eUICC Support for NetModule Routers

Motivation for Consumer eSIM in Industrial Routers

Application

With the beginning of the GSM age, you got used to buying a device with or without SIM and first installing this SIM into the device. The great progress was to separate the mobile subscription from the device. With the analog systems, you bought the subscription with the device and when switching providers, you also had to change the device.

The number of customers, turnover per customer (ARPU) as well as the change rate (churn) are important financial parameters for mobile operators. It costs a lot of money to win a new customer and that explains the motivation to keep its customers. A large, but not exclusive, share of the customer acquisition costs is the subsidisation of the end devices. The SIM is the physical symbol of customer loyalty.

The Internet of Things (IOT) is a new business area for mobile operators but at the same time a paradigm shift for them, since the focus is no longer on humans, but on the machine (M2M, machine to machine). One assumption of change has been that there will be very many, very small devices with cellular connection. These must be relatively cheap on the one hand and have to generate relatively little data volume per device on the other hand. Nevertheless, because of their diversity, they will generate large volumes and large sales.

A plastic SIM that needs to be installed before operation is no longer practical for this type of device. A soldered SIM, which can be reprogrammed via SMS, is the solution to this requirement. The active network operator will then initiate the transfer and activation of the new subscription. This process was standardized under SGP.02 as industrial eUICC.

It was then also the requirements of increasingly compact and complex end devices, especially the smart watches, which drove the demand for smaller SIM cards, up to solderable chips. The market power of Apple and Samsung, which, against their will, led the mobile operators to agree to a standardization of the eUICC (embedded Universal Integrated Circuit Card; aka embedded SIM) under the leadership of GSMA. This was the birth of the Consumer eSIM (SGP.21, ff).

NetModule eSIM – Automotive NG800

With the new NG800 Automotive Gateway, NetModule is supporting the advancing entry of telematics into vehicles, especially at commercial vehicles. The gateway provides the necessary, robust communication between on-board electronics and cloud applications such as to monitor e-mobility, support fleet management and carry out diagnostic tasks.

Above all, an Automotive IoT Gateway has to withstand environmental influences. The device category IP69K requires protection against water during high-pressure/steam jet cleaning and is specific for road vehicles. This is difficult to do with a replaceable SIM card. The eUICC allows on one hand a bonding of the housing and on the other hand the possibility to change the mobile subscription. In addition, an eUICC can contain multiple profiles, that means subscriptions, and this avoids roaming costs.

NetModule eSIM – Public transport NB2800, NB3800

For public transport, NetModule offers the NB2800 series for road vehicles and NB3800 for rail vehicles. Both routers can be equipped with up to 4 SIM cards and up to 4 mobile radio modules.

Changing a SIM card, i.e. also the mobile phone provider, is rather rare for vehicles on public transport. This is usually due to the commissioning in the context of the tendering procedure. If the provider is changed, it becomes expensive: the vehicles have to come to the depot and the SIM cards of the routers need to be exchanged, which are often installed behind claddings. This can be avoided by using an eSIM card. NetModule offers eUICCs in plastic format for the existing routers. These look the same as a standard SIM but have the function of an eUICC according to standard SGP.21.

NetModule eSIM – Industry and general applications NB800, NB1800

The NB800 is a router with a soldered cellular modem, while the NB1800 is built with a modular modem and can be equipped with up to two modems and two SIM cards.

The eUICCs also exist in the popular formats FF2 and FF3, so the entire NetModule portfolio can be upgraded with eUICC.

Standards and norms

While the standards and norms for cellular devices and their infrastructure are essentially developed by 3GPP and published as norm for Europe by ETSI, the situation with eSIM is more complicated. This often leads to misunderstandings. In general, a conventional SIM is based on smart card technology, which is also used for payments and contains the corresponding security mechanisms.

The standard for the eUICC is managed by GSMA, the Association of Mobile Operators. The standard for the SIM card itself remains at 3GPP/ETSI. As a result, there is no SIM without a profile based on 3GPP/ETSI. So-called dummy profiles are a solution today. 3GPP is expected to add the eUICC in the SIM-tool-kit in the near future

SIM formats

We know SIM cards with different form factors. Over time, the SIM cards have become smaller and smaller based on the form of the cheque card.

The last incarnation for the time being is the eSIM or chip SIM. It is a solderable SIM chip and there are now smaller formats such as XS-Quad. Due to this nomenclature, there are often confusions with the eUICC, i.e. the SIM card, on which you can download various profiles, so-called subscriptions.
On the other hand, there are also eUICCs in the classic form factors, which NetModule offers on all current routers in addition to retrofitting.

Difference Consumer to M2M eSIM

Machine-to-Machine eSIM

The loading and management of eUICC for machine communication is controlled by the mobile operator. In order to load another profile, a connection between the customer management systems of both network operators is necessary. This process is not standardized. While the communication to the SM-DP and SM-DS is specified by GSMA, the profile is then loaded and activated by the SM-DP via the SMS-Center on the end device.

Communication between network operators is the subject of a multilateral agreement and requires interoperability testing. The original profile remains on the SIM card. Other profiles are always managed through the original SM-DP. In this case, NetModule will provide the customer with the initial profile subscription next to the hardware and software.

Consumer eSIM

The typical customer of an iPhone or Samsung smartphone with eUICC gets a piece of paper with a QR code from his network operator instead of a plastic SIM to activate his phone. Well, the NetModule Router does not have a camera. It would be possible to tap the string, but there is a more elegant solution.

For this purpose, the application LPA of the NetModule Router Software reads the unique EID from the eUICC and asks the GSMA root SM-DS where a profile suitable for the EID is located. With this address the profile(s) belonging to this EID will be downloaded on the corresponding SM-DP+ Server.

The disadvantage of this method is that there must be an Internet connection at the time of configuration before the cellular modem can take over the data communication. However, the end customer is absolutely free to choose his cellular operator.

NetModule eUICC Solution

The eUICC, whether it is the Consumer eSIM or the M2M-eSIM, allows to switch the mobile operator without changing the physical SIM card. With the M2M-eSIM, however, you have to ask your (previous) mobile operator that he downloads and activates a new profile via SMS. In contrast with the consumer eSIM, the user initiates the loading and activating without the involvement of a previous mobile operator.

NetModule offers the eUICC solution according to GSMA Standard SGP.22 for its entire portfolio. This solution is also known as Consumer eSIM and works millions of times in smartphones. Unlike smartphones, no QR code needs to be read in. The LPA can be called via a command line. This reads the EID from the eUICC and - provided there is an internet connection - asks the GSMA SM-DP+ for existing profiles. These can be loaded, activated, and deleted again.

In the future, it is planned to integrate this function into the graphical web interface.

The advantage of this solution is that the end customer is free to choose his mobile operator. As before, it receives the hardware and software from NetModule.On request, NetModule can also install a specific profile during the final test or during configuration.
In the future, it is planned to manage larger fleets of eUICC-based devices via NetModule's cloud solution "Connectivity Suite".

Conclusion

The big advantage of the eUICC, whether with the Consumer eSIM or the M2M-eSIM, is that the mobile operator can be changed without having to change the physical SIM card.
The benefit of our solution is that the end customer, as before, receives the hardware and software from NetModule and is also free to choose its mobile operator.