How 3G / 4G LTE Can be Interecpeted by Law Enforcement Agencies ?

It is of utmost importance that any Government Prevent crime and terror. At the same time to satisfy legal procedures they should by gather admissible evidence and prosecute suspects. In the context of this, let us see how High Speed Networks provide the opportunity for Law Enforcement agencies to intercept messages and data.

Often Law Enfrocement Agencies such as the CBI and IB are interested in complete Access to the communication of the monitored target. By Complete Communication we mean Voice + Data + Video. They also want to Receive the intercepted information in a Variety of formats Real Time Voice & Video . Data Content must be in Readable format. Session Related Information in .txt / .xml / .xls format and all this should be done with utmost care and FULL confidentiality.

Interception can be Done in two ways – Active or Passive. The following Chart shows how an Active Interception can be done with the help of Mediation Device plugged into the Network.

In case of Passive Interception, Solution Points are fixed from where data is captured as shown below.

Challenges in LTE Interception – Very High bandwidth Network. It may have Roaming subscribers – inbound and outbound. More identities in cross-domain operations – CDMA2K access network connected to P-GW. It offers Multiple options for voice connectivity. Location information / events are captured mostly at beginning of session.

One should note that Lawful Interception Architecture and Functions are now part of the standard 3GPP 33.107 and Handover Interface for data interception in LTE domain and voice / multimedia interception in IMS domain is detailed in 3GPP 33.108. Every Vendor is updated with trends, architectures and new protocols and are required to design their systems in accordance so that Law Agencies can have their hands on when required thus preempting any Crime 🙂

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