring said lawful interception gateway 101 and said traffic node 103 to intercept all communications of said predetermined target 110 for said predetermined period time, both may be configured to intercept said communication for an unlimited period of time.
Said communication may comprise data elements, for example packages of said Real Time Transport Protocol containing said communication content or said interception related information. In this case, said traffic node 103 is configured to analyze incoming data elements and send copies of the data elements belonging to a communication of said predetermined target 110 or information about said data elements to said lawful interception gateway 101.
A method for lawful interception of said communication between said predetermined target 110 and said third party 120 is explained now, making reference to Fig. 2.
Said method starts for example as soon as a communication between said predetermined target 110 and said third party 120 is set up by said traffic node 103.
Alternatively, said method may start if said traffic node 103 detects said communication between said predetermined target 110 and said third party 120.
After the start, a step 201 is executed.
In said step 201, said traffic node 103 sends information about said communication to said lawful interception gateway. Said traffic node 103 for example sends said data element belonging to said communication to said lawful interception gateway 101. Said data element for example is package according to said Real Time Transport Protocol. Alternatively, said traffic node 103 sends information about said data element, for example information about a recipient or a time of sending of said Real Time Transport Protocol package, according to said Session Initiation Protocol. Afterwards, a step 202 is executed.
In said step 202, said lawful interception gateway 101 determines a content type of said communication and matches it to said predetermined content type. For example said lawful interception gateway 101 matches said content type of said data element to said predetermined content type by extracting information about the content of said Real Time Transport Protocol package. In case said content type of said communication matches said predetermined content type, a step 203 is executed. Otherwise, no match was found.
If no match was found, said method ends without intercepting said communication, e.g. by not sending said data element.
In said step 203, said lawful interception gateway 101 sends information about said communication to said monitoring center 102. For example, said data element or information about said data element is sent by said lawful interception gateway 101 to said monitoring center 102 via said first data link 151.
Afterwards, said method ends.
Additionally, said lawful interception gateway 101 may be adapted to send information about said predetermined content type to said monitoring center 102. Preferably, said information about said predetermined content type is sent to said monitoring center 102 before said data element is sent to said monitoring center 102. This way, said monitoring center 102 is configured to receive data elements of a certain content type only.
Additionally or alternatively said communications network 100 may comprise a database not depicted in Fig. 1. Said database is adapted to store information about said communication between said predetermined target 110 and said third party 120. For example, said database is adapted to store said data element for later delivery to said monitoring center 102, for example in a File Transfer Protocol download of a summary of all communications intercepted by said lawful interception gateway 101 during said predetermined period of time.
Said database may additionally be adapted to receive information about said content type in order to configure said database to receive data elements of a certain content type only.
In this case, said law interception gateway 101 for example sends said information about said content type to said database before said data element is sent to said database.
The above described system for lawful interception of said data element being transmitted between said predetermined target 110 and said third party 120 in said communications network 100 comprises said lawful interception gateway 101, said monitoring center 102 and may comprise said traffic node 103.
Alternatively, said lawful interception gateway and said traffic node 103 may be implemented on the same physical server within said communications network 100.
Instead of comprising data elements, said communication may also be transmitted using said Pulse Code Modulation. Said method for lawful interception applies to such communications as well.
Additionally, said lawful interception gateway 101 may receive a request message from said monitoring center 102, specifying said predetermined content type. In this case, said lawful interception gateway 101 is configured or reconfigured to forward information about said communication only if said content type of said communication matches said predetermined content type received in said request message.
Said message is for example determined by said monitoring center upon receipt of a user input via a graphical user interface.
This way, said law-enforcement agency may easily configure said lawful interception gateway, in particular for said predetermined target and said predetermined period of time.

The description and drawings merely illustrate the principles of the invention. It will thus be appreciated that those skilled in the art will be able to devise various arrangements that, although not explicitly described or shown herein, embody the principles of the invention and are included within its spirit and scope. Furthermore, all examples recited herein are principally intended expressly to be only for pedagogical purposes to aid the reader in understanding the principles of the invention and the concepts contributed by the inventor(s) to furthering the art, and are to be construed as being without limitation to such specifically recited examples and conditions. Moreover, all statements herein reciting principles, aspects, and embodiments of the invention, as well as specific examples thereof, are intended to encompass equivalents thereof.
The functions of the various elements shown in the figures, including any functional blocks labeled as ‘processors’, may be provided through the use of dedicated hardware as well as hardware capable of executing software in association with appropriate software. When provided by a processor, the functions may be provided by a single dedicated processor, by a single shared processor, or by a plurality of individual processors, some of which may be shared. Moreover, explicit use of the term ‘processor’ should not be construed to refer exclusively to hardware capable of executing software, and may implicitly include, without limitation, digital signal processor (DSP) hardware, network processor, application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), field programmable gate array (FPGA), read only memory (ROM) for storing software, random access memory (RAM), and non volatile storage. Other hardware, conventional and/or custom, may also be included.
It should be appreciated by those skilled in the art that any block diagrams herein represent conceptual views of illustrative circuitry embodying the principles of the invention. Similarly, it will be appreciated that any flow charts represent various processes which may be substantially represented in computer readable medium and so executed by a computer or processor, whether or not such computer or processor is explicitly shown.

A person of skill in the art would readily recognize that steps of various above-described methods can be performed by programmed computers. Herein, some embodiments are also intended to cover program storage devices, e.g., digital data storage media, which are machine or computer readable and encode machine-executable or computer-executable programs of instructions, wherein said instructions perform some or all of the steps of said above-described methods. The program storage devices may be, e.g., digital memories, magnetic storage media such as a magnetic disks and magnetic tapes, hard drives, or optically readable digital data storage media. The embodiments are also intended to cover computers programmed to perform said steps of the above-described methods.

We Claims:

1. A method for lawful interception of a communication between a prede-termined target (110) and a third party (120) in a communications net-work (100), wherein said communication is either intercepted (101, 102, 103) if a content type of said communication matches a predeter-mined content type, or not intercepted (103) otherwise.
2. The method according to claim 1, wherein said communications net-work (100) comprises a first device, in particular a lawful interception gateway (101), and wherein information about said predetermined con-tent type is received by said first device, in particular said lawful inter-ception gateway (101).
3. The method according to claim 1, wherein said communications net-work (100) comprises a second device, in particular a monitoring center (102) of a law enforcement agency, and information about said prede-termined content type is sent by said second device, in particular said monitoring center (102) of said law enforcement agency.
4. The method according to claim 1, wherein information about said communication is determined by a first device, in particular a lawful in-terception gateway (101), and said information about said communica-tion is either sent to a second device, in particular a monitoring center (102) of a law enforcement agency, if said content type of said commu-nication matches said predetermined content type, or not sent other-wise.
5. The method according to claim 1, wherein information about said communication is either stored, in particular in a database, if said con-tent type of said communication matches said predetermined content type, or not stored otherwise.
6. The method according to claim 1, wherein information about said pre-determined content type is sent from a first device, in particular a law-ful interception gateway (101), to a second device, in particular a moni-toring center (102) of a law enforcement agency.
7. The method according to claim 1, wherein information about said pre-determined content type is sent from a first device, in particular a law-ful interception gateway (101, 103), to a database.
8. The method according to claim 1, wherein said communication com-prises a data element, in particular being transmitted between said pre-determined target (110) and said third party (120), and said interception of said communication comprises the steps of determining and sending a copy of said data element or information about said data element.
9. A system for lawful interception of a communication between a prede-termined target (110) and a third party (120) in a communications net-work (100), in particular a data element being transmitted between said predetermined target (110) and said third party (120), wherein a first device, in particular a lawful interception gateway (101), is adapted to intercept said communication if a content type of said communication matches a predetermined content type, and to not intercept said com-munication otherwise, and wherein a second device, in particular a monitoring center (102) of a law enforcement agency, is adapted to send information about said predetermined content type, in particular to said first device.
10. A first device, in particular a lawful interception gateway (101), com-prising a first processor (131), adapted to intercept a communication, between a predetermined target (110) and a third party (120) if a con-tent type of said communication matches a predetermined content type, and to not intercept said communication otherwise.
11. The first device according to claim 10, comprising a first sender (133), adapted to send information about said communication.
12. The first device according to claim 10, comprising a first receiver (132), adapted to receive information about said predetermined content type.
13. The first device according to claim 10, further comprising a second receiver (134), adapted to receive information about said communica-tion.
14. The first device according to claim 10, wherein said communication comprises a data element and said information about said communica-tion comprises a copy of said data element or information about said data element.
15. A second device, in particular a monitoring center (102) of a law en-forcement agency, comprising a second sender (141) adapted to send information about a predetermined content type, in particular to said first device.
16. The second device according to claim 15, further comprising a third receiver (142), adapted to receive said information about said prede-termined content type, in particular from said first device.
17. A database, comprising a fourth receiver, adapted to receive informa-tion about said predetermined content type, in particular from said first device.
18. A computer program for lawful interception of a communication be-tween a predetermined target and a third party in a communications network (100), wherein said computer program, when executed on a computer, causes the computer to intercept said communication if a content type of said communication matches a predetermined content type, or to not intercept said communication otherwise.
19. A computer program product for lawful interception of a communica-tion between a predetermined target and a third party in a communica-tions network (100) comprising a computer usable medium having a computer readable program, wherein said computer readable program, when executed on a computer, causes the computer to intercept said communication if a content type of said communication matches a pre-determined content type, or to not intercept said communication other-wise.

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