Providing subscription data of an external subscriber

1 . A unified data management (“UDM”) apparatus comprising:

at least one memory; and

at least one processor coupled with the at least one memory and configured to cause the UDM apparatus to:

receive, from an access and mobility management function (“AMF”) in a mobile communication network, a request to provide subscription data for a user equipment (“UE”), wherein the request contains at least one subscription retrieval parameter and wherein the at least one subscription retrieval parameter indicates that the subscription data is stored in a subscription owner outside the mobile communication network;

retrieve first subscription data from the subscription owner using the at least one subscription retrieval parameter, wherein the first subscription data comprises at least one of the following for the UE: a mobility restriction, access and mobility (“AM”) subscription data, slice selection subscription data, session management function (“SMF”) selection subscription data, SMF management subscription data, or a combination thereof;

create second subscription data based on the first subscription data and a service agreement with the subscription owner;

generate a subscription identifier associated with the second subscription data; and

transmit a response to the AMF, the response comprising the second subscription data and the subscription identifier.

2 . The UDM apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the at least one processor is configured to cause UDM to initiate a validity timer for the second subscription data and perform an action in response to expiration of the validity timer, the action comprising: deleting the second subscription data or updating the second subscription data.

3 . The UDM apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the at least one subscription retrieval parameter comprises a credential to be used to retrieve the first subscription data, wherein the credential is provided by the subscription owner.

4 . The UDM apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the at least one subscription retrieval parameter comprises a target address of the subscription data.

5 . The UDM apparatus of claim 4 , wherein the target address contains an external subscriber identifier of the UE.

6 . The UDM apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the generated subscription identifier comprises: a group identifier corresponding to a class of subscribers or an individual subscriber identifier.

7 . A method performed by a unified data management (“UDM”) entity, the method comprising:

receiving, from an access and mobility management function (“AMF”) in a mobile communication network, a request to provide subscription data for a user equipment (“UE”), wherein the request contains at least one subscription retrieval parameter and wherein the at least one subscription retrieval parameter indicates that the subscription data is stored in a subscription owner outside the mobile communication network;

retrieving first subscription data from a subscription owner using the at least one subscription retrieval parameter, wherein the first subscription data comprises at least one of the following for the UE: a mobility restriction, access and mobility (“AM”) subscription data, slice selection subscription data, session management function (“SMF”) selection subscription data, SMF management subscription data, or a combination thereof;

creating second subscription data based on the first subscription data and a service agreement with the subscription owner;

generating a subscription identifier associated with the second subscription data; and

transmitting a response to the AMF, the response comprising the second subscription data and the subscription identifier.

8 . An access and mobility management function (“AMF”) comprising:

at least one memory; and

at least one processor coupled with the at least one memory and configured to cause the AMF to:

receive, from a user equipment (“UE”), a registration request message comprising an external subscriber identifier of the UE;

determine, based at least in part on the external subscriber identifier, that subscription data associated with the UE is stored in a subscription owner outside a mobile communication network;

trigger UE authentication with a subscription owner in response to the registration request message;

receive subscription retrieval information corresponding to the external subscriber identifier in response to a successful authentication of the UE, wherein the subscription retrieval information is from at least one of an authentication server of a subscription owner and a subscriber data management in the mobile communication network, wherein the subscription retrieval information comprises one or more of: an access credential associated with the subscription data, a target address associated with the subscription data, a group subscription identifier, or an individual subscription identifier;

generate a first request for subscription data retrieval using the subscription retrieval information, wherein the first request comprises an indication that the subscription data is stored in a subscription owner outside the mobile communication network;

transmit the first request to a unified data management in the mobile communication network;

receive a response message from the unified data management that contains subscription data for the UE; and

complete a registration of the UE based at least in part on the subscription data, wherein the subscription data comprises at least one of the following for the UE: a mobility restriction, access and mobility (“AM”) subscription data, slice selection subscription data, session management function (“SMF”) selection subscription data, SMF management subscription data, or a combination thereof.

9 . The AMF of claim 8 , wherein the subscription retrieval information comprises at least one subscription retrieval parameter which is included in the first request for subscription data retrieval.

10 . The AMF of claim 9 , wherein the at least one subscription retrieval parameter comprises the access credential to access external subscription data, the credential provided by the subscription owner.

11 . The AMF of claim 9 , wherein the at least one subscription retrieval parameter comprises the target address associated with the subscription data.

12 . The AMF of claim 11 , wherein the target address comprises the external subscriber identifier.

13 . The AMF of claim 9 , wherein the subscription retrieval parameter comprises the group subscription identifier, and wherein the group subscription identifier corresponds to a class of subscribers.

14 . The AMF of claim 9 , wherein, to receive the subscription retrieval information, the at least one processor is configured to cause the AMF to receive the individual subscription identifier from the subscriber data management in the mobile communication network.

15 . The AMF of claim 8 , wherein the at least one processor is configured to cause the AMF to use the external subscriber identifier for security operations.

16 . The AMF of claim 8 , wherein the at least one processor is configured to cause the AMF to:

use the subscription retrieval information as a subscription identifier to identify the subscription for transactions within a serving network, and

use the external subscriber identifier to identify the subscription for transactions outside the serving network.

17 . The AMF of claim 16 , wherein the at least one processor is configured to cause the AMF to transmit the subscription identifier to at least one network function for subscription retrieval within the serving network.

18 . The UDM apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the subscription owner comprises a service provider of the UE.

19 . The UDM apparatus of claim 1 , wherein to retrieve the subscription data from the subscription owner, the at least one processor is configured to cause the UDM apparatus to retrieve the subscription data from an Authentication, Authorization, and Accounting (“AAA”) server of the subscription owner and wherein the subscription retrieval parameter comprises an AAA server identifier (“AAA-server ID”).

20 . The AMF of claim 8 , wherein the at least one processor is further configured to cause the AMF to store the subscription data for the UE.