WO2023162003A1

WO2023162003A1 - Position registration device, position registration system, position registration method, and program

Info

Publication number: WO2023162003A1
Application number: PCT/JP2022/007264
Authority: WO
Inventors: 孝佐竹
Original assignee: 日本電信電話株式会社
Priority date: 2022-02-22
Filing date: 2022-02-22
Publication date: 2023-08-31

Abstract

This position registration device comprises: a terminal management database that stores, for each terminal, identification information about terminals and position information about terminals; and a position information processing unit that receives a position registration request from a certain terminal and updates the position information in the terminal management database with position information included in the position registration request, wherein regions in the terminal management database are configured to be sorted according to the mobility of the terminals.

Description

LOCATION REGISTRATION DEVICE, LOCATION REGISTRATION SYSTEM, LOCATION REGISTRATION METHOD, AND PROGRAM

The present invention relates to terminal location registration in a mobile communication network.

In mobile communication networks, various grant-free communication methods such as NOMA and MUSA are being considered for radio access networks as methods for efficiently accommodating a large number of terminals with a view to the expansion of IoT. The grant-free type communication system is a communication system expected to improve system throughput and reduce processing load by omitting explicit means for acquiring transmission rights.

On the other hand, the study of a method that assumes the accommodation of a large number of terminals for the core network is limited. Especially in a mobile communication network, it is essential to grasp the position of a terminal, and a home memory for recording the position registration and its management function are usually provided on the core network side, which can see the entire network.

Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2008-193592

As the number of terminals accommodated in the network increases due to the expansion of IoT, etc., the amount of processing for location registration will inevitably increase, and in some cases the possibility of congestion will increase.

The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and aims to provide a technique for reducing the amount of processing required for terminal location registration in a mobile communication network.

According to the disclosed technology, a terminal management database that stores terminal identification information and terminal location information for each terminal;
a location information processing unit that receives a location registration request from a certain terminal and updates the location information in the terminal management database based on the location information included in the location registration request;
A location registration device is provided in which the areas in the terminal management database are divided according to the degree of mobility of the terminal.

According to the disclosed technique, a technique is provided for reducing the amount of processing required for terminal location registration in a mobile communication network.

1 is a system configuration diagram in an embodiment of the present invention; FIG. FIG. 4 is a sequence diagram for explaining a basic location registration operation; 2 is a configuration diagram of a position registration device 200. FIG. FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an image of mobility-based management of terminals; It is a figure which shows the structural example of terminal management DB. FIG. 10 illustrates dynamically updating the mobility partition; 3 is a configuration diagram of a mobility management device 300; FIG. 4 is a sequence diagram for explaining processing using the mobility management device 300. FIG. It is a figure which shows the hardware configuration example of an apparatus.

An embodiment (this embodiment) of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. The embodiments described below are merely examples, and embodiments to which the present invention is applied are not limited to the following embodiments.

In this embodiment, a multiple simultaneous connection environment in 5G mMTC is assumed as the mobile communication network environment. However, the application range of the technology according to the present invention is not limited to a multiple simultaneous connection environment in 5G mMTC, and the technology according to the present invention can be applied to mobile communication networks in general that perform location registration. .

(System configuration example)
FIG. 1 shows a configuration example of a system corresponding to a mobile communication network according to this embodiment. As shown in FIG. 1, multiple base stations 108-110 are connected to a core network 10 in this system.

One or more terminals (which may also be called UEs) exist in cells 101 to 103 under each base station. Each terminal communicates with the core network 10 via a connected base station.

As shown in FIG. 1, the core network 10 includes a location registration device 200, a mobility management device 300, and a network (NW) node device 111. Note that although the location registration device 200 and the mobility management device 300 are separate devices in the example of FIG. 1, this is just an example. The location registration device 200 may include the function of the mobility management device 300 .

The NW node device 111 may be, for example, a gateway device for connecting to an external data network, or a call control device for making calls. The NW node device 111 in FIG. 1 represents a representative example of various NW node devices provided in the core network 10. In FIG.

The location registration device 200 may be realized by one computer (server) or may be realized by a plurality of computers. The location registration device 200 may be called a location registration system. Also, a configuration including location registration device 200 and mobility management device 300 may be called a location registration system. The configuration and operation of the location registration device 200 and mobility management device 300 will be described later.

(Example of basic location registration operation)
In the position registration, the identification information of the area where the terminal is located is recorded in the database (hereinafter referred to as terminal management DB) of the position registration device 200 together with the identification information of the terminal, and the movement of the terminal (movement to change area) is performed. Accordingly, the information of the terminal management DB for the terminal is updated. The terminal management DB of location registration device 200 may be called a "home memory". The areas may also be referred to as visitor zones, visitor areas, tracking areas, paging areas, and the like. Hereinafter, the above area will be referred to as a "presence zone".

Generally, a serving zone includes multiple cells (multiple base stations). For example, when the call control device receives an incoming signal for a certain terminal, the call control device acquires the zone in which the terminal is located from the terminal management DB of the location registration device 200, An incoming call signal (calling signal) is sent only to the station to call the terminal.

An example of the location registration operation (location update operation) will be described with reference to FIG. Here, it is assumed that the terminal 104 has moved from a certain foreign zone B (a foreign zone not including the base station 108) to another foreign zone A (a foreign zone including the base station 108). While terminal 104 is located in zone B, terminal 104 receives the identifier of zone B from the base station through broadcast information (which may be called system information) or the like.

In S101 of FIG. 2, the terminal 104 moves to the zone A. Specifically, it is assumed that the mobile phone has moved to the cell of the base station 108 within the zone A.

In S102, the terminal 104 receives the identifier of the existing zone A from the base station 108 through broadcast information or the like. In S103, when the terminal 104 detects that the received identifier of the existing zone changes from the identifier of the existing zone B to the identifier of the existing zone A, the terminal 104 determines that the existing zone has changed.

In S104, the terminal 104 transmits a location registration request including the identifier of the current zone A to the location registration device 200. Accordingly, the location registration device 200 updates the location information (presence zone identifier) of the terminal 104 in the terminal management DB from the presence zone B identifier to the presence zone A identifier.

(Example of Configuration and Operation of Location Registration Device 200)
FIG. 3 shows a configuration example of the location registration device 200 in this embodiment. As shown in FIG. 3 , the location registration device 200 has a location information processing section 210 and a terminal management DB 220 .

The position information processing unit 210 performs information registration (including information update) in the terminal management DB 220, information reading from the terminal management DB 220, and the like.

The terminal management DB 220 stores, for each terminal, a set of terminal identification information and the identifier of the zone in which the terminal is located. A set of the identification information of the terminal and the identifier of the zone in which the terminal is located may be called "location information".

In the conventional technology, location information is uniformly registered in the terminal management DB 220 without distinguishing whether the degree of mobility of the terminal is high or low.

However, in the present embodiment, it is assumed that the location information of a huge number of terminals is registered in the terminal management DB 220, and in such an assumption, in the conventional technology described above, the processing efficiency in the terminal management DB 220 is bad.

In the prior art, since terminals are not distinguished by mobility in the terminal management DB 220, when updating the location information of a terminal regardless of whether the mobility is low or high, the entire information in the terminal management DB 220 to extract the information of the terminal and update the information of the terminal.

Therefore, for example, when updating location information for terminals with high mobility that are frequently updated, it is necessary to perform processing such as searching including location information for terminals with low mobility that are rarely updated. and the processing load increases.

In addition, for example, due to a processing defect in processing location information for terminals with high mobility that is frequently updated, there may be problems such as affecting the location information of terminals with low mobility. Conceivable.

In this embodiment, the mobility management device 300 shown in FIG. 1 is used to solve the above problems. The mobility management device 300 acquires (calculates) the mobility of each terminal and notifies the location registration device 200 of the mobility of each terminal. Alternatively, the location registration device 200 may acquire the mobility of each terminal from the mobility management device 300 .

The location information processing unit 210 of the location registration device 200 classifies (hierarchizes) the terminals by degree of mobility based on the degree of mobility of each terminal, and stores the location information in areas by degree of mobility in the terminal management DB 220 .

That is, in the present embodiment, areas in the terminal management DB 220 are divided according to mobility. Dividing an area according to mobility may mean providing a table for each mobility, dividing an area in a memory, or physically dividing a memory. , the database device may be divided.

When the memories are physically divided, for example, memory 1 for "mobility: high speed", memory 2 for "mobility: medium speed", memory 3 for "mobility: low speed or stop", etc. and use separate memories.

In the case of dividing the database device, it is assumed that the terminal management DB 220 is composed of multiple database servers. In this case, for example, the database server 1 for "mobility: high speed", the database server 2 for "mobility: medium speed", and the database server 3 for "mobility: low speed or stop" are separately arranged. database server.

FIG. 4 shows an image of a case (a) where the area of the terminal management DB 220 is not divided by mobility and a case (b) where it is divided. Further, FIG. 5 shows an example in which the tables in the terminal management DB 220 are divided according to mobility. In the example of FIG. 5, SIM information (more specifically, IMSI) is used as the identification information of the terminal, and the name of the municipality is used as the in-zone zone identifier. The use of SIM information as terminal identification information is an example. Any information may be used as long as the terminal can be identified.

In the example of FIG. 5, table (a) is a table for "mobility: high speed", table (b) is a table for "mobility: medium speed", and table (c) is a table for "mobility: table for "Slow or Stop".

An operation example of the location registration device 200 will be described using the example of FIG. Here, an example of updating location information will be described. Location information processing section 210 of location registration device 200 receives a location registration request from a certain terminal (terminal T). The location registration request includes the identification information of the terminal T and the identifier of the zone in which the terminal T is located.

Subsequently, the position information processing unit 210 inquires about the mobility of the terminal T by transmitting the identification information of the terminal T to the mobility management device 300 . When position information processing section 210 receives the mobility of terminal T from mobility management device 300, position information processing section 210 accesses only the table corresponding to this mobility, searches the table using the identification information of terminal T, and obtains terminal T. update the location information for the entry in . For example, if the mobility of the terminal T is "mobility: high speed", the position information processing unit 210 accesses only table (a).

With the above-described processing, the location information processing unit 210 accesses only the area corresponding to the mobility of the terminal to be processed. is strengthened.

　The mobility of the terminal changes. For example, when the mobility management device 300 determines that the mobility of the terminal T has changed, it transmits the identification information of the terminal T, the mobility before the change, and the mobility after the change to the location registration device 200 . The position information processing unit 210 of the position registration device 200 deletes the position information of the terminal T in the mobility area before the change, and stores the position information of the terminal T in the mobility area after the change. Thereby, as shown in FIG. 6, the mobility management classification can be dynamically updated.

(Configuration and operation example of mobility management device 300)
FIG. 7 shows a configuration example of the mobility management device 300. As shown in FIG. As shown in FIG. 7 , mobility management apparatus 300 includes terminal information collection unit 310 , mobility calculation unit 320 , terminal information DB 330 , mobility DB 340 and notification unit 350 .

For example, the terminal information collection unit 310 periodically (at certain time intervals) collects “location information and the time when the location information was acquired” of each terminal, stores the collected information in the terminal information DB, and stores the terminal identification information. Store with information. This makes it possible to obtain time-series information of positions.

The location information here may be latitude and longitude information obtained by the terminal itself using the GPS function, may be information on the cell in which the terminal is located (cell ID), or the terminal may be It may be the information of the zone in which it is located, or it may be information other than these.

The mobility calculation unit 320 calculates mobility for each terminal. For example, the mobility calculation unit 320 refers to the terminal information DB 330, and upon detecting that the movement distance of a certain terminal within a predetermined period of time is equal to or greater than the threshold value A, determines the mobility of the terminal to be "fast." , when detecting that the moving distance is less than threshold A and equal to or greater than threshold B, the mobility of the terminal is determined to be "medium speed", and when detecting that the moving distance is less than threshold B, the mobility of the terminal is determined as “low speed or stop”, and the determined mobility is stored in the mobility DB 340 . The mobility DB 340 stores terminal identification information and mobility for each terminal. The mobility for each terminal is updated periodically, for example.

The notification unit 350 reads out the mobility of the terminal from the mobility DB 340 in response to an inquiry from the location registration device 200 or autonomously, and notifies the location registration device 200 of it.

An operation example of a system including mobility management device 300 will be described with reference to FIG. Here, an example will be described in which the terminal 104 acquires its own location information using the GPS function.

The terminal 104 acquires its own location information in S201, and transmits the location information to the mobility management device 300 in S202. The operations of S201 and S202 are performed periodically.

In S<b>203 , the mobility management device 300 calculates the mobility of the terminal 104 based on multiple pieces of position information of the terminal 104 . In S<b>204 , the mobility management device 300 notifies the location registration device 200 of the mobility of the terminal 104 .

The above processing is performed for each terminal. In S205, the location registration device 300 manages the location information of the terminal (specifically, the zone identifier of the current zone) for each degree of mobility, as described with reference to FIG.

(Hardware configuration example)
Both the location registration device 200 and the mobility management device 300 can be realized by causing a computer to execute a program, for example. This computer may be a physical computer or a virtual machine on the cloud. Hereinafter, the location registration device 200 and the mobility management device 300 are collectively referred to as "devices".

That is, the device can be realized by executing a program corresponding to the processing performed by the device using hardware resources such as a CPU and memory built into the computer. The above program can be recorded in a computer-readable recording medium (portable memory, etc.), saved, or distributed. It is also possible to provide the above program through a network such as the Internet or e-mail.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a hardware configuration example of the computer. The computer of FIG. 9 has a drive device 1000, an auxiliary storage device 1002, a memory device 1003, a CPU 1004, an interface device 1005, a display device 1006, an input device 1007, an output device 1008, etc., which are interconnected by a bus BS.

A program that implements the processing in the computer is provided by a recording medium 1001 such as a CD-ROM or memory card, for example. When the recording medium 1001 storing the program is set in the drive device 1000 , the program is installed from the recording medium 1001 to the auxiliary storage device 1002 via the drive device 1000 . However, the program does not necessarily need to be installed from the recording medium 1001, and may be downloaded from another computer via the network. The auxiliary storage device 1002 stores installed programs, as well as necessary files and data.

The memory device 1003 reads and stores the program from the auxiliary storage device 1002 when a program activation instruction is received. The CPU 1004 implements functions related to the device according to programs stored in the memory device 1003 . The interface device 1005 is used as an interface for connecting to a network or the like. A display device 1006 displays a GUI (Graphical User Interface) or the like by a program. An input device 1007 is composed of a keyboard, a mouse, buttons, a touch panel, or the like, and is used to input various operational instructions. The output device 1008 outputs the calculation result.

(Effect of Embodiment)
With the technology according to this embodiment, in the terminal management DB, the location information of the terminal is stored in areas classified by degree of mobility. Security of information stored in the DB can be improved.

(Appendix)
Regarding the above embodiments, the following additional items are disclosed.
(Appendix 1)
a memory having a terminal management database for storing terminal identification information and terminal location information for each terminal;
at least one processor connected to the memory;
including
The processor
receiving a location registration request from a certain terminal, updating the location information in the terminal management database with the location information included in the location registration request;
A location registration device, wherein areas in the terminal management database are divided according to degrees of terminal mobility.
(Appendix 2)
The position according to claim 1, wherein the processor acquires the mobility of the terminal that is the transmission source of the location registration request, accesses an area corresponding to the mobility in the terminal management database, and executes update processing. registration device.
(Appendix 3)
In the terminal management database,
The table is divided according to the mobility of the terminal,
The memory area is divided according to the mobility of the terminal,
The physical memory is divided according to the mobility of the terminal, or
Database servers are divided according to terminal mobility,
3. The location registration device according to additional item 1 or 2.
(Appendix 4)
A location registration system comprising the location registration device according to any one of appendices 1 to 3 and a mobility management device for managing mobility of a terminal,
A location registration system, wherein the mobility management device includes a processor for calculating the mobility of the terminal from time-series information of the location of the terminal, and a memory.
(Appendix 5)
A location registration method executed by a computer having a terminal management database that stores terminal identification information and terminal location information for each terminal,
areas in the terminal management database are divided according to the degree of mobility of the terminal,
A location registration method comprising: receiving a location registration request from a certain terminal, accessing an area corresponding to the mobility of the terminal in the terminal management database, and executing update processing of location information.
(Appendix 6)
A non-temporary storage medium storing a computer-executable program for executing location registration processing, wherein the computer has a terminal management database that stores terminal identification information and terminal location information for each terminal. comprising, the areas in the terminal management database are divided according to the mobility of the terminal,
The location registration process includes:
A non-temporary storage medium that receives a location registration request from a certain terminal, accesses an area corresponding to the mobility of the terminal in the terminal management database, and executes location information update processing.

Although the present embodiment has been described above, the present invention is not limited to such a specific embodiment, and various modifications and changes can be made within the scope of the gist of the present invention described in the claims. It is possible.

10 Core networks 101-103 Cells 104-107 Terminals 108-110 Base station 111 NW node device 200 Location registration device 210 Location information processing unit 220 Terminal management DB
300 mobility management device 310 terminal information collection unit 320 mobility calculation unit 330 terminal information DB
340 Mobility DB
350 notification unit 1000 drive device 1001 recording medium 1002 auxiliary storage device 1003 memory device 1004 CPU
1005 interface device 1006 display device 1007 input device 1008 output device

Claims

a terminal management database that stores terminal identification information and terminal location information for each terminal;
a location information processing unit that receives a location registration request from a certain terminal and updates the location information in the terminal management database based on the location information included in the location registration request;
A location registration device, wherein areas in the terminal management database are divided according to degrees of terminal mobility.
2. The location information processing unit acquires the mobility of the terminal that sent the location registration request, accesses an area corresponding to the mobility in the terminal management database, and executes update processing. Location registration device as described.
In the terminal management database,
The table is divided according to the mobility of the terminal,
The memory area is divided according to the mobility of the terminal,
The physical memory is divided according to the mobility of the terminal, or
Database servers are divided according to terminal mobility,
The location registration device according to claim 1 or 2.
A location registration system comprising the location registration device according to any one of claims 1 to 3 and a mobility management device for managing the mobility of a terminal,
A location registration system, wherein the mobility management device includes a mobility calculation unit that calculates the mobility of the terminal from time-series information on the location of the terminal.
A location registration method executed by a computer having a terminal management database that stores terminal identification information and terminal location information for each terminal,
areas in the terminal management database are divided according to the degree of mobility of the terminal,
A location registration method comprising: receiving a location registration request from a certain terminal, accessing an area corresponding to the mobility of the terminal in the terminal management database, and executing update processing of location information.
A program for causing a computer to function as the location information processing unit in the location registration device according to any one of claims 1 to 3.