CN109756904B

CN109756904B - 5G ultra-dense wireless access network deployment system and virtual cell updating method thereof

Info

Publication number: CN109756904B
Application number: CN201910075035.4A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 丁丽琴; 汪洋; 李黎明; 吴鹏; 肖宜雄
Original assignee: Shenzhen Graduate School Harbin Institute of Technology
Current assignee: Shenzhen Graduate School Harbin Institute of Technology
Priority date: 2019-01-25
Filing date: 2019-01-25
Publication date: 2022-02-01
Anticipated expiration: 2039-01-25
Also published as: CN109756904A

Abstract

A deployment system of a 5G ultra-dense wireless access network and a virtual cell updating method thereof are provided, wherein the deployment system of the 5G ultra-dense wireless access network comprises a plurality of AAUs, a plurality of DUs and a plurality of edge clouds, and the virtual cell updating method comprises an acquisition step, a calculation step and an updating step. On one hand, as the system always ensures that the user terminal is accessed into one or more AAUs with good communication quality, the system can not only avoid strong interference, but also enable a multipoint cooperative transceiving technology, is beneficial to improving the information transmission rate and reliability of the user terminal, and can better achieve the application effect of V2X; on the other hand, in the virtual cell updating method, the new DU is firstly used for taking over the virtual cell, and then the current DU is used for releasing the virtual cell, so that effective coordination between AAU-DU-edge cloud is realized, the virtual cell can be smoothly updated in the moving process of the user terminal, the information transmission of the user is not interrupted, and better user experience can be achieved.

Description

5G ultra-dense wireless access network deployment system and virtual cell updating method thereof

Technical Field

The invention relates to a wireless communication technology, in particular to a deployment system of a 5G ultra-dense wireless access network and a virtual cell updating method thereof.

Background

An Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) effectively and comprehensively applies advanced information technology, communication technology, computer technology, sensor technology, artificial intelligence and the like to vehicle manufacturing, road infrastructure construction, Traffic control and scheduling, strengthens the relation among vehicles, roads and users, and forms a safe, efficient, environment-friendly and comfortable comprehensive transportation System. How to achieve intelligent information interaction and sharing between vehicles and people, vehicles, roads and networks (V2X, namely, information exchange between vehicles and the outside) is the basis for realizing a series of ITS applications and services. Since vehicle communication has high requirements on reliability and time delay due to life safety, the fifth generation mobile communication network (5G) is considered as an important guarantee for high-reliability and low-time-delay V2X communication. The vehicle has high moving speed and high density in a dense city environment, and the amount of information needing interaction in some application scenarios is huge, so that V2X communication has high requirements on the capacity of a 5G network, and simultaneously, great challenges are provided for mobility management.

5G networks face tremendous changes in both system architecture and access network architecture. In the aspect of system architecture, 5G is developed towards native cloud (native cloud means that an application program does not depend on an underlying operating platform but depends on cloud computing), and by introducing Software Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Function Virtualization (NFV) technologies, separation of a control plane and a user plane and Software implementation of Network element Functions on a general architecture are achieved. The 5G network will be composed of a core cloud and an Edge cloud, where the Edge cloud will be deployed to the access network side, a portion of the core network functions and cloud Computing functions will "sink" from the core cloud to the Edge cloud, and the Edge cloud can directly provide core network functions and Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) services to end users. On the access network side, the base station will be reconfigured into three functional entities, the Central Unit (CU), the Distributed Unit (DU) and the Active Antenna processing Unit (AAU), onto which the current base station Unit (BBU) functionality will be re-divided, and 5G will also support the migration of protocol stack functionality between the Central Unit CU and the Distributed Unit DU. Currently, the 5G protocol only specifies the division of the above functional entities, and how to deploy the entire communication protocol stack on the network further needs to provide different schemes for different application scenarios.

The access point densification is one of the most effective ways to increase the network capacity, and is also the development trend of future networks. With the intensive development of networks, limited by problems such as handover and interference, the current access mode centered on a base station is no longer applicable, and a user-centered access mode based on a virtual cell technology is generated and becomes a focus of attention in the industry at present. The virtual cell technology is that a user terminal is taken as a center, a plurality of access points around the user form a virtual cell of the user, and the virtual cell provides service for the user in a mutual cooperation mode; and as the user moves, the members in the virtual cell are continuously updated, a new access point is added into the virtual cell, the original access point is removed from the virtual cell, but the user is always positioned at the center of the virtual cell, and experiences stable quality of service (QoS). The key to realizing the virtual cell technology is to ensure the stable update of the virtual cell in the high-speed moving process of the user terminal.

Although there are not few studies on the virtual cell technology at present, no more perfect solution is provided under the above 5G evolution architecture, and particularly for ITS application scenarios, a deployment scheme combining the virtual cell technology and the 5G communication network is still lacking.

Disclosure of Invention

The invention mainly solves the technical problem of how to combine the 5G network with the virtual cell technology to improve the user experience effect of the intelligent traffic system. In order to solve the technical problem, the application provides a deployment system of a 5G ultra-dense wireless access network and a virtual cell updating method thereof.

According to a first aspect, an embodiment provides a 5G ultra-dense radio access network deployment system, comprising:

the AAUs are distributed along a road and used for signal coverage of the road, and the AAUs are used for user terminal access;

a plurality of DUs, each DU is connected with a plurality of the adjacent AAUs for performing baseband signal processing and communication control on the connected AAUs, when the user terminal accesses one or more AAUs, the accessed one or more AAUs and one DU connected with the accessed one or more AAUs form a virtual cell of the user terminal;

and the edge clouds in communication connection respectively provide mobile edge computing services, and each edge cloud is connected with a plurality of adjacent DUs and is used for monitoring the state of the user terminal through the connected DUs so as to update the virtual cell according to the state of the user terminal.

The signal coverage areas of any two adjacent DUs are subjected to edge overlapping, and the AAUs within the edge overlapping are connected with the two adjacent DUs, so that all the AAUs forming the virtual cell belong to the same DU.

According to a second aspect, an embodiment provides a virtual cell update method for a 5G ultra-dense radio access network, where the 5G ultra-dense radio access network deployment system includes a plurality of AAUs, a plurality of DUs, and a plurality of edge clouds for communication connection as described in the first aspect, and the virtual cell update method includes the following steps:

an acquisition step: acquiring state information of a user terminal through an AAU (architecture) in a signal coverage area of the user terminal;

a calculation step: calculating to obtain the configuration information of the virtual cell of the user terminal according to the state information of the user terminal;

an updating step: and updating the virtual cell of the user terminal according to the configuration information.

In the obtaining step, the AAU in the signal coverage area of the user terminal sends a wireless signal to the user terminal, the edge cloud in which the AAU is located obtains the state information of the user terminal through the positioning technology of the wireless signal, and the state information of the user terminal comprises a positioning position, a movement speed and a movement direction; or, the user terminal directly sends the state information of the user terminal to the edge cloud through the AAU of the virtual cell of the user terminal.

In the calculating step, calculating the configuration information of the virtual cell of the user terminal according to the state information of the user terminal, including:

judging whether the AAU corresponding to the signal coverage range to be entered by the user terminal belongs to the current DU or a new DU according to the state information of the user terminal;

if the current DU belongs to the current DU, calculating a first joining time of an AAU corresponding to a signal coverage range to be entered by the user terminal, and forming first configuration information of the current DU according to the first joining time so that the virtual cell of the user terminal is updated by the current DU according to the first configuration information;

if the new DU belongs to the new DU, calculating the switching time of the DU corresponding to the signal coverage range to be entered by the user terminal, calculating the second joining time of the AAU corresponding to the signal coverage range to be entered by the user terminal, and forming the second configuration information of the new DU according to the switching time and the second joining time, so that the new DU takes over the virtual cell of the user terminal according to the second configuration information and updates the virtual cell of the user terminal.

In the updating step, updating the virtual cell of the user equipment according to the configuration information includes:

judging whether the new DU belongs to the current edge cloud or the new edge cloud;

if the current edge cloud belongs to the current edge cloud, the current edge cloud controls the new DU to take over the virtual cell of the user terminal when the switching time arrives, and the AAU corresponding to the signal coverage range to be entered by the user terminal is added to the virtual cell of the user terminal when the second adding time arrives;

and if the current edge cloud belongs to a new edge cloud, handing over the second configuration information to the new edge cloud by the current edge cloud, controlling the new DU to take over a virtual cell of the user terminal when the switching moment arrives by the new edge cloud, and adding the AAU corresponding to the signal coverage range to be entered by the user terminal to the virtual cell of the user terminal when the second adding moment arrives.

The updating step further comprises: after the new DU takes over the virtual cell of the user terminal, the current DU is controlled to stop the access of the user terminal, so that the current DU releases the virtual cell of the user terminal.

The virtual cell updating method further comprises the following steps:

and judging whether to reconfigure the virtual cell of the user terminal according to the communication quality between the user terminal and the accessed AAU, and if so, removing the AAU with poor communication quality from the virtual cell of the user terminal.

After an AAU is removed from the virtual cell of the user terminal, if the AAU does not belong to the virtual cells of other user terminals, the AAU is put into a dormant state until the DU where the AAU is located activates the AAU.

The beneficial effect of this application is:

according to the above embodiment, a deployment system of a 5G ultra-dense radio access network and a virtual cell update method thereof are provided, wherein the deployment system of the 5G ultra-dense radio access network that requires protection includes a plurality of AAUs, a plurality of DUs, and a plurality of edge clouds, and the virtual cell update method that requires protection includes an acquisition step, a calculation step, and an update step. The beneficial effects of the technical scheme are as follows:

on the first hand, because AAUs in the 5G ultra-dense wireless access network deployment system are distributed along the road, effective signal coverage is formed on the road, and meanwhile, it is always ensured that a user terminal installed on a vehicle is accessed into one or more AAUs with good communication quality, the AAUs and connected DUs form a virtual cell to provide communication service for the user terminal, so that strong interference can be avoided, a Coordinated Multi-Point (CoMP) transmission technology can be enabled, the information transmission rate and reliability of the user terminal can be improved, and the application effect of V2X can be better achieved;

in a second aspect, because the 5G ultra-dense radio access network deployment system mainly adopts the edge clouds of the 5G network to participate in the state monitoring and virtual cell updating of the user terminal, the generated signaling is only transmitted between the edge clouds in communication connection and between the edge clouds and DUs, and does not need to be transmitted in the core network, when a large number of user terminals exist in the network, the generation of a signaling storm can be effectively avoided, so that the communication delay caused by the signaling is effectively limited, and the system has better expandability;

in the third aspect, as the virtual cell of the user terminal is updated according to the state information of the user terminal in the virtual cell updating method, the characteristic that the state of the user terminal has stronger predictability is fully utilized, the method is beneficial to switching the DUs participating in the virtual cell in time by the edge cloud, adding and removing the AAUs participating in the virtual cell in time, and beneficial to the user to obtain the experience of communication in the center of the same virtual cell, thereby ensuring that the virtual cell provides higher and stable service quality;

in the fourth aspect, in the process of switching the DUs, the new DU is made to take over the virtual cell first, and then the current DU is made to release the virtual cell, so that the communication process of the user terminal is not interrupted, and the low time delay and high reliability of communication can be improved;

in the fifth aspect, the virtual cell updating method claimed achieves effective coordination between the AAU-DU-edge clouds, and can smoothly achieve virtual cell updating in the moving process of the user terminal, so that information transmission of the user is not interrupted, and a better user experience can be achieved.

Drawings

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a 5G ultra-dense radio access network deployment system;

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of the structure of an edge cloud;

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of the connection between DU and AAU;

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of the connection between an edge cloud and a DU;

fig. 5 is a schematic structural diagram of a virtual cell;

fig. 6 is a schematic diagram of DU handover in a straight-path scenario;

fig. 7 is one of schematic diagrams of DU handover in an intersection scenario;

fig. 8 is a second schematic diagram of DU switching in an intersection scenario;

fig. 9 is a flow chart of a virtual cell update method;

FIG. 10 is a detailed flowchart of the calculating step and the updating step;

fig. 11 is a flowchart of a virtual cell update method when a user terminal moves across DUs;

fig. 12 is a flowchart of a virtual cell update method when a user terminal moves across edge clouds.

Detailed Description

The present invention will be described in further detail with reference to the following detailed description and accompanying drawings. Wherein like elements in different embodiments are numbered with like associated elements. In the following description, numerous details are set forth in order to provide a better understanding of the present application. However, those skilled in the art will readily recognize that some of the features may be omitted or replaced with other elements, materials, methods in different instances. In some instances, certain operations related to the present application have not been shown or described in detail in order to avoid obscuring the core of the present application from excessive description, and it is not necessary for those skilled in the art to describe these operations in detail, so that they may be fully understood from the description in the specification and the general knowledge in the art.

Furthermore, the features, operations, or characteristics described in the specification may be combined in any suitable manner to form various embodiments. Also, the various steps or actions in the method descriptions may be transposed or transposed in order, as will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art. Thus, the various sequences in the specification and drawings are for the purpose of describing certain embodiments only and are not intended to imply a required sequence unless otherwise indicated where such sequence must be followed.

The numbering of the components as such, e.g., "first", "second", etc., is used herein only to distinguish the objects as described, and does not have any sequential or technical meaning. The term "connected" and "coupled" when used in this application, unless otherwise indicated, includes both direct and indirect connections (couplings).

For clear understanding of the technical aspects of the present application, some terms will be described herein.

And the edge cloud is deployed to the access network side of the 5G network, part of core network functions and cloud computing functions are sunk from the core cloud to the edge cloud, and the edge cloud can directly provide the core network functions and mobile edge computing services for the terminal user.

The active antenna processing unit, called AAU for short, is mainly responsible for the reception of wireless signals and the processing tasks of the radio frequency part. In practical systems, the AAU may be deployed on a light pole, a signal pole, or a wall surface of a roadside building. The coverage range of a single AAU is small, the coverage ranges of adjacent AAUs are overlapped to a large extent, and all the AAUs jointly complete effective coverage of the road.

The distributed unit, DU for short, is mainly responsible for baseband processing in the physical layer and also for the functions of the protocol stack required for high real-time performance in the data link layer, and mainly includes Radio Link Control (RLC) and Medium Access Control (MAC). In an actual system, the DU is suitably realized by adopting a special architecture, the size is small, and the DU can be deployed on the roadside close to the AAU in the actual system.

The virtual cell is a physical communication area which takes a user terminal as a center and is formed by a plurality of network access points around the user, and provides network communication service for the user in a mutual cooperation mode. A virtual cell is often composed of one DU and multiple AAUs, which may operate on the same or different subchannels. In the process of uplink and downlink communication of a user, the AAU is responsible for processing of a radio frequency part, and the DU is responsible for joint processing of a Multi-channel signal baseband part, so that a Coordinated Multi-Point (CoMP) transmission and reception technology can be applied to the transmission and reception process, and transmission performance is improved. The virtual cells of different users may overlap, that is, the virtual cells of different users may contain the same DU or AAU; but the overlapping virtual cells must operate on different frequency resources to avoid interference.

The user terminal, referred to as UE for short, is a communication device used by a user side, such as an intelligent vehicle-mounted terminal, which integrates multiple functions of positioning, communication, automobile driving record, and the like, has a service scheduling function and a data processing capability, can perform intelligent management on transportation vehicles, and provides services such as positioning management, driving safety monitoring management, operation management, quality of service management, intelligent centralized scheduling management, electronic stop board control management, and the like.

The invention conception of the application is as follows: since the transmission of V2X information in ITS application scenario mostly occurs locally, the present invention focuses on the communication process between the access side of the 5G communication network, i.e. between the edge cloud and the base station, and between the base station and the user terminal. Facing to the ITS application scenario, aiming at enabling the virtual cell technology, under a 5G evolution architecture, the application provides a deployment scheme of a 5G ultra-dense radio access network with a three-layer structure consisting of an edge cloud, a DU and an AAU and a specific working mechanism of each functional module, so as to meet the following application requirements:

(1) a virtual cell serving a certain user comprises a DU and a plurality of AAUs connected with the DU, and the virtual cell is managed by an edge cloud connected with the DU;

(2) the edge cloud is responsible for wireless resource allocation, mobility management, access and connection management, routing and forwarding functions, and simultaneously supports a mobile edge computing function (MEC) and provides ITS application and V2X service capabilities;

(3) the edge cloud can control the virtual cell to smoothly update along with the moving state of the user terminal, and information transmission of the user terminal is not interrupted due to updating of the virtual cell.

The technical solution of the present application will be described in detail with reference to the following examples.

The first embodiment is as follows:

referring to fig. 1, the present application discloses a 5G ultra-dense radio access network deployment system, which includes a plurality of AAUs (i.e., a plurality of active antenna processing units, see reference numeral 11), a plurality of DUs (i.e., distributed units, see reference numeral 12), and a plurality of communicatively connected edge clouds (see reference numeral 13), which will be described separately below.

A plurality of AAUs (e.g., reference numeral 11), each distributed along a road, for signal coverage of the road, the AAUs being used for user terminal access, when a user terminal accesses one or more AAUs, the one or more AAUs and the DUs connecting them form a virtual cell of the user terminal. In an embodiment, see fig. 5, seven active antenna processing units AAUs (e.g., AAU 1-AAU 7) are distributed on one side of a road (e.g., a light pole, a signal pole, a signboard, a roadside building disposed on the side of the road), the wireless signal of each AAU can cover a section of the road, and the AAUs arranged in sequence along the road can realize signal coverage on the whole road.

A plurality of DUs (e.g., reference numeral 12), each of which is connected to adjacent AAUs for performing baseband signal processing and communication control for the connected AAUs. In an embodiment, see fig. 3, the distributed unit DU2 and the distributed unit DU1 are respectively connected to a plurality of adjacent AAUs, for example, the distributed unit DU2 may be disposed on a lamp post, a signal post, a signboard, a roadside building on the side of a road, and connected to a plurality of peripheral AAUs in sequence, and performs baseband signal processing on the connected AAUs, and may also perform communication control such as wireless detection, data transceiving, and channel control. The user terminal UE is arranged on a vehicle, and is accessed to an adjacent AAU in the vehicle running process, so that a virtual cell taking the user terminal UE as the center is formed; for example, in fig. 5, when the UE is wirelessly connected to AAU4, AAU5 and AAU6, AAU4, AAU5 and AAU6 and DU1 connected to them form a virtual cell centered around the UE.

It should be noted that each DU is responsible for baseband processing of the physical layer and also responsible for protocol stack functions required by high real-time performance in the data link layer, and mainly includes RLC (radio link control) and MAC (media access control). Thus, in the uplink and downlink communication process, the AAU is responsible for processing the radio frequency part, and the DU is responsible for joint processing of the Multi-channel signal baseband part, so that a CoMP (Coordinated Multi-Point) transceiving technology can be applied to the transceiving process, and transmission performance is improved.

In a specific embodiment, see fig. 5, the distributed unit DU2 is communicatively connected to the neighboring AAU 1-AAU 5, the distributed unit DU1 is communicatively connected to the neighboring AAU4-AAU 7, and the distributed unit DU2 and the distributed unit DU1 are also communicatively connected to the edge cloud 1, so that the distributed unit DU2 controls the communications of the AAU 1-AAU 5 under the control of the edge cloud 1, and the distributed unit DU1 also controls the communications of the AAU4-AAU 7 under the control of the edge cloud 1.

Each edge cloud (see reference numeral 13) is connected to a plurality of DUs (e.g. reference numeral 12) for monitoring the status of the user terminal and updating the virtual cell of the user terminal. In one embodiment, referring to fig. 1 and 2, the core cloud 131 of the 5G network is connected to a plurality of edge clouds, which may provide core computing services; the Edge cloud 132 may provide a Mobile Edge Computing service (MEC) for supporting local deployment of applications, implement all functions of a Central Unit (CU), and also may assume some "sinking" core cloud functions, and implement the MEC, access and connection management, routing and forwarding management, radio resource management, mobility management, and other functions through ITS own functional modules, and the Edge cloud 132 may also be connected to an ITS/V2X dedicated Edge server 133 to strengthen ITS own Mobile Edge Computing capability. In addition, the edge cloud 132 may be implemented on a general framework by using Network Function Virtualization (NFV) technology, and the server type, the communication type, and the algorithm type of the edge cloud are not specifically limited herein.

In a specific embodiment, see fig. 4, the 5G network may include a plurality of edge clouds (e.g., edge cloud 1 and edge cloud 2) respectively providing Mobile Edge Computing Services (MECs), where each edge cloud is connected to a plurality of adjacent DUs, and is configured to monitor a state of the user terminal through the connected DUs, so as to update the virtual cell of the user terminal according to the state of the user terminal.

Further, referring to fig. 5 and 6, in order to move the user terminal UE equipped for the vehicle on the straight road from the signal coverage of one distributed unit DU1 (i.e. the sum of the signal coverage of all AAUs connected to DU1) to the signal coverage of another distributed unit DU2 (i.e. the sum of the signal coverage of all AAUs connected to DU 2), the user terminal UE always performs effective communication with one of the distributed units DU, and the connection form of two adjacent DUs is defined herein. Specifically, the signal coverage areas of any two adjacent DUs are edge-overlapped, and the AAUs within the edge-overlap are all connected with the two adjacent DUs, so that all the AAUs forming the virtual cell belong to the same DU. For example, as shown in the connection diagram of fig. 5, AAU4 and AAU5 are connected to both distributed unit DU1 and distributed unit DU2, so that the signal coverage of AAU4 and AAU5 becomes the common signal coverage of DU1 and DU2, and the common signal coverage is significantly larger than the required coverage of any virtual cell.

Further, referring to fig. 7, in order to move the user terminal UE equipped for the vehicle at the intersection from the signal coverage of one distributed unit DU4 (i.e. the sum of the signal coverage of all AAUs connected to DU 4) to the signal coverage of another distributed unit DU3 (i.e. the sum of the signal coverage of all AAUs connected to DU 3), the user terminal UE always communicates effectively with one of the distributed units DU, and the connection form of two adjacent DUs is defined herein. Specifically, a distributed unit DU and each active antenna processing unit AAU under each distributed unit DU may be provided at each exit of the crossing

roads

1 and 2, for example, DU1, DU2, DU3, and DU4 are sequentially provided along the four exits of the intersection, and the AAU in the central section of the intersection is connected to the DUs; during the process that the user terminal UE enters the road 2 from the road 1, before turning, the user terminal UE is in communication connection with the part AAU under the control of the distributed unit DU4, and after turning, the user terminal UE is in communication connection with the part AAU under the distributed unit DU 3.

Further, referring to fig. 8, in order to move the user terminal UE equipped for the vehicle at the intersection from the signal coverage of one distributed unit DU4 (i.e. the sum of the signal coverage of all AAUs connected to DU 4) to the signal coverage of another distributed unit DU3 (i.e. the sum of the signal coverage of all AAUs connected to DU 3), the user terminal UE always communicates effectively with one of the distributed units DU, and the connection form of two adjacent DUs is defined herein. Specifically, DU1, DU2, DU3, DU4 are sequentially disposed along the four exits of the intersection, and DU5 is disposed in the central zone of the intersection, so that the signal coverage of DU5 overlaps with the signal coverage of other DUs; in the process that the user terminal UE enters the road 2 from the road 1, before turning, the user terminal UE is in communication connection with a part of AAUs under the control of the distributed unit DU4, when the user terminal UE enters the central section of the intersection, the user terminal UE is in communication connection with a part of AAUs under the control of the distributed unit DU5, and after turning, the user terminal UE is in communication connection with a part of AAUs under the distributed unit DU 3.

It should be noted that, in this embodiment, the number of AAUs connected in the virtual cell of the user equipment UE may be set according to actual situations, and should be not less than 1, and the specific number is not limited herein.

It should be noted that the 5G ultra-dense radio access network deployment system claimed in this embodiment is actually a novel intelligent transportation system, and combines the characteristics of the current transportation system and the characteristics of the 5G network, and realizes the function of V2X through the convenient effect of the user terminal wireless access network, thereby improving the networking experience of the user in the intelligent transportation system.

Example two:

referring to fig. 9, the present application discloses a virtual cell update method for a 5G ultra-dense radio access network deployment system, where the 5G ultra-dense radio access network deployment system in this embodiment is the 5G ultra-dense radio access network deployment system in the first embodiment, and includes a plurality of AAUs, a plurality of DUs, and a plurality of edge clouds in communication connection. Here, a virtual cell update method will be described, which mainly includes steps S100 to S300, which are described separately below.

Step S100, acquiring step: and acquiring the state information of the user terminal through the AAU in the signal coverage range of the user terminal.

In an embodiment, as shown in fig. 5, an AAU (for example, AAU4-AAU6) in a signal coverage area of a user terminal UE sends a wireless signal to the user terminal (at this time, the AAU is not necessarily in communication connection with the user terminal UE), a distributed unit DU1 sends a feedback signal of the user terminal to an edge cloud 1, and then the edge cloud 1 obtains state information of the user terminal UE through a positioning technology of the wireless signal, where the state information of the user terminal may include a positioning position, a movement speed, a movement direction, and an acceleration. Since the positioning technology of the base station to the electronic terminal device is common, for example, the positioning technology of the base station to the mobile phone belongs to the prior art, the description and the limitation of the positioning technology of the wireless signal are not provided herein.

In another embodiment, the user terminal directly sends the state information of the user terminal (which can be easily obtained by a positioning system, a sensing system, and a driving recording system integrated on the user terminal) to the AAU of its virtual cell, and the DU sends the received user state information to the edge cloud 1. The scheme that the user terminal directly sends the state information is a practical scheme in an application scene, and the functions of positioning, sensing and the like integrated on a vehicle where the user terminal is located can enable the user terminal to directly obtain the state information (such as a positioning position, a movement speed and a movement direction) of the user terminal, so that the user terminal can directly provide the information to the edge cloud. In addition, it is the prior art that the vehicle-mounted terminal performs positioning or acquires the motion state of the vehicle, and the technology is not explained and limited herein.

It should be noted that, because the user terminal is limited on the road along with the vehicle and is within the signal coverage of the AAU at the moment, the state of the user terminal has strong predictability, and the moving state of the user terminal can be judged more accurately.

It should be noted that, when the user equipment UE enters the road for the first time, the neighboring edge cloud performs an initialization configuration operation on the virtual cell of the user equipment UE. For example, as shown in fig. 5, when a user terminal UE enters a road, an access request is sent through a random access channel, after receiving a request signal, a DU (for example, DU1) nearby the access request sends the access request to an edge cloud 1 where the access request is located, the edge cloud 1 authorizes the access request, allocates a user ID, a DU and an AAU for allocating a virtual cell, and allocates time-frequency resources for uplink and downlink transmission to a DU1 nearby the user terminal, and the DU1 adds a designated AAU to a virtual cell of the user terminal UE according to allocated information; then, the UE can perform uplink and downlink transmission of information on the time-frequency resource allocated to the UE through the virtual cell.

Step S200, a calculation step: and calculating to obtain the configuration information of the virtual cell of the user terminal according to the state information of the user terminal. In one embodiment, referring to FIG. 10, the step S200 may include steps S210-S230, respectively, as described below.

Step S210, according to the state information of the user terminal, judging whether the AAU corresponding to the signal coverage area to be entered by the user terminal belongs to the current DU or belongs to the new DU; if the current DU belongs to the current DU, the process proceeds to step S220, and if the new DU belongs to the new DU, the process proceeds to step S230.

It should be noted that the state information of the user terminal includes the positioning position, the moving speed, and the moving direction, and even includes the acceleration, so that the edge cloud can conveniently calculate the estimated position of the moving terminal at the next time according to the information, and can judge whether the user terminal is about to reach the signal coverage to enter through the estimated position at the next time.

For example, as shown in fig. 5, when the user terminal moves along a road, the edge cloud 1 calculates to obtain the motion state of the user terminal UE, so as to determine whether the AAU3 corresponding to the signal coverage to be entered by the user terminal at the next time belongs to the current DU1 or the new DU 2.

Step S220, calculating a first joining time of the AAU corresponding to the signal coverage to be entered by the ue, and forming first configuration information of the current DU according to the first joining time, so that the current DU updates the virtual cell of the ue according to the first configuration information.

For example, in fig. 5, the cloud edge 1 calculates an expected time when the user terminal UE moves to the signal coverage of the active antenna processing unit AAU5 (the AAU5 is under the control of DU1 and DU 2) according to the movement speed and the movement direction of the user terminal UE, and uses the expected time as a first join time, so as to obtain the current first configuration information of the DU1 according to the expected time.

Step S230, calculating a switching time of a DU corresponding to a signal coverage to be entered by the user terminal, and calculating a second adding time of an AAU corresponding to the signal coverage to be entered by the user terminal, and forming second configuration information of a new DU according to the switching time and the second adding time, so that the new DU takes over a virtual cell of the user terminal according to the second configuration information, and updates the virtual cell of the user terminal.

In a specific embodiment, referring to fig. 5 and 11, the cloud edge 1 determines the moving state of the UE according to the moving speed and the moving direction of the UE, and when the UE is close to the signal coverage of the distributed unit DU2, the edge cloud 1 makes a DU handover decision and an AAU addition decision; under the guidance of the DU handover decision, the edge cloud 1 calculates the predicted time when the user terminal UE moves to the signal coverage of the active antenna processing unit AAU4 (the signal coverage of AAU4 belongs to the signal coverage of DU 2), and takes the predicted time as the handover time of DU 2; and under the guidance of the AAU addition decision, the edge cloud 1 calculates the predicted time when the user terminal UE moves to the signal coverage of the active antenna processing unit AAU3, and uses the predicted time as the second joining time, thereby forming the second configuration information of the new DU 2. It should be understood by those skilled in the art that the predicted time of entering the signal coverage of the AAU4 is used as the handover time, instead of the predicted time of entering the signal coverage of the AAU5, in order to ensure that the virtual cell takes over after the user terminal UE completely enters the signal coverage of the DU2, so as to achieve the effect of taking over smoothly and stabilizing the signal connection.

Step S300, an update step: and updating the virtual cell of the user terminal according to the configuration information. In one embodiment, referring to FIG. 10, the step S300 may include steps S310-S370, respectively, as described below.

Step S310, which follows step S220 and is entered into step S310, includes: and adding the AAU corresponding to the signal coverage range to be entered by the user terminal into the virtual cell of the user terminal when the first adding moment is reached.

In an embodiment, for example, as shown in fig. 5, the edge cloud 1 sends the first configuration information to the distribution unit DU1, and when the first joining time arrives, the distribution unit DU1 joins the active antenna processing unit AAU5 to the virtual cell of the user terminal UE, so that an addition function of the AAU is implemented, and the virtual cell is also updated. Then, the UE can perform uplink and downlink transmission of information on the time-frequency resource allocated to the UE through the virtual cell.

Step S320, which follows step S230 and proceeds to step S320, includes: judging whether the new DU belongs to the current edge cloud or the new edge cloud; if the current edge cloud belongs to, the process proceeds to step S330, and if the new edge cloud belongs to, the process proceeds to step S340.

For example, in fig. 7, during the process of moving from road 1 to road 2, the user terminal UE will enter the signal coverage of the new DU3 from the signal coverage of the current DU 4. Edge cloud 1 will determine whether new DU3 belongs to current edge cloud 1 or new edge cloud 2.

Step S330, when the current edge cloud controls the new DU and the handover time arrives, take over the virtual cell of the user terminal.

For example, in fig. 8, during the process of moving from road 1 to road 2, the user terminal UE will enter the signal coverage of the new DU5 from the signal coverage of the current DU 4. The edge cloud 1 will determine that the new DU5 belongs to the current edge cloud 1, and then the current edge cloud 1 controls the new DU5 to take over the virtual cell of the UE when the handover time arrives, that is, the new DU5 manages the virtual cell of the UE, and the current DU4 no longer manages the virtual cell of the UE.

Step S340, the current edge cloud hands over the second configuration information to the new edge cloud. For example, in fig. 7, after the user terminal UE enters the signal coverage of DU3, the current edge cloud 1 will handover the second configuration information to the new edge cloud 2.

In another embodiment, the information for the handover from the current edge cloud to the new edge cloud may include not only the second configuration information but also management information of the virtual cell, so that the new edge cloud can know all conditions of the virtual cell in time.

Step S350, the new edge cloud controls the new DU to take over the virtual cell of the user terminal when the handover time arrives.

For example, in fig. 7, during the process of moving from road 1 to road 2, the user terminal UE will enter the signal coverage of the new DU3 from the signal coverage of the current DU 4. The new edge cloud 2 controls the new DU3 to take over the virtual cell of the UE when the handover time arrives, i.e. the new DU3 manages the virtual cell of the UE, and the current DU4 no longer manages the virtual cell of the UE.

Step S360, after the new DU takes over the virtual cell of the ue, that is, after step S330 and step S350, the current DU is controlled to stop the access of the ue, so that the current DU releases the virtual cell of the ue.

For example, in fig. 7 and fig. 8, after the virtual cell of the user terminal UE is taken over, the current edge cloud 1 controls the current DU4 to stop the access of the user terminal UE, so that DU4 releases the virtual cell of the user terminal UE, that is, DU4 stops the communication control of the virtual cell of the user terminal.

Step S370, when the second adding time is reached, adding the AAU corresponding to the signal coverage to be entered by the ue to the virtual cell of the ue, so as to implement the function of adding the AAU and update the virtual cell.

In an embodiment, such as in fig. 7, the distribution unit DU3 adds the AAU of the central section of the intersection to the virtual cell of the user terminal UE when the second joining moment arrives. For example, fig. 8, when the second joining moment arrives, the distribution unit DU5 joins the AAU of the intersection center segment to the virtual cell of the user terminal UE. Then, the UE can perform uplink and downlink transmission of information on the time-frequency resource allocated to the UE through the virtual cell.

In an embodiment, to clearly understand the specific implementation process of step S330 — > S360 — > S370, a description will be given herein with reference to fig. 5 and fig. 11 of a virtual cell inter-DU handover method under the same edge cloud, that is, a description will be given of an implementation process of switching a virtual cell from DU1 to DU2 under the control of a common edge cloud 1. Assuming that the current virtual cell includes AAU4 and AAU5, aiming at adding AAU3, the specific implementation process is as follows: (1) according to the step S230, calculating to obtain second configuration information (i.e. a switching time and a second joining time) by the edge cloud 1; (2) then, the edge cloud 1 sends a virtual cell takeover instruction to the DU2, where the virtual cell takeover instruction should include the switching time in the second configuration information, and after receiving the instruction, the DU2 takes over the virtual cell when the switching time arrives, and the DU2 performs communication control on the virtual cell; (3) after the DU2 takes over successfully, the edge cloud 1 feeds back a report of successful taking over, the edge cloud 1 immediately sends a virtual cell release instruction to the DU1, and after receiving the instruction, the DU1 stops the access of the user terminal and releases a communication control task of the virtual cell; (4) then, the edge cloud 1 sends an AAU addition instruction to the DU2, where the AAU addition instruction should include a second joining time in the second configuration information, and the DU2 activates the newly added AAU3 after receiving the instruction and when the second joining time arrives (before, it is necessary to activate the newly added AAU3 because the AAU3 is not joined to any virtual cell and is in a dormant state), so that the user terminal accesses the AAU 3.

In an embodiment, to clearly understand the specific implementation process of step S340 — > S350 — > S360 — > S370, a cross-DU handover method for a virtual cell under different edge clouds, that is, an implementation process of switching a virtual cell from DU4 to DU3 under the control of edge cloud 1 and edge cloud 2, will be described herein with reference to fig. 7 and fig. 12. The specific implementation process is as follows: (1) according to the step S230, calculating to obtain second configuration information (i.e. a switching time and a second joining time) by the edge cloud 1; (2) then, the edge cloud 1 sends a management information handover request of the virtual cell to the edge cloud 2, where the management information handover request should include the second configuration information and may also include management related information and decision information of the virtual cell, the edge cloud 2 sends a virtual cell takeover instruction to the DU3 after receiving the management information handover request, the virtual cell takeover instruction should include the switching time in the second configuration information, the DU3 takes over the virtual cell after receiving the instruction and when the switching time arrives, and the DU3 performs communication control on the virtual cell; (3) after the DU3 takes over successfully, a take-over success report is fed back to the edge cloud 2, the edge cloud 2 immediately sends a management information handover success report to the edge cloud 1, the edge cloud 1 receives the report and then sends a virtual cell release instruction to the DU4, and the DU4 stops the access of the user terminal after receiving the instruction and releases the communication control task of the virtual cell; (4) then, the edge cloud 2 sends an AAU addition instruction to the DU3, where the AAU addition instruction should include the second joining time in the second configuration information, and the DU2 activates the newly added AAU after receiving the instruction and when the second joining time arrives (before, the AAU may be in a dormant state because the AAU is not joined to any virtual cell, so that the AAU needs to be activated), so that the ue accesses the AAU.

Further, the virtual cell updating method claimed in the present application further includes step S400, where the step S400 is located after the step S100 and is connected in parallel with the step S200 and the step S300, that is, the process of the step S400 and the processes of the steps S200 to S300 do not affect each other. This step S400 is mainly used to remove AAUs with poor communication quality in the virtual cell of the user terminal.

In one embodiment, see FIG. 10, the step S400 may include steps S410-S440.

Step S410, determining whether to reconfigure the virtual cell of the ue according to the communication quality between the ue and the accessed AAU, if yes, entering step S420, otherwise entering step S440.

It should be noted that, during the moving process of the ue, the distance between the accessed AAU and the ue will gradually increase or even depart from the signal coverage of the AAU, so that the communication quality of the virtual cell is degraded, the communication quality of the virtual cell may be degraded due to the shielding effect of the obstacle between the accessed AAU and the ue, and the communication quality of the virtual cell of the ue may be degraded due to the communication interference effect of other virtual cells. No matter what cause the communication quality of the virtual cell is degraded, the edge cloud can learn that, for example, fig. 5, the state information of the user equipment UE is obtained through step S100, and it is determined whether the user equipment UE is still within the signal coverage of the AAU6 according to the state information, and if it is determined that the user equipment UE is out of the signal coverage of the AAU6 or the distance to the AAU6 is too large, the edge cloud 1 can consider that the communication quality between the user equipment UE and the AAU6 is poor; in addition, DU1 obtains the signal strength between each AAU and the UE through AAU4-AAU5, and if the signal strength between one of the AAUs and the UE is weak, the edge cloud 1 may determine that the communication quality between the UE and the AAU is poor due to the obstruction or interference.

As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, because the virtual cell disclosed in the present application employs a cooperative transceiving technology, the overall communication quality of the virtual cell in which the user terminal is located is significantly better than the communication quality from the user terminal to a single AAU; in addition, in the moving process of the user terminal, no matter how the AAU is dynamically increased or decreased, the overall communication quality must reach a certain threshold value. When removing an AAU, the individual communication quality between the user terminal and the AAU is taken into account, which can be estimated by the communication distance from the user, i.e. by the signal strength. For example, if the user is far away from the AAU, the communication quality is considered poor, and the AAU can be removed. The decision to remove an AAU is therefore made in this application mainly on the status of the user terminal as when an AAU is added, but the quality of the communication to this AAU to which the user terminal can be coupled is not excluded.

Step S420, remove AAU with poor communication quality from the virtual cell of the user terminal.

In an embodiment, the distributed unit DU where the virtual cell is located may notify the edge cloud where the virtual cell is located of the communication status of each accessed AAU, and the edge cloud determines which AAUs have a problem in communication quality. If a single accessed AAU has poor communication quality, indicating that the user terminal is about to leave the signal coverage of the AAU, or that the obstruction is severe, or that there is partial communication interference, the AAU may be removed from the virtual cell. In another case, if the communication quality of all the accessed AAUs is poor, it indicates that the virtual cell is subjected to severe communication interference, and the time-frequency resources for uplink and downlink transmission may be newly allocated to the virtual cell of the user terminal, so as to avoid the communication interference.

For example, in fig. 5, assuming that the current virtual cell includes AAU5 and AAU6, AAU4 is added in the future, if the communication quality between the user terminal UE and AAU6 is already poor, AAU6 may be removed first, and AAU4 may be added until the user terminal UE is closer to AAU 4. However, if the current virtual cell only contains AAU5 and it is desired to add AAU4 in the future, AAU4 must be added and then AAU5 must be removed. So that at any point in time at least one AAU has been accessed in the virtual cell of the user terminal.

It should be noted that, the remaining AAUs after removal are still connected to the belonging DU, so that the handover problem of the DU is not involved, the normal operation of the virtual cell is not affected, and the user terminal can still communicate through the remaining AAUs.

Step S430, after removing an AAU from the virtual cell of the ue, if the AAU does not belong to the virtual cell of any other ue, the AAU is put in a dormant state until the DU in which the AAU is located activates the AAU, and when a new ue needs to access the AAU, the DU in which the new ue is located activates the AAU. Therefore, the purposes of saving energy and saving wireless communication resources can be achieved.

Step S440 ends this operation. In an embodiment, see fig. 10, the step may be entered after step S410 determines no, or after step S300 ends, so that the virtual cell of the ue completes one round of update/configuration process, and then the same operation of the next round may be performed.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate that all or part of the functions of the various methods in the above embodiments may be implemented by hardware, or may be implemented by computer programs. When all or part of the functions of the above embodiments are implemented by a computer program, the program may be stored in a computer-readable storage medium, and the storage medium may include: a read only memory, a random access memory, a magnetic disk, an optical disk, a hard disk, etc., and the program is executed by a computer to realize the above functions. For example, the program may be stored in a memory of the device, and when the program in the memory is executed by the processor, all or part of the functions described above may be implemented. In addition, when all or part of the functions in the above embodiments are implemented by a computer program, the program may be stored in a storage medium such as a server, another computer, a magnetic disk, an optical disk, a flash disk, or a removable hard disk, and may be downloaded or copied to a memory of a local device, or may be version-updated in a system of the local device, and when the program in the memory is executed by a processor, all or part of the functions in the above embodiments may be implemented.

The present invention has been described in terms of specific examples, which are provided to aid understanding of the invention and are not intended to be limiting. For a person skilled in the art to which the invention pertains, several simple deductions, modifications or substitutions may be made according to the idea of the invention.

Claims

1. A5G ultra-dense radio access network deployment system, comprising:

a plurality of DUs, each DU is connected with a plurality of the adjacent AAUs for performing baseband signal processing and communication control on the connected AAUs, when the user terminal accesses one or more AAUs, the accessed one or more AAUs and the DUs connected with the accessed one or more AAUs form a virtual cell of the user terminal;

a plurality of edge clouds in communication connection respectively providing mobile edge computing services, each edge cloud being connected to a plurality of DUs adjacent to the edge cloud, and configured to monitor a state of the user terminal through the connected DUs, so as to update the virtual cell according to the state of the user terminal;

wherein, the process of updating the virtual cell by each edge cloud according to the state of the user terminal includes:

an acquisition step, namely acquiring the state information of the user terminal through an AAU (architecture) in a signal coverage area of the user terminal;

calculating, according to the state information of the user terminal, configuration information of a virtual cell of the user terminal, including: judging whether the AAU corresponding to the signal coverage range to be entered by the user terminal belongs to the current DU or a new DU according to the state information of the user terminal; if the current DU belongs to the current DU, calculating a first joining time of an AAU corresponding to a signal coverage range to be entered by the user terminal, and forming first configuration information of the current DU according to the first joining time so that the virtual cell of the user terminal is updated by the current DU according to the first configuration information; if the new DU belongs to the new DU, calculating the switching time of the DU corresponding to the signal coverage range to be entered by the user terminal, calculating the second joining time of the AAU corresponding to the signal coverage range to be entered by the user terminal, and forming the second configuration information of the new DU according to the switching time and the second joining time, so that the new DU takes over the virtual cell of the user terminal according to the second configuration information and updates the virtual cell of the user terminal;

and updating the virtual cell of the user terminal according to the configuration information.

2. The deployment system of 5G ultra-dense radio access network as claimed in claim 1, wherein the signal coverage of any two adjacent DUs are edge-overlapped, and the AAUs within the edge-overlap are all connected to two adjacent DUs, so that all the AAUs forming the virtual cell belong to the same DU.

3. The deployment system of 5G super-dense radio access network according to claim 1, wherein in the acquiring step, the AAU in the signal coverage area of the user terminal sends a radio signal to the user terminal, and the edge cloud in which the AAU is located acquires the state information of the user terminal through a positioning technology of the radio signal, and the state information of the user terminal includes a positioning position, a moving speed, and a moving direction; or, the user terminal directly sends the state information of the user terminal to the edge cloud through the AAU of the virtual cell of the user terminal.

4. The deployment system of 5G ultra-dense radio access network of claim 3, wherein in the updating step, updating the virtual cell of the user terminal according to the configuration information comprises:

5. The 5G ultra-dense radio access network deployment system of claim 4, wherein the updating step further comprises: after the new DU takes over the virtual cell of the user terminal, the current DU is controlled to stop the access of the user terminal, so that the current DU releases the virtual cell of the user terminal.

6. The 5G ultra-dense radio access network deployment system of claim 5, wherein the process of updating the virtual cell by each of the edge clouds according to the state of the user terminal further comprises a removing step, the removing step comprising:

7. The deployment system of 5G ultra-dense radio access network as claimed in claim 6, wherein after an AAU is removed from the virtual cell of said user terminal and the AAU does not belong to the virtual cells of other user terminals, the AAU is put into a dormant state until the DU in which the AAU is located activates the AAU.