Auto-connectivity and security setup for access network elements

In access networks, the roll-out of new network elements (NE) or changes to the NE HW and SW cause considerable overhead. The total number of NE is significant and is increasing for new radio access technologies like Long Term Evolution (LTE) due to the decreasing cell size. Furthermore for network scenarios like femto access points / home NEs conventional network deployment and management approaches where the network is fully planned and NEs are tightly managed cannot be followed any more. Furthermore the increased security requirements by operators for such network deployments have to be observed. An auto-connectivity scheme which incorporates the NE´s security setup is proposed which tries to balance the trade-off between automation (avoiding any manual intervention) and security. This is achieved by shifting manufacturer and operator activities to a preparation (rather than the actual roll-out) phase and eliminating any interaction between them as much as possible. The NE is delivered only with an ldquooff-theshelfrdquo software & configuration installation. Only at the point in time when the NE is placed on site, the NE hardware-to-site mapping happening is executed. Together with mutual authentication between NE and the Operation, Administration and Maintenance (OAM) system it is possible to enable a very flexible and secure roll-out process.