JP6546312B2 - Method and apparatus for accessing broadcast distribution information - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for efficiently accessing broadcast information distributed in a wireless network from user equipment.

Conventionally, in the in-cell broadcast (CBS) broadcast simultaneously to mobile phones within the communication area of a base station antenna, the information transmitted from the information distribution server is a short message service center, backhaul It is transmitted from a base station antenna via an RNC or the like in the network. The mobile telephone that has received the in-cell broadcast processes the received broadcast information as communication information, and displays, for example, the information transmitted in the in-cell broadcast message as text information on the display screen. In a cellular radio network compatible with the 3 ^rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) standard, all subscriber terminals located on a particular set of one or more cells on a shared broadcast channel are On the other hand, CBS (Cell Broadcast Service) that enables low bit rate message transmission as a message based information service is defined.

  In recent years, there has been developed a technology for distributing emergency earthquake information and advertisements to a plurality of mobile communication terminals using mobile communication networks using broadcast distribution by CBS (Cell Broadcast Service) or the like. For example, when emergency earthquake information is transmitted from the earthquake monitoring server, there is known a technique for converting the format of the emergency earthquake information in the earthquake information distribution server and broadcasting the information to the mobile communication terminal. In a cellular radio network compatible with the 3GPP standard, as one form of information message delivery service using the above-mentioned in-cell broadcast function, urgency such as disaster occurrence information for a plurality of user terminals in the cell. Services that simultaneously deliver high information quickly are known in recent years. In 3GPP, a scheme for distributing earthquake and tsunami warning from a mobile communication network to a mobile terminal is defined. And, various techniques for realizing it have been proposed. According to the 3GPP, the information sender of the earthquake and tsunami warning service displays on the mobile terminal within 4 seconds of the notification period after sending the ETWS (Earthquake and Tsunami Warning System) primary message, which is the first report of the earthquake and tsunami warning. It is required to Also, the mobile terminal is required to display it immediately after receiving the ETWS primary message.

  In the CBS function implemented by the cellular radio network, the ETWS primary message described above is transmitted by a CBS PDU which is a protocol data unit used for the purpose of transmitting an in-cell broadcast information message. A conventional cellular radio network compatible with the 3GPP standard distributes broadcast information messages transmitted from an information distribution server simultaneously and uniformly to a specific distribution destination area including a plurality of cells and a plurality of wireless LAN areas. In addition, the RNC accommodates the plurality of cells and the wireless LAN area. Thus, broadcast information messages originating from the information distribution server will be routed through the RNC.

  In the case of distributing highly urgent information such as disaster information by in-cell broadcast using the CBS function etc., the number of terminals of the distribution destination is large, which may cause congestion in the wireless network. Therefore, Patent Document 1 discloses a technique for alleviating traffic bursts of distribution information in a radio access network without increasing the number of RNC equipment. In the invention described in Patent Document 1, when the information distribution server receives an information distribution request from a user terminal registered in advance as a source of information distribution using the CBS function via the base station and the RNC, the received content is From the contained cell identifier and information contents where the user terminal is located, the database is inquired of the specification of the distribution cell area and its priority. Further, in the invention described in Patent Document 1, the information distribution server transmits, to the RNC, an information distribution request having a time lag in order of priority according to the specification of the distribution destination cell area obtained from the database and the priority information thereof. . In accordance with the information distribution request, the RNC performs information distribution with the above-mentioned time lag to the base station of each cell by the CBS function.

  In the case of distributing highly urgent information such as disaster information by in-cell broadcast using a CBS function or the like, the reception of the distribution information by each user terminal requires high certainty with no reception error. Therefore, Patent Document 2 discloses a technique for providing a mechanism for improving the reception success rate in notification of emergency disaster information from a mobile communication network to a portable terminal. In the invention described in Patent Document 2, the wireless communication system has a base station and a portable terminal. In the invention described in Patent Document 2, the base station divides data of an emergency disaster message to be distributed to the portable terminal into a plurality of pieces, calculates parity for the divided data, and distributes data and parity to the portable terminal. The mobile terminal receives data and parity from the base station, recovers an emergency disaster message from the data and parity, and presents it to the user.

  As a service similar to the message delivery service based on the in-cell broadcast described above, a service for delivering corporate advertisements and coupon information for customers to all wireless LAN terminals located in the communication area of a wireless LAN access point Is also becoming popular. In a cellular radio network or a wireless LAN network, in order to use such a broadcast type message distribution service from a wireless terminal, a wireless access network to be connected from a wireless terminal can be used by the user between the cellular wireless network and the wireless LAN. It is common to switch depending on the situation. In order to enable such a mode of use of the wireless terminal, the user may perform wireless network access using a multimode wireless terminal equipped with two wireless interface circuits respectively compatible with the cellular wireless network and the wireless LAN. It becomes a premise. In this case, the multi-mode wireless terminal establishes a plurality of wireless bearers connected to the simultaneously available cellular wireless network and the wireless LAN, and switches and communicates the plurality of wireless bearers according to the situation.

JP, 2009-005310, A JP 2012-060377

  However, depending on the position where the multimode wireless terminal is staying, there may occur a case where the carrier signal from the cellular base station can not be detected due to local channel conditions at the position, radio interference, or an obstacle. Such a situation may occur even if the position where the multimode terminal is staying is at a relatively short distance from any cellular base station. In addition, when the multimode wireless terminal is in use in a vehicle moving at high speed, communication with constant signal quality becomes difficult due to frequent occurrence of handover, etc., so that the multimode wireless terminal wirelessly connects to the cellular wireless network. There may be situations where it is virtually impossible. At the same time, in such a situation, the multi-mode wireless terminal may be able to connect to the wireless LAN provided in the vehicle with good signal quality.

  Therefore, even with a multi-mode wireless terminal equipped with two wireless interfaces respectively compatible with the cellular wireless network and the wireless LAN, the connection to the cellular wireless network may be temporarily disabled. In this case, it is impossible to receive, from the multi-mode wireless terminal, a message delivery service (such as ETWS) that is executed based on the in-cell broadcast function provided only by the cellular wireless network, like the CBS function.

  Also, among mobile information terminals such as laptop computers, tablet terminals and handheld devices, those equipped with a wireless LAN interface circuit but not equipped with a wireless interface circuit for a cellular wireless network are currently available. But a considerable number is widespread. On the contrary, in cellular mobile telephones, only a wireless interface circuit for a cellular wireless network is equipped, and a number of models without a wireless LAN interface circuit are still widespread. Also in this case, there arises a problem that the information distribution service using the CBS function provided only in the cellular radio network can not be received, or the broadcast distribution service provided only in the wireless LAN can not be received.

  And in the invention disclosed by patent documents 1 and patent documents 2, it is impossible to overcome the problem mentioned above.

  Furthermore, in a service that distributes disaster occurrence information etc. to an unspecified number of wireless terminals based on an in-cell broadcast function such as CBS function, a rich for displaying a disaster map (hazard map) etc. on the screen of the wireless terminal -Content information is considered to be relatively large delivery information of several hundred kilobytes or more. However, in a disaster information distribution service such as ETWS standardized in 3GPP GERAN (GSM (registered trademark) EDGE Radio Access Network), an ETWS primary that broadcasts disaster occurrence information to radio terminals in a cell using a CBS function. The message only has a size of 56 octets. Therefore, it is not possible to broadcast a large volume of rich content information as described above directly to an ETWS primary message to a wireless terminal in a cell.

  In such a case, in the prior art, the URL or URI of the Web server or content providing server or the like storing the rich content information described above is described in the message broadcast-distributed in the communication area of the message distribution destination. That is commonly done. However, in this case, when the user of the wireless terminal receiving the delivery of the message tries to access the Web server or the content providing server based on the URL or URI included in the message, the user is in the communication area of the message delivery destination. All users simultaneously access the web server and the content providing server simultaneously. As a result, a congestion state may occur in the cellular radio network, or a content providing server in which access from a large number of radio terminals located in the communication area of the message distribution destination is concentrated may be overloaded.

  The invention described in Patent Document 1 assigns a priority to each type of traffic to be broadcasted in order to prevent the concentration of access to a server as a content provider as described above and the occurrence of congestion normal conditions in a wireless network. Delaying the transmission timing of low-ranked broadcast traffic. However, in the invention described in Patent Document 1, since the disaster occurrence information delivery and the like are broadcast delivery with a very high degree of urgency, it is necessary to guarantee quick and reliable delivery without delay. Therefore, when it is necessary to provide multiple types of broadcast distribution services with high urgency similar to disaster occurrence information distribution within the same cellular radio network, competition over priority among the multiple broadcast distribution services occurs. Create the problem of

  In view of the above problems, according to the present invention, only the cellular radio network is a multi-mode radio terminal temporarily unable to connect to the cellular radio network or a radio terminal having no connection means to the cellular radio network. An object of the present invention is to realize a mechanism for receiving information distribution service based on the provided in-cell broadcast function (such as CBS function). Similarly, the object of the present invention is to realize a mechanism for enabling a cellular wireless terminal having no wireless LAN interface circuit to receive a broadcast distribution service provided only in the wireless LAN. Further, the present invention provides a wireless network when accessing large-capacity information such as rich content based on a broadcast distribution function for all users located in a communication area to which message information is distributed. It is an object of the present invention to realize a mechanism that prevents concentration of access from a large number of wireless terminals to content provision source servers and competition of communication priorities.

  Accordingly, an aspect of the present invention is a method of delivering related information associated with a broadcast message delivered to one or more wireless terminals in a wireless communication network to the one or more wireless terminals: An access point in a second wireless communication network, via a relay station capable of relaying a wireless signal from the first wireless communication network to the second wireless communication network; Receiving the broadcast message broadcast from the communication network; a request to acquire the related information when the broadcast message includes a provider link of the related information The access point receiving from the relay station; in response to the reception of the request, the access point downloads the related information from a provider server of the related information via the provider link Caching in its own station; and broadcasting the downloaded related information to one or more wireless terminals in the second wireless communication network. The second wireless communication network is characterized in that the relevant information can be downloaded at a higher speed than the first wireless communication network.

  Furthermore, in an aspect of the present invention, the relay station includes two connection means connectable to each of the first wireless communication network and the second wireless communication network. It is characterized in that it is a multi-mode wireless device in wireless connection with both the wireless communication network and the second wireless communication network.

  Furthermore, in the aspect of the present invention, the related information includes mass content information related to the message content notified by the broadcast message, and the provision source server can provide the mass content. The provider link is characterized by including a URL or a URI representing the location of the large-capacity content stored in the content server.

  As described above, according to the present invention, a multi-mode wireless terminal temporarily unable to connect to the cellular wireless network or a wireless terminal having no connection means to the cellular wireless network is provided only by the cellular wireless network. It is possible to receive an information distribution service based on an in-cell broadcast function (such as a CBS function). Similarly, the present invention can allow a cellular wireless terminal without a wireless LAN interface circuit to receive broadcast distribution services provided only within the wireless LAN. Further, according to the present invention, when making access to large-capacity information such as rich content to all users located in a communication area to which message information is to be distributed, based on the broadcast distribution function, It is possible to prevent the concentration of access from a large number of wireless terminals to the wireless network and the content provider server and the competition of the communication priorities.

A block diagram of a broadcast distribution system which is the basis for realizing the present embodiment in a cellular radio network Device configuration of wireless terminal used in the present embodiment A diagram for explaining the communication operation of the first example according to the present embodiment Event flow chart showing the flow of the signal processing operation in the first example according to the present embodiment The figure which shows the network connection between the Internet and a radio | wireless terminal regarding 2nd Example based on this Embodiment. Diagram for explaining communication operation of the second example according to the present embodiment Event flow chart showing the flow of the signal processing operation in the second example according to the present embodiment

  Hereinafter, the present embodiment will be described with reference to the drawings. In the present embodiment, first, an outline of the first embodiment and the second embodiment will be described. Subsequently, a network configuration of a broadcast distribution system which is a basis for realizing the present embodiment in a cellular radio network will be described with reference to FIG. Subsequently, the device configuration of the multi-mode wireless terminal used in the present embodiment and other wireless terminals will be described with reference to FIG. Finally, details of the first embodiment and the second embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. 3 to 5.

<1> Outline of First and Second Examples According to the Present Embodiment A first example according to the present embodiment will be described as follows. As described above, even if it is a multi-mode wireless terminal, it is equipped with only a terminal that can not temporarily connect to the cellular wireless network, or a wireless LAN interface circuit, and means for connecting to the cellular wireless network. In the following description, a wireless terminal that does not have a wireless terminal will be referred to as a wireless LAN dedicated terminal. Conversely, a wireless terminal equipped only with a wireless interface circuit connected to a cellular wireless network and having no connection means to a wireless LAN will be called a cellular dedicated terminal in the following description.

  The first example according to the present embodiment exemplifies a mechanism for enabling a wireless LAN dedicated terminal to receive a message delivery service based on an in-cell broadcast function specific to a cellular radio network such as a CBS function. In order to realize such a scheme, in the first embodiment, a multimode wireless terminal simultaneously connected to a base station of a cellular wireless network and a wireless LAN access point is used as a relay station. Specifically, the multimode wireless terminal functioning as the relay station described above relays a message distributed from the cellular base station to the wireless LAN access point based on the in-cell broadcast function in the cellular wireless network. Subsequently, the wireless LAN access point broadcasts the relayed message to all wireless terminals located in the communication area of the own station.

  Also, as a modification of the first embodiment, the cellular dedicated terminal can receive a message distribution service based on the in-area broadcast function provided only in the wireless LAN, such as a coupon distribution service provided by the wireless LAN service provider. It is also possible to realize a mechanism to Also in the case of realizing such a scheme, the wireless LAN access of the message delivery source is performed using the multimode wireless terminal simultaneously connected to the base station of the cellular wireless network and the wireless LAN access point as a relay station as described above. It is possible to relay in-area broadcast distribution messages between the point and the cellular base station.

  In the second example according to the present embodiment, when broadcasting a message to a wireless LAN dedicated terminal or a cellular dedicated terminal based on a broadcast function in a communication area specific to a cellular radio network or a wireless LAN, the message An example of a mechanism for efficiently distributing large-capacity content information, which is related information incidental to. That is, in the second embodiment, large-volume content information attached to a message broadcast-distributed to all terminals in the wireless LAN communication area is broadcast-distributed to all the terminals in the same manner as in the first embodiment. At the same time, a mechanism for preventing access load and congestion on the wireless network side is disclosed.

  Specifically, first, using the multimode wireless terminal simultaneously connected to the base station of the cellular wireless network and the wireless LAN access point as a relay station, the cellular base station of the message delivery source and the wireless LAN access point Relays in-cell broadcast delivery messages between Subsequently, when the wireless LAN access point relayed the message includes the URL or URI indicating the link to the provider of the large-capacity content information described above in the message, the URL or URI is The large capacity content is downloaded into the cache memory in the own station via the memory and temporarily stored. Finally, the wireless LAN access point broadcasts the temporarily stored large-capacity content information to all wireless terminals located within the communication area of the own station.

  The cellular base station used in the first embodiment and the second embodiment may be eNodeB or BTS in E-UTRAN standard or the like in which 3GPP promotes standardization.

<2> Network Configuration of Broadcast Delivery System Hereinafter, the configuration of a delivery system for realizing broadcast delivery of message information based on a CBS function in a cellular radio network will be described with reference to FIG. This distribution system is used as a network base for realizing the broadcast function of information message according to the present embodiment in the cellular radio network.

  In the broadcast distribution system shown in FIG. 1, it is assumed that the alarm system device distributes information such as disaster occurrence information to the neighboring cell area accommodated in the RNC 6 using the CBS (Cell Broadcast Service) function. The alarm system device is the source of the information distribution request (P1) including the distribution characteristic from the wireless access network.

  The alarm system device is registered in advance in the information distribution server 7 as the generation source of the information distribution using the CBS function. Therefore, the information distribution server 7 is registered in advance as the generation source of the information distribution using the CBS function. When the information distribution request (P1) from the alarm system device being received is received via the base station 2 and the RNC 6, the cell identifier at which the user (terminal 1) is located and the information distribution included in the received content (P2) Based on the distribution characteristic included in the request (P1), the database 8 is inquired of information for specifying a distribution target cell area (P3, P4).

  The information distribution server 7 uses the information provided by the alarm system device as the information distribution request (P5-1, P6-1, P7-1) according to the identification information of the distribution target cell area obtained from the database 8 as the RNC6. Send to The RNC 6 distributes the information provided from the alarm system device to the base stations 2 to 5 of each cell by the CBS function according to the information distribution request (P5-2, P6-2, P7- 2).

  In the broadcast distribution system described above, the alarm system device may be incorporated in the information distribution server 7, or may be any network device or server in a wireless network not shown in FIG. It is also possible to use the terminal 1 shown in FIG.

<3> Device Configuration of Wireless Terminal Next, referring to FIG. 2, the multi-mode wireless terminal 10m used to carry out the present embodiment, and others such as the wireless LAN dedicated terminal and the cellular dedicated terminal described above The device configuration of the wireless terminal 10s will be described.

  In FIG. 2, the multi-mode wireless terminal 10 m is connected to an antenna 101 for transmitting and receiving wireless signals, a wireless interface 102 a connected to the antenna 101, a wireless interface 102 b, a memory 103, a control processor 104, and a control processor 104. User input / output device 105 which controls the user interface between the user and the wireless terminal 10 while exchanging data, and a storage 106 and bus 107 which are permanent storage media for storing setting parameters and the like of the wireless terminal 10m. Be done. The wireless interface 102 a, the wireless interface 102 b, the memory 103, the control processor 104, the user input / output device 105, and the storage 106 described above are mutually connected via the bus 107.

  Each of the wireless interface 102a and the wireless interface 102b converts the received RF signal into digital information by frequency down converting, digitizing, demodulating and decoding, and provides it for subsequent information processing. Conversely, each of the wireless interface 102a and the wireless interface 102b convert digital information generated in the multimode wireless terminal 10m into an RF signal by encoding, modulating, and frequency upconverting. It is provided to the antenna 101 for wireless transmission. The wireless interface 102a is configured to be able to execute transmission and reception processing of wireless signals corresponding to the cellular wireless network, and the wireless interface 102b is configured to be able to execute transmission and reception processing of wireless signals corresponding to the wireless LAN network.

  The memory 103 stores digital information that the wireless interface 102a and the wireless interface 102b exchange with the control processor 104, which will be described later, and a program for controlling the entire wireless terminal 10.

  The control processor 104 reads a program from the memory 103 and controls the entire multi-mode wireless terminal 10m, generates digital information transmitted from the antenna 101 via the wireless interface 102a and the wireless interface 102b, and the wireless interface 102a and the wireless interface 102b. Further processing of digital information received from the antenna 101 is performed.

  The control processor 104 selectively enables one of the wireless interface 102a and the wireless interface 102b, and exchanges digital information only via the enabled wireless interface via the bus 107, thereby making a specific wireless access possible. The network can be used selectively to communicate.

  The user input / output device 105 exchanges input / output data between the screen display and the keypad provided on the wireless terminal 10 and the control processor 104, and at the same time, the user between the user and the multimode wireless terminal 10m. Control the interface. In addition, when the device state or input / output status of the screen display or the keypad provided on the multi-mode wireless terminal 10m changes, the user input / output device 105 is related to the change via the bus 107. The interrupt processing is instructed to the control processor 104. In order to enable such interrupt control, the user input / output device 105 has a function of electrically monitoring the state of the input / output device such as a screen display or a key pad managed by itself.

  The device configuration of the other wireless terminal 10s corresponding to the wireless LAN dedicated terminal or the cellular dedicated terminal used in the present embodiment is equipped with only one of the wireless interface 102a and the wireless interface 102b in FIG. It is the same as the device configuration of the multi-mode wireless terminal 10m except for the points not included.

<4> First example according to the present embodiment The first example enables a wireless LAN dedicated terminal to receive a message delivery service based on an in-cell broadcast function specific to a cellular radio network such as a CBS function. I will illustrate the mechanism. In order to realize such a scheme, in the first embodiment, a multimode wireless terminal simultaneously connected to a base station of a cellular wireless network and a wireless LAN access point is used as a relay station.

  Specifically, first, the multimode wireless terminal 10m (FIG. 2) functioning as the relay station described above transmits the message delivered from the cellular base station based on the in-cell broadcast function in the cellular wireless network. It receives via the network radio interface circuit 102a (FIG. 2). Subsequently, the multimode wireless terminal 10m relays the received message to the wireless LAN access point via the wireless interface circuit 102b for the wireless LAN. Subsequently, the wireless LAN access point broadcasts the relayed message to all wireless terminals located in the communication area of the own station. At this time, a wireless LAN dedicated terminal may be included in all the wireless terminals existing in the communication area of the wireless LAN access point.

  The flow of the above-described series of wireless signals between the cellular base station, the wireless LAN access point, and the multimode wireless terminal 10m is shown in FIG. An event flow diagram for explaining the flow of signal processing operation between the cellular base station, the wireless LAN access point, and the multimode wireless terminal 10m is shown in FIG. The flow of a series of signal processing operations in the first embodiment will be described below with reference to FIGS. 3 and 4.

  In FIG. 3, the cellular base station 90 which has received a message to be delivered based on the CBS function from the cellular core network 51 constituting the cellular radio network broadcasts the message in the cell covered by the own station, and performs multi-mode. The wireless terminal 10m receives the broadcasted message (step S1 in FIG. 4). In FIG. 3, a multi-mode wireless terminal 10m can connect two types of wireless interface circuits 102a and 102b respectively connectable to both the cellular base station 90 under the cellular wireless network and the access point 91 of the wireless LAN network (FIG. 2). Equipped with).

  Subsequently, the multimode wireless terminal 10m that has received the distribution message described above turns on the power of the wireless LAN interface 102b (FIG. 2), which is a wireless interface circuit connectable to the wireless LAN (step S2 in FIG. 4). Thereafter, when the multimode wireless terminal 10m detects a beacon signal of the wireless LAN access point 91, the multimode wireless terminal 10m responds by returning a Probe Response frame to the received beacon signal. Thus, one association is established between the multimode wireless terminal 10m and the wireless LAN access point 91 as a wireless transmission channel for the subsequent wireless traffic transmission (step S3 in FIG. 4). At that time, the multi-mode wireless terminal 10m transmits a message broadcast-distributed from the cellular base station 90 in the above-described Probe Response frame to the wireless LAN access point 91. Even when an association has already been established between the multimode wireless terminal 10m and the wireless LAN access point 91, the above-described distribution message is similarly included in the probe response frame for wireless LAN access. It is possible to transmit to the point 91 (step S4 in FIG. 4).

  As described above, the multimode wireless terminal 10m can play a role as a relay station for relaying a message broadcast-distributed from the cellular base station 90 to the wireless LAN access point 91. The wireless LAN access point 91 in FIG. 3 is one or more neighboring wireless LAN access points in a distance where wireless communication can be performed with good signal quality with the multimode wireless terminal 10m. In addition, when the multimode wireless terminal 10m has an access point function or a tethering function as part of the terminal function, another multi-mode wireless terminal 10m is located in the vicinity where good communication with the multimode wireless terminal 10m is possible. It is also possible to relay the distribution message described above to the wireless LAN dedicated terminal.

  In the above-described embodiment, the multi-mode wireless terminal 10m uses the above-described Probe Response frame as a transmission means when relaying the above-described message to the wireless LAN access point 91. However, in another alternative embodiment, to relay the above-mentioned message to the wireless LAN access point 91, it is also possible to use a message frame defined in IEEE 802.11k which 3GPP is promoting standardization. It is possible. Specifically, it is as follows. According to the IEEE802.11k standard specification, a plurality of wireless access points and wireless terminals constituting one network are in a relative positional relationship with each other, a state of radio interference per access point, a state of use of a frequency band, etc. Can be shared by exchanging control frames. The multi-mode wireless terminal 10m can transmit the broadcasted message from the cellular base station 90 in the control frame exchanged at that time. Thereby, the multi-mode wireless terminal 10m can relay the message broadcasted from the cellular base station 90 to the wireless LAN access point 91. Also, when the multi-mode wireless terminal 10m relays a message broadcast-distributed from the cellular base station 90 to the wireless LAN access point 91, an arbitrary IEEE 802.11 frame other than the above may be used as a transmission means. It is possible.

  If the message broadcasted from the cellular base station 90 is a message including highly urgent notification information such as the ETWS primary message, the wireless LAN access point 91 is notified as follows. It is possible to notify. That is, the urgent bit of the Frame Control field portion is set to ON in the MAC header or PLCP header included in the IEEE 802.11 frame that relays the message of the relay destination to the wireless LAN access point 91. As a result, the wireless LAN access point 91 performs the receiving operation and the distributing operation of the highly urgent message relayed from the multimode wireless terminal 10m in priority to other traffic and the control frame transmitting / receiving operation and quickly. It becomes possible.

  Subsequently, the wireless LAN access point 91 relayed the distribution message from the multi-mode wireless terminal 10m broadcasts the distribution message to all the wireless terminals located in the BSS covered by the own station (step of FIG. 4). S6). At this time, the wireless LAN access point 91 can execute the broadcast of the above-mentioned distribution message by including the above-mentioned distribution message in a beacon signal frame broadcasted by the own station in the BSS at a constant cycle. . Specifically, the wireless LAN access point 91 described above by additionally defining a new Information Element (IE) for storing the distribution message described above in the frame structure of the beacon signal frame described above. Delivery messages are included in the beacon signal frame.

  Also, in another alternative embodiment, in order to carry out the broadcast of the delivery message described above, the wireless LAN access point 91 is a new broadcast frame addressed to the broadcast address and including the delivery message described above. May be generated. In this case, the wireless LAN access point 91 transmits the generated broadcast frame toward the BSS covered by the own station.

  When the distribution message is carried in an IEEE 802.11 frame and broadcasted from the wireless LAN access point 91, the information content of the distribution message conforms to the frame for broadcast distribution defined by IEEE 802.11. It is encoded again by the encoding method. Further, at this time, the information content of the distribution message is converted into a format adapted to a broadcast distribution frame defined by IEEE 802.11 (step S5 in FIG. 4).

  Subsequently, the wireless terminal 10s located in the BSS covered by the wireless LAN access point 91 receives the distribution message broadcasted into the BSS. Thereby, even if the wireless terminal 10s is a wireless LAN dedicated terminal not equipped with the wireless interface circuit 102a (FIG. 2) connectable to the cellular wireless network, it is distributed by the in-cell broadcast function from the base station 90 of the cellular wireless network. Can receive messages.

  Finally, the wireless LAN access point 91 can further transfer the above-mentioned distribution message to nearby wireless LAN access points (such as the access points 92 and 93 shown in FIG. 3) located in the periphery (eg, Step S8 in FIG. In this case, the nearby wireless LAN access point to which the above-described distribution message has been transferred broadcasts the above-described distribution message to all the wireless terminals located in the BSS of the own station.

  Such message transfer from the wireless LAN access point 91 to a neighboring wireless LAN access point is required in the following cases. For example, when the BSS of the wireless LAN access point 91 covers only a part of the communication area designated as the delivery destination of the distribution message, the above-described message transfer is required. Also, for example, when the delivery destination of the delivery message described above is the entire ESS including the BSS covered by the wireless LAN access point 91, the above-described message transfer is required.

  The wireless LAN access point 91 can use, for example, the following method in order to forward the distribution message described above to other nearby wireless LAN access points.

  A Wireless Distribution System (WDS) connects multiple wireless LAN access points in the same ESS to connect between multiple wireless LAN access points that configure the same ESS with a wireless transmission path similar to a wireless LAN. -It prescribes a communication procedure to exchange transmission frames between points. At this time, the above-mentioned distribution message is put on the transmission frame (WDS frame) exchanged between the wireless LAN access points (step S7 in FIG. 4), and another wireless LAN access from the wireless LAN access point 91 is made. By transmitting to the point (step S8 in FIG. 4), the above-described message transfer becomes possible.

  Also, in another alternative embodiment, the control frame specified by the IEEE 802.11F standard or the IEEE 802.11s standard standardized by 3GPP and exchanged among a plurality of wireless LAN access points is the distribution described above. It can be used as a frame to transmit a message. In particular, control frames defined by the IEEE 802.11F standard can be transmitted by carrying the above-described distribution message between wireless LAN access points belonging to different ESS (subnetworks).

  Also, when the wireless LAN access point 91 transfers the distribution message to another wireless LAN access point in the vicinity, the distribution message is transferred multiple times among a plurality of wireless LAN access points. there is a possibility. At this time, it is assumed that the network connection topology formed by the above-described transmission frame exchange between the wireless LAN access point 91 and the plurality of wireless LAN access points in the neighborhood has a cyclic structure. In this case, in the cyclic structure, the delivery message is endlessly repeated, which causes an extra communication load or congestion in the wireless LAN network. In order to prevent such a situation, the wireless LAN access point 91 provides a LifeTime field in a frame for transmitting the distribution message between the wireless LAN access points. Subsequently, the wireless LAN access point 91 sets an upper limit of the number of times the frame is relayed and transferred between the wireless LAN access points in the field. This makes it possible to limit the number of times the distribution message transferred from the wireless LAN access point 91 to another wireless LAN access point in the vicinity is relay-transferred between the wireless LAN access points.

  In the first embodiment described above, it is possible to identify each of a plurality of wireless LAN access points for transferring or broadcasting a distribution message between access points and each BSS covered by them by the SSID. is there.

  Furthermore, as a modification of the first embodiment, an in-communication area broadcast provided only in a wireless LAN (for example, a BSS covered by a wireless LAN access point 91) like a coupon distribution service provided by a wireless LAN service provider It is also possible to implement a mechanism that allows a cellular-only terminal to receive a function-based message delivery service. Also in the case of realizing such a mechanism, similarly to the above, the radio of the message distribution source using the multimode radio terminal capable of simultaneously connecting to the base station 90 of the cellular radio network and the radio LAN access point 91 as a relay station. It is possible to relay in-communication area broadcast distribution messages between the LAN access point 91 and the cellular base station 90.

<5> Second example according to the present embodiment A service for distributing disaster occurrence information etc. to an unspecified number of wireless terminals based on the in-cell broadcast function such as CBS function, disaster map (hazard map) and evacuation information It is considered that rich content information for displaying the etc. on the screen of the wireless terminal will be relatively large delivery information of several hundred kilobytes or more. However, in a disaster information delivery service such as ETWS, a message broadcasted disaster occurrence information to a wireless terminal in a cell using the CBS function can only deliver data of about several tens of bytes in size. Therefore, it is not possible to directly include the above-mentioned large-volume rich content information in the above-mentioned message and broadcast it to the radio terminals in the cell.

  In such a case, it is general to describe the URL or URI of the Web server or content providing server that stores the rich content information described above in the message broadcasted in the communication area to be the distribution destination. It has been done. However, in this case, when the user of the wireless terminal receiving the delivery of the message tries to access the Web server or the content providing server based on the URL or URI included in the message, all the users in the communication area to be the delivery destination Will simultaneously access the Web server and the content providing server. As a result, congestion may occur in the cellular radio network, or a server providing content may become overloaded due to simultaneous access from a large number of wireless terminals located in the communication area of the message delivery destination. .

  Therefore, in the second example according to the present embodiment, when broadcasting a message to a wireless terminal based on a broadcast function (such as a CBS function) in a communication area specific to a cellular radio network or a wireless LAN, the second example An example of a mechanism for efficiently distributing large-capacity content information, which is related information attached to a message. That is, in the second embodiment, large-volume content information attached to a message broadcast-distributed to all terminals in the wireless LAN communication area is broadcast-distributed to all the terminals in the same manner as in the first embodiment. At the same time, a mechanism for preventing access load and congestion on the wireless network side is disclosed. The large-volume content information, which is related information incidental to the message, may be multimedia content information or rich content information for supplementing the notification information content of the message. In the second embodiment, even if the above-mentioned message is distributed from the cellular radio network based on the in-cell broadcast function, the large-volume content information attached to the message is transmitted to the Internet in order to realize the mechanism described above. Via wireless LAN instead of cellular wireless network to download from. The reason is that in order to download high-capacity content from the Internet, it is not via a cellular wireless network, but via a wireless LAN that can achieve larger communication bandwidth and higher communication speed than a cellular wireless network for bulk download of bulk data. This is because it is possible to prevent congestion in the wireless network when distributing the large-capacity content to the wireless terminal. Further, in the second embodiment, in order to prevent the concentration of access to the wireless network by starting access to large-capacity contents all at once from all the wireless terminals in the communication area, the following measures are taken: . First, the multi-mode wireless terminal relaying the above-described message determines whether it is necessary to access large-capacity content information as related information incidental to the above-described message. Furthermore, the wireless LAN access point requested to access the large-capacity content information from the multi-mode wireless terminal performs the large-capacity content information on behalf of all the wireless terminals located in the communication area. Is downloaded from the Internet and broadcast to all wireless terminals in the communication area.

  Specifically, first, using the multimode wireless terminal simultaneously connected to the base station of the cellular wireless network and the wireless LAN access point as a relay station, the cellular base station of the message delivery source and the wireless LAN access point Relays in-cell broadcast delivery messages between At that time, if the message includes a URL or a URI indicating a link to the provider of the large-capacity content information described above, the multi-mode wireless terminal relaying the message transmits the message via the URL or URI. Request the above-mentioned wireless LAN access point to download the large-capacity content. The wireless LAN access point that has received the request from the multimode wireless terminal downloads the large-capacity content into its own cache memory and temporarily stores it, and the large-capacity content to the multimode wireless terminal 10m. Forward. Finally, the wireless LAN access point broadcasts the temporarily stored large-capacity content information to all wireless terminals located within the communication area of the own station.

  When the above-mentioned distribution message is a message broadcasted by the disaster information distribution system such as ETWS based on the CBS function in the cellular radio network, the above-mentioned large-capacity content information is related to the above-mentioned distribution message. It is possible to use the multimedia map for displaying the disaster map and evacuation information on the screen of the wireless terminal.

  Hereinafter, the network connection shown in FIG. 5 will be described on the premise that the flow of the signal processing operation in the second embodiment will be described in detail. FIG. 5 is a network for distributing the above-described large-capacity content from the content provider server 20 on the Internet to the wireless terminal via a plurality of different types of wireless access networks including a cellular wireless network and a wireless LAN network. It is a connection.

  In the network connection configuration of FIG. 5, two core networks (CN: Core Network) connected via the radio terminal 10, two radio access networks 40A and 40B, and radio access networks 40A and 40B and core network gateways 61 and 62. 51/52, an internet network 80 connected with the core network 51/52 and the external connection gateway 71/72, and a server 20 connected to the internet network 80. The server 20 is a content provider server that provides the above-described large-capacity content to an unspecified number of wireless terminals, and may be implemented as a Web server.

  The wireless access networks 40A and 40B are networks that provide the wireless terminal 10 with a wireless access path to the core network through wireless communication. The radio access network 40A may be a UMTS network which is a third generation cellular radio network or an LTE network which is a fourth generation cellular radio network, and the radio access network 40B may be an IEEE 802.11a standard or an IEEE 802.11g standard. Wireless LAN access network such as Wi-Fi.

  The core networks 51 and 52 are formed by connecting a large number of router devices and server devices for network control with a high speed circuit in a wireless communication service provider, and connection of wireless terminals to the Internet (Core network of E-UTRAN) , Which corresponds to the function of P-GW (PDN-Gateway), terminal mobility management of the wireless terminal (corresponding to the function of MME in the core network of E-UTRAN) or communication service authentication of the wireless terminal (E-UTRAN In the core network of (corresponding to the function of HSS), etc. are executed. The core network 51 is a core network forming a cellular radio network, and radio access from the radio terminal 10 is possible via the radio access network 40A and the core network gateway 61. On the other hand, the core network 52 can wirelessly access from the wireless terminal 10 via the wireless access network 40 B and the core network gateway 62. The core network 52 can be a mobile IP network that supports communication based on the TCP / IP protocol.

  The external connection gateway 71/72 respectively connects the core network 51/52 to the Internet network 80, whereby the core network 51/52 can communicate traffic with the Internet network 80. When the core network 51 is configured based on the E-UTRAN standard, the external connection gateway 71 can be a P-GW (PDN-Gateway). The core network 52 can be a mobile network that functions as an IP protocol based core network for wireless LAN based on Mobile IP.

  In FIG. 5, a radio bearer 30A is a radio connection means for connecting the radio terminal 10 to a radio access network 40A which is a cellular radio network. Similarly, the wireless bearer 30B is a wireless connection means for connecting the wireless terminal 10 to the wireless access network 40C which is a Wi-Fi network.

  In FIG. 5, the radio terminal 10 wirelessly connects to any one of the radio access networks 40A or 40B by selectively using one of the radio bearers 30A or 30B. Subsequently, the wireless terminal 10 performs end-to-end communication based on TCP / IP with the server 20 via the wireless access network, the core network 51/52 and the Internet network 80.

  Next, in the second embodiment, the flow of the above-described series of radio signals executed between the cellular base station, the wireless LAN access point, and the multimode wireless terminal 10m is shown in FIG. An event flow diagram for explaining the flow of signal processing operation between the cellular base station, the wireless LAN access point, and the multimode wireless terminal 10m is shown in FIG. The flow of a series of signal processing operations in the second embodiment will be described below with reference to FIGS. 6 and 7. The cellular core 51 network shown in FIG. 6 integrally represents the radio access network 40A and the core network 51 shown in FIG. Similarly, the ISP network / mobile network 52 shown in FIG. 6 integrally represents the radio access network 40B and the mobile network 52 shown in FIG.

  In FIG. 6, the cellular base station 90 which has received a message to be delivered based on the CBS function from the cellular core network 51 constituting the cellular radio network broadcasts the message in the cell covered by the own station, and performs multi-mode. The wireless terminal 10m receives the broadcasted message (step S1 in FIG. 7). In FIG. 6, the multi-mode wireless terminal 10m can connect two types of wireless interface circuits 102a and 102b (FIG. 2) to be connectable to both the base station 90 under the cellular wireless network and the access point 91 of the wireless LAN network. Equipped.

  Subsequently, the multi-mode wireless terminal 10m that has received the distribution message described above determines whether or not the message includes a URL or a URI indicating a link to the provider of the large-capacity content information described above (see FIG. Step S2 of 7). In this case, the head of the URL or URI described above is used to indicate that the above-mentioned provider link points to the large-capacity content to be distributed to all the wireless terminals in the communication area to be the distribution destination along with the above-described distribution message. In the part, the string "mediato: //" is described as a protocol identifier. Also, for the same purpose as above, it is possible to describe the unique protocol identifier “wlanto: //” of the present invention newly defined in the present embodiment at the head part of the above URL or URI. is there. If the aforementioned provision source link is included in the aforementioned distribution message, the multimode wireless terminal 10m that has received the aforementioned distribution message is a wireless LAN interface 102b that is a wireless interface circuit capable of connecting to a wireless LAN (see FIG. The power supply of 2) is turned on (step S3 of FIG. 7). Thereafter, when the multimode wireless terminal 10m detects a beacon signal of the wireless LAN access point 91, the multimode wireless terminal 10m responds by returning a Probe Response frame to the received beacon signal. As a result, an association for a subsequent wireless traffic transmission is established between the multimode wireless terminal 10m and the wireless LAN access point 91 (step S4 in FIG. 7). Subsequently, the multi-mode wireless terminal 10 m starts a dedicated application for downloading the above-described large-capacity content information.

  The dedicated application activated on the multimode wireless terminal 10m requests the wireless LAN access point 91 described above to download the large-capacity content via the URL or URI (step S5 in FIG. 7). The wireless LAN access point 91 having received the request from the multimode wireless terminal 10m connects to the content provider server 20 (FIG. 6) in the Internet 80 via the ISP network / mobile network 52 (FIG. 6) (FIG. Step S6 of 7). Subsequently, the wireless LAN access point 91 downloads the large-capacity content from the content provider server 20 (step S6 in FIG. 7) and temporarily stores it in the cache memory in the wireless LAN access point 91 (FIG. At the same time as step 7 of step 7, the large-capacity content is transferred to the multimode wireless terminal 10m. Finally, the wireless LAN access point 91 broadcasts the large-capacity content information temporarily stored in the cache memory in the own station to the wireless terminal 10s located in the communication area of the own station. (Step S8 in FIG. 7).

  At this time, as shown in FIGS. 5 and 6, the cellular base station 90, the cellular core network 51, and the Internet 80 are used as network connection paths for downloading the large-capacity content information from the content provider server 20 in the Internet 80. There are also routes through. However, unlike the wireless LAN network, the cellular wireless network configured by the cellular base station 90 and the cellular core network 51 has many communications at one time for bulk data transmission such as downloading of high capacity content information. It is difficult to allocate bandwidth or temporarily achieve very high communication throughput. Therefore, in the second embodiment, the cellular base station 90 prohibits downloading of the large-capacity content on the content providing server 20 from the multimode wireless terminal 10m via the cellular wireless network.

  In parallel with the above-described delivery operation of large-capacity content information, the multi-mode wireless terminal 10m accesses the above-mentioned delivery message from the cellular base station 90 in the same manner as the first embodiment. Relay to point 91. Subsequently, the wireless LAN access point 91 broadcasts the relayed distribution message in its communication area. The wireless LAN access point 91 in FIG. 3 is one or more neighboring wireless LAN access points in a distance where wireless communication can be performed with good signal quality with the multimode wireless terminal 10m.

<6> Effects of the Present Embodiment As described above, the first embodiment described using FIG. 3 is a multimode wireless terminal or cellular wireless network in which connection to the cellular wireless network is temporarily disabled. The wireless terminal 10s having no connection means can be made to receive an information distribution service based on the in-cell broadcast function (such as the CBS function) provided only by the base station 90 of the cellular radio network. Similarly, in the first embodiment, a cellular wireless terminal not having a wireless LAN interface circuit can receive broadcast distribution service provided only at the access point 91 in the wireless LAN network. In addition, transmission and reception of information signals performed in each of the cellular base station 90, the wireless LAN access point 91, and the multimode wireless terminal 10m relaying a delivery message between them are all at the data link layer level (L2 level). Is executed by Therefore, the first embodiment can rapidly deliver a message to all wireless terminals in the communication area to which the message is to be delivered with a minimum of protocol overhead. In the second embodiment described with reference to FIG. 5, access to large-capacity content information is performed based on the broadcast distribution function for all the wireless terminals 10s located in the distribution destination area of the message information. When executing the above, it is possible to prevent the concentration of access from a large number of wireless terminals 10s to the wireless network or the content providing server 20 and the competition of the communication priorities.

  The present invention relates to a control program and apparatus constituting a system for simultaneously broadcasting delivery information such as disaster occurrence information to an unspecified number of wireless terminals located in a communication area of a wireless communication network. It is possible to use.

10m Multi-mode Wireless Terminal 10s Wireless Terminal 20 Server Providing Network Services to Wireless Terminal 30 Wireless Bearer 40 Wireless Access Network 51 Core Network 52 Core Network 61 Core Network Gateway 62 Core Network Gateway 71 External Connection Gateway 72 External Connection Gateway 80 Internet Network 90 cellular base station 91 wireless LAN access point 101 antenna 102 wireless interface 103 memory 104 control processor 105 user input / output device 106 storage 107 bus

Claims (5)

A method of delivering related information attached to a broadcast message delivered to one or more wireless terminals in a wireless communication network to the one or more wireless terminals:
An access point in a second wireless communication network, via a relay station capable of relaying a wireless signal from the first wireless communication network to the second wireless communication network; Receiving the broadcast message broadcast from the communication network;
The access point receives from the relay station a request to acquire the related information if the broadcast message includes a link providing the related information;
Downloading the relevant information from the providing source server of the relevant information via the providing source link in response to the reception of the request, and caching the relevant information in its own station;
The access point broadcasts the downloaded related information to one or more wireless terminals in the second wireless communication network;
And the second wireless communication network is capable of faster download of the related information than the first wireless communication network. The relay station has two connection means connectable to each of the first wireless communication network and the second wireless communication network, and the first wireless communication network and the second wireless communication network Characterized in that it is a multi-mode wireless device that is in wireless connection with both of the communication networks,
The method of claim 1. The related information includes large-capacity content information related to the message content notified by the broadcast message, the providing server is a content server capable of providing the large-capacity content information, and the providing source link Includes a URL or URI representing the location of the mass content information stored in the content server,
The method of claim 1. A first wireless connection unit connectable to a first wireless communication network;
A second wireless connection unit connectable to a second wireless communication network;
If a broadcast source message is included in the broadcast message when the broadcast message broadcasted from the first wireless communication network is received via the first wireless connection unit, The related information is downloaded from a provider server of related information via the provider link to an access point in the second wireless communication network connectable via the second wireless connection unit. A control unit that executes control operations required of
A multimode wireless terminal comprising: the access point, according to the request, caching the downloaded related information in its own station, and delivering it to one or more wireless terminals. The related information includes large-capacity content information related to the message content notified by the broadcast message, the providing server is a content server capable of providing the large-capacity content information, and the providing source link Includes a URL or URI representing the location of the mass content information stored in the content server,
The multimode wireless terminal according to claim 4.

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