Are You Meeting the Requirements for Lawful Interception?
Worldwide, concerns over Internet-based attempts at disrupting IT systems of enterprises and governments are growing. To combat illegal activities and the threat of terrorism, service providers are required to comply with regional lawful interception regulations.
Lawful interception refers to legally authorized surveillance of subscriber data and voice communication. Law enforcement authorities may request communication network data, as well as information about particular subscribers, for analysis or evidence to prevent or investigate crimes. Although regulations differ between regions, communication service providers of any size may be required to facilitate requests for either a specific period or on a regular basis.
Almost all countries have lawful interception capability requirements developed by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), or CableLabs. In the USA, requirements are enabled by the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA), while European Union International User Requirements also has lawful interception requirements to prevent crime, including fraud and terrorism.
Fulfilling lawful interception requests requires a granular view of network activity, as well as the ability to map a particular IP address back to a specific subscriber. Generally, the service provider will be asked to intercept a subscriber’s electronic traffic for a specified period of time. Larger operators may need to meet these requests more frequently — however all providers are required to keep and access subscriber lease information.
To comply with lawful interception requests, operators need to be able to:
- Maintain accurate active and historic lease data
- Map an IP address to the associated MAC address
- Identify the individual subscriber from the MAC address
- Quickly obtain the relevant data without impacting the performance of the DHCP service
- Release reports to authorities and maintain records
Finding the Right Information at the Right Time
Clearly, as a service provider, you need to be able to figure out which subscriber on your network is of interest to authorities quickly and without increasing OPEX.
To help you obtain this valuable data, you need a way to store and track all of your active and historical lease data in one central repository. Your DHCP service will contain the information required, but it can be time-consuming to find out which device is associated to a particular subscriber. This process involves gathering, administering, and organizing multiple sets of information or pulling information from third-party consumers of data.
Finding historical lease data is the first step, and you then need to match this information to MAC address and subscriber information. Rather than spending precious time and operations staff resources on multi-step processes, why not be more efficient? A central repository of lease information is key to achieving operational efficiency for lawful interception requests, so that you can keep your DHCP service focused on its core functions.
Simplify Lawful Intercept Requests with Central Lease Service
Simplify the lawful interception process and reduce the strain on your existing DHCP investment by storing all of your lease data in a single repository. Central Lease Service is a solution that enables you to store and track all your DHCP lease data in one place. It replaces manual processes for lease lookups with one click, letting you find all the information required for a lawful interception request in less than a minute.
Central Lease Service integrates directly with Broadband Command Center or your DHCP service, which means there is no need to poll the DHCP service directly or rely on third-party consumers of data to obtain the information required by law enforcement authorities. This frees up your operations team to concentrate on other tasks, and also enhances your provisioning solution by ensuring the DHCP service concentrates on its core functions and maintains the highest possible quality of service across your network.
How does Central Lease Service help fulfil lawful interception requests? By mapping an IP address to a MAC address, you can immediately see the associated subscriber devices. Essentially, a central repository of IP lease data lets you quickly pinpoint which device — and which gateway — has accessed or attempted to access your network at any given point in time. When cross-referenced with subscriber billing data, this data enables you to quickly identify the subscriber of interest to authorities.
Central Lease Service offers you:
Flexibility
Search for a particular subscriber device from a known identifier such as IP address, remoteID, MAC address, or circuit ID for a specified date and time to find matching lease information and a list of all associated devices.
Simplified Reporting
Generate configurable reports to share across departments or with law enforcement agencies as required.
Consistent QoS
Reduce the load on your DHCP service by having a single stream of data that delivers all the lease information you need into a single repository.
Easy Integration
Set up automatic queries using a straightforward REST API. This API enables other northbound systems to quickly query the central lease database so that you can leverage active and historical lease information for other purposes.
