Patent ID: 8255994

Claim:
A method for suppressing a Short Message Service (SMS) induced Denial of Service (DOS) attack on a telecommunications network, the method comprising: receiving at a register information associated with an SMS message, wherein the information is received from an SMS router that extracted the information from the SMS message, and wherein the information includes a target device identifier of a target device, an originating source identifier, a time of the SMS message, and a priority level associated with the SMS message; sending a request from the register to a home location register (HLR) or a visiting location register (VLR) for location information indicating a location of the target device, wherein the location information is associated with a geographic area; receiving at the register, the location information from the HLR or VLR; updating the register to include the location information of the target device, wherein the register tracks information pertaining to the target device, a quantity of requests for SMS messages to be delivered to the target device, a time associated with the SMS messages, and the location information; at the register, utilizing the information extracted from the SMS message and the location information to determine whether a DoS attack is occurring, wherein determining whether the DoS attack is occurring includes determining whether the quantity of requests for SMS messages to be communicated to the geographic area within a predefined time frame exceeds a predefined SMS request threshold based on a capacity of a control channel that would be utilized to facilitate communication of the SMS messages; in response to determining that DoS attack is occurring, the register communicating a trigger to the SMS router to enter into a DoS mode, wherein the DoS mode is one of a plurality of types of DoS mode that include (A) a throttling mode that limits a quantity of SMS messages that are communicated during a time period, (B) a complete prevention mode that prevents all SMS messages from being communicated, and (C) a focused mode that identifies particular SMS messages that should be either throttled or prevented; at the SMS router, enabling a DoS mode in response to receiving the DoS mode trigger from the register, wherein the DoS mode allows the SMS router to restrict communication of SMS messages by operating the SMS router in the throttling mode, the complete prevention mode, or the focused mode; and communicating an additional trigger to the SMS router to instruct the SMS router to disable the DoS mode or to maintain the DoS mode for an extended period of time; wherein the additional trigger to instruct the SMS router to disable the DoS mode is in response to a determination that the quantity of requests for SMS messages is below a second SMS request threshold.