User initiated fast identity switch between LTE UEs

Modern smartphones have increased their capabil- ities in terms of both hardware and software. They are devices used for so many purpose other than simple calls and messaging. The industries are now focusing on heavily smartphone-devices integration, i.e., to integrate phones with cars, TVs, home devices as sensors, etc. As a main example, car-smartphone integration is an ever increasing field, but the car is yet thought as a phone accessory. Our idea is to enhance the user’s experience by extending the concept of smartphone interface. We propose a new method where a user not only use another device as an interface towards their own smartphone, but when the device itself becomes their new User Equipment (UE). The idea is to transfer all the profile, from the smartphone to the device. Thus it is possible to use a different set of hardware that have specific characteristics. This paves the way to a many new possibilities in term of services, that the user can make use of. This paper proposes a solution to transfer temporarily the references to the user’s identity carried in a Universal Subscriber Identity Module (USIM), from a UE to another one, by leveraging on current interfaces between elements of the Evolved Packet Core (EPC) and the exchanging of new messages.