Machine to Machine (M2M) Communication is seen as a form of data communication between entities that may have no human interaction. One of the challenges with M2M communication is that deployed M2M equipments are managed remotely without any direct human interaction with the device. This Technical Report considers the M2M Equipment as a device that could be a fully self-contained device or a device with interfaces to attach, for example, sensors and on-site service equipment. The current 3GPP system defines the use of a USIM/ISIM application in a UICC as a means of protecting users (until now mostly human users of mobile terminals) and network operators from fraudulent use of the network. Since some of the original assumptions on the use of a USIM/ISIM application in a UICC did not take into account the requirements of M2M Equipment and users, the current UICC based solution needs to be reviewed against the new assumptions that arise from M2M. TR 22.868 presents a study on facilitating machine-to-machine (M2M) communication in 3GPP systems. This Technical Report goes along with the TR 22.868, evaluating from a security perspective the solutions that might address the M2M use cases. One of the challenges highlighted in TR 22.868 is the possible need to be able to provision (i.e. initialize and/or change the subscription of) M2M equipment remotely, i.e. without requiring a person to attend the location of the M2M equipment. This was captured in clause 6 of TR 22.868, as possible requirements that could facilitate M2M communications in 3GPP systems, and more specifically in clause 5.2.2 of TR 22.868 when handling large numbers of M2M equipment. TR 22.868 mentions only UICC-based solution for M2M use-cases and does not explicitly mention the need to investigate UICC-less-based solutions.

The scope of this Technical Report is to study the remote subscription management for M2M Equipment (M2ME) when the Machine Communications Identity Module (MCIM) application resides in the UICC and when the MCIM application resides in the M2M equipment. The remote subscription management includes tasks such as remote subscription provisioning and/or remote change of subscription. The scope of this study includes the definition of a trust model for remote subscription management for M2ME.Security threats and security requirements are identified, and an evaluation of the candidate solutions is presented. The security implications of the following requirements are within the scope of the study (based on section 5.2.2 of TR 22.868)

1. The possibility to change subscription for M2MEs out in the field (e.g. after contract expiry) without direct human intervention.
2. The possibility to allocate the M2ME at initial power up to a network operator without direct human intervention.

Furthermore, this study includes the following items:

• an investigation of candidate security solutions architectures that allow remote subscription management to take place in a secure manner;
• an identification of current USIM/ISIM functionality that may need to be incorporated in a MCIM application, with or without changes to allow remote subscription management for the M2ME;
• an identification of functionality in the network, in the UICC or in the M2ME, that may need to be added due to the remote subscription management method;
• the study may identify principle requirements for protected storage and the execution environment (e.g. by collaborating with relevant working groups such as the OMTP Hardware group)
  This study is beyond the scope of the first requirement identified in SA1 TR 22.868 since section 5.2.2 of TR 22.868 contains a requirement to have "Tamper Save/Theft proof terminal including a UICC".

The following documents contain provisions which, through reference in this text, constitute provisions of the present document.

• References are either specific (identified by date of publication, edition number, version number, etc.) or non-specific.
• For a specific reference, subsequent revisions do not apply.
• For a non-specific reference, the latest version applies. In the case of a reference to a 3GPP document (including a GSM document), a non-specific reference implicitly refers to the latest version of that document in the same Release as the present document.