GSM A3/A8 AUTHENTICATION IN AN IMS NETWORK

A telecommunication network comprises an ICS GW configured to receive an access request from a UE; an HSS FE configured to retrieve A3/A8 authentication vectors including an A3/A8 authentication response from an HLR, and further configured to encode the A3/A8 authentication vectors as AKA authentication vectors and send the AKA authentication parameters to an S-CSCF; the ICS GW configured to receive an authentication challenge from the S-CSCF with encoded A3/A8 authentication vectors, and further configured to detect the A3/A8 authentication vectors and issue an A3/A8 authentication challenge to the UE; and the ICS GW configured to receive an A3/A8 authentication response from the UE, and further to encode the A3/A8 authentication response into an AKA authentication response and sending it to the S-CSCF for comparison.