Patent ID: 8107623

Claim:
A method comprising: receiving a first network application function identity information at a boot strapping server function from a network application function, the first network application function identity information corresponding to a public identifier of the network application function, the public identifier comprising a public host name; receiving a second network application function identity information at the boot strapping server function from the network application function, the second network application function identity information corresponding to an internal identifier of the network application function, the internal identifier comprising a network application function identifier; verifying, by the boot strapping server function, that the first network application function identity information and the second network application function identity information are bound to identify the network application function; and generating, by the boot strapping server function if the verifying is successful, a key derived from one of the first network application function identity information and the second network application function identity information, the boot strapping server function implemented in at least one processor.