JP2000184425A - Radio communication base station equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To reduce hand-over frequency and to improve the use efficiency of radio resource by controlling a system so that a first beam is formed in the direction of a specified station when mobile communication equipment is the specified station and communicating with the specified station by means of a first communication means. SOLUTION: A wide beam communication part 11, a narrow beam communication part 12, a narrow beam direction control part 20, a network interface part 30 and a control part 40 are installed. In radio communication base station equipment, a mobile station where communication is started is judged to be an on-vehicle mobile station or not from a reception signal. When it is not the on-vehicle mobile station, communication is executed through the wide beam communication part 11. When it is not the on-vehicle mobile station, the narrow beam communication part 12 executes communication while the position is followed up. Since the on-vehicle mobile station whose hand-over occurrence frequency is high is followed up with a narrow beam and communication is executed, the number of hand-over occurrence times can be reduced.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a radio communication base station device used for a mobile communication system such as a mobile phone system.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As is well known, a radio communication base station apparatus BS of a conventional large-zone mobile communication system, for example, as shown in FIG.
Different frequency bands f1 to f3 are assigned respectively,
Communication with the non-vehicle mobile station PS in each wireless zone is performed through the allocated frequency band.

[0003] However, in the above-mentioned large zone system, since the radio zone is relatively wide, the frequency of handovers between the radio zones is low, but the frequency utilization efficiency is low.

In order to cope with such a problem, a small zone type mobile communication system represented by a PHS (Personal Handyphone System) has been developed. In this small zone system, as shown in FIG. 8, a communication area is expanded by using a large number of wireless communication base station devices CS having small transmission outputs, and each wireless communication base station device CS uses a common frequency band. Like that.

However, in such a small zone system, since each radio communication base station apparatus CS can use a common frequency band as described above, the efficiency of use of the frequency per unit area is high and many users can be used. Although it can be accommodated, it is necessary not only to lay a large number of radio communication base station devices CS, but also because the radio zone of each radio communication base station device CS is small, the frequency of handovers is high and the control station that controls the system There was a problem that excessive processing capacity was required.

[0006] The above-mentioned problems of the large zone system and the small zone system are caused by FDMA (Frequency Division).
Multiple Access (TDMA) and Time Division Mu
ltiple Access), as well as CDMA (Code Divi
sion multiple access) system,
A similar problem arises.

[0007]

Conventionally, the large zone system has low utilization efficiency of radio resources such as frequencies and spreading codes, while the small zone system requires a large number of radio communication base station apparatuses and requires handover. Are so frequent,
There is a problem that excessive processing capacity is required.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above problem, and has as its object to provide a radio communication base station apparatus capable of reducing the frequency of handover and increasing the use efficiency of radio resources.

[0009]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a wireless communication base station apparatus for connecting a mobile communication apparatus connected via a wireless line to a wired communication network. First communication means for forming one beam and communicating with a mobile communication device via a wireless line, and a second beam having a wider beam width than the first beam formed by the first communication means Is formed in a space, and second communication means for communicating with the mobile communication device via a wireless line, and whether or not the mobile communication device is a preset specific station is identified from a signal received from the mobile communication device. Identification means, when the mobile communication device is identified as a specific station by the identification means, direction detection means for detecting the direction in which the specific station is present from a signal received from the specific station; and Direction First communication means is controlled to form a first beam, and so that the first communication means configured by including a communication control unit for controlling to communicate with a particular station.

In the radio communication base station apparatus having the above configuration, the first
And a second communication means for communicating with a second beam having a wider beam width than the first beam, and the mobile communication device is a specific station. In this case, control is performed such that a first beam is formed in the direction of the specific station, and communication with the specific station is performed by the first communication unit.

Therefore, according to the radio communication base station apparatus having the above configuration, it is possible to reduce the number of occurrences of handover of the specific station, and to share radio resources between the first communication means and the second communication means. Therefore, the use efficiency of wireless resources can be improved.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a wireless communication base station apparatus for connecting a mobile communication apparatus connected via a wireless line to a wired communication network, wherein the first beam is provided in space. A first communication means for forming and communicating with the mobile communication device via a wireless line; and a second communication means having a wider beam width than the first beam formed by the first communication means.
A second communication means for forming a beam in space and communicating with the mobile communication device via a wireless line, and monitoring the frequency of occurrence of handover of the mobile communication device and determining that the frequency of occurrence is equal to or greater than a preset value. Specific station detecting means for detecting a mobile communication device as a specific station, direction detecting means for detecting a direction in which a specific station is present from a signal received from the specific station detected by the specific station detecting means, and direction detecting means And a communication control means for controlling the first communication means to form a first beam in the direction determined in step (1), and controlling the first communication means to communicate with a specific station. I did it.

[0013] In the radio communication base station apparatus having the above configuration, the first
First communication means for performing communication by using the first beam, and second communication means for performing communication by using a second beam having a wider beam width than the first beam, wherein the frequency of occurrence of handover is equal to or more than a predetermined value. The mobile communication device to be set as a specific station is controlled to form a first beam in the direction of the specific station, and communicates with the specific station by first communication means.

Therefore, according to the radio communication base station apparatus having the above configuration, the beam of the first communication means follows the specific station to perform communication with the specific station in which handover has occurred frequently. Since the number of times of handovers can be reduced and the first communication means and the second communication means can share the radio resources, the utilization efficiency of the radio resources can be improved.

[0015]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows a configuration of a radio communication base station apparatus BS of a mobile communication system according to an embodiment of the present invention. Wireless communication base station device B
S is a wide beam communication unit 11, a narrow beam communication unit 12,
A narrow beam direction control unit 20, a network interface unit 30, and a control unit 40 are provided.

As shown in FIG. 2, the wide beam communication section 11 transmits wide beams WB1 to WB1 of about 120 ° to three sectors centering on the radio communication base station BS.
A wireless device forming the WB3 is provided, and wirelessly communicates with mobile stations (non-vehicle mobile station PS and non-vehicle mobile station MS) in each sector.

As shown in FIG. 2, for example, the narrow beam communication section 12 has narrow beams NB1, N of about 10 ° to 30 °.
B2 is formed to perform wireless communication with the in-vehicle mobile station MS.

The narrow beam direction control unit 20 variably controls the forming directions of the narrow beams NB1 and NB2 formed by the narrow beam communication unit 12 based on target direction information from a control unit 40 described later. . The formation direction can be changed by employing a drive mechanism such as a motor, for example, and when the narrow beam communication unit 12 forms a narrow beam by using a phased array antenna, the transmission phase of the transmission / reception signal is controlled. It is also feasible.

The network interface unit 30
Mobile stations (non-vehicle mobile station PS and vehicle-mounted mobile station MS) connected via the wide beam communication unit 11 or the narrow beam communication unit 12 are connected to a communication network such as a public network (not shown).

The control unit 40 controls the radio communication base station apparatus B
It collectively controls each unit of S, collects location registration information of out-of-vehicle mobile stations PS and in-vehicle mobile stations MS, and sends / receives calls according to instructions from a control station device (not shown) provided in an upper layer of the system. Control related to. The control unit 4
0 indicates a new control function in addition to the normal control function, such as the mobile station determination means 41 and the target direction detection means 4.
2 is provided.

The mobile station judging means 41 includes the wide beam communication section 1
A determination is made as to whether the connected mobile station is the non-vehicle mobile station PS or the on-vehicle mobile station MS based on the identification information of the mobile station included in the received signal received in step 1.

The target direction detecting means 42 detects the direction in which the onboard mobile station MS is detected by the mobile station determining means 41 based on the received signal received by the narrow beam communication unit 12. .

As a method of detecting the direction, for example, the antenna of the narrow beam communication unit 12 is constituted by three antennas forming reception beams in mutually different directions as shown in FIG. In-vehicle mobile station M from the difference
The position of S is determined.

Next, the radio communication base station apparatus BS having the above configuration
Will be described. When there is an incoming call from the communication network to the mobile station or when a call is generated from the mobile station, the wide beam communication unit 11 opens a wireless communication link with the mobile station, and the processing shown in FIG. 4 is started. You.

First, in step 4a, the mobile station determining means 41 extracts the identification information of the mobile station from the received signal received by the wide beam communication unit 11, and this mobile station determines whether the mobile station M
It is determined whether it is S or not. Here, if the mobile station is not the on-vehicle mobile station MS, that is, if the mobile station is the non-vehicle mobile station PS, the process proceeds to step 4b.
Move to

In step 4b, the control unit 40 determines that the mobile station, that is, the non-vehicle mobile station PS has the wide beam communication unit 11
The communication is controlled so as to perform the communication, and the process proceeds to step 4c.

In step 4c, the control unit 40 monitors the strength of the received signal from the non-vehicle mobile station PS received by the wide beam communication unit 11, and determines whether it is necessary to perform a handover process. . Here, if it is necessary, the process proceeds to step 4d, and if not, the process proceeds to step 4e.

In step 4d, the control unit 40 switches the radio of the wide beam communication unit 11 as a handover process, thereby maintaining the wireless communication link with the moving non-vehicle mobile station PS, and proceeds to step 4e.

In step 4e, the control unit 40 determines whether the communication with the non-vehicle mobile station PS has been completed.
Here, when the communication is completed, the process is terminated, and when the communication is continued, the process proceeds to step 4b.

On the other hand, in step 4f, the target direction detecting means 42 detects the direction in which the mobile station, that is, the vehicle-mounted mobile station MS is located, based on the reception signal received by the narrow beam communication unit 12. Then, based on the detected information, the narrow beam direction control unit 20 moves the narrow beam forming direction of the narrow beam communication unit 12 to the direction in which the vehicle-mounted mobile station MS is located, and shifts to step 4g.

In step 4g, the communication with the on-vehicle mobile station MS is performed through the narrow beam communication unit 12, and the process proceeds to step 4h. In step 4h, the control unit 40 determines whether the communication with the in-vehicle mobile station MS has been completed. Here, when the communication is completed, the process is terminated, and when the communication is continued, the process proceeds to step 4f.

As described above, in the radio communication base station apparatus BS having the above configuration, it is determined whether or not the mobile station with which communication has started is the on-vehicle mobile station MS from the received signal, and as shown in FIG. Wide beam communication unit 11 for non-vehicle mobile station PS
In the case of the on-vehicle mobile station MS, the narrow beam communication unit 12
The communication is performed by using

Therefore, according to the radio communication base station apparatus BS having the above-described configuration, the in-vehicle mobile station MS, which has a high frequency of occurrence of handover, performs communication by following the narrow beam, so that the number of times of occurrence of handover can be reduced. .

For example, when the on-vehicle mobile station MS is operated as a so-called “running office”, it is generally necessary to perform large-capacity and high-speed communication as compared with the non-on-vehicle mobile station PS. And a plurality of radio resources, such as a frequency, are used at the same time.

As described above, even when the in-vehicle mobile station MS performs large-capacity and high-speed communication with the narrow beam communication unit 12 using a plurality of radio resources, the radio communication base station having the above-described configuration is used. According to the device, in a region outside the narrow beam of the narrow beam communication unit 12, the in-vehicle mobile station MS uses the wide beam communication unit 11.
Can reuse wireless resources used with the narrow beam communication unit 12 to improve the use efficiency of wireless resources.

That is, first, when the number of non-vehicle mobile stations PS is small, the probability that the non-vehicle mobile stations PS exist in a narrow beam is low. And can use common radio resources.

Second, when the same radio resource is used in the wide beam communication unit 11 and the narrow beam communication unit 12, the communication of the mobile station MS using the narrow beam is performed by the wide beam communication unit 11
Although it is conceivable that a wide beam interferes with the narrow beam, the narrow beam can increase the amount of energy as compared with the wide beam, so that the interference can be suppressed.

Third, by reducing the horizontal beam angle and the vertical beam angle of the narrow beam, setting the antenna position higher, and forming the beam slightly downward, as shown in FIG. As shown, the beam can be formed in a smaller area than in the case of FIG. According to this, it is possible to further suppress the mutual interference with the mobile station performing communication through the wide beam communication unit 11, and to further improve the use efficiency of the radio resources.

The present invention is not limited to the above embodiment. For example, in the above embodiment, the identification information included in the received signal from the mobile station is used to distinguish between the on-vehicle mobile station MS and the non-on-vehicle mobile station PS. Alternatively, the above distinction may be made based on the moving speed.

As a method of detecting the moving speed, for example, the moving speed is obtained from the fluctuation of the fading pitch of the received signal of the mobile station, or the speed information reported by the user through the mobile station is detected.

In the above-described embodiment, the wide beam communication unit 11 and the narrow beam communication unit 12 are selectively used depending on whether the mobile station is the on-vehicle mobile station MS or the non-on-vehicle mobile station PS. It is not something to be done.

For example, only a mobile station of a user who has previously subscribed to a specific service is switched to the narrow beam communication unit 12 for communication in response to a request from the user.
According to this, communication quality according to a user's request can be provided.

Also, a mobile station having deteriorated radio propagation path parameters, for example, a signal-to-noise ratio (CNR), is switched from the wide beam communication unit 11 to the narrow beam communication unit 12 to perform communication, so that rescue is achieved. You may make it aim.

Further, a delay amount of a reflected wave, so-called delay spread, is monitored as a parameter of the radio propagation path. And communication with mobile stations with large delay spreads,
The relief may be achieved by switching from the wide beam communication unit 11 to the narrow beam communication unit 12 or by allocating the narrow beam communication unit 1 from the beginning. In addition, it goes without saying that various modifications can be made without departing from the spirit of the present invention.

[0045]

As described above, the radio communication base station apparatus according to the present invention comprises a first communication means for performing communication using a first beam, and a second communication means having a wider beam width than the first beam. A second communication means for performing communication by the beam of
When the mobile communication device is a specific station, control is performed so as to form a first beam in the direction of the specific station, and communication with the specific station is performed by first communication means.

Therefore, according to the present invention, the number of occurrences of the handover of the specific station can be reduced, and the first communication means and the second communication means can share the radio resources to improve the utilization efficiency of the radio resources. A simple wireless communication base station device can be provided.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a circuit block diagram showing a configuration of an embodiment of a wireless communication base station apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a narrow beam and a wide beam formed by the wireless communication base station apparatus shown in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a view for explaining a process in which the wireless communication base station apparatus shown in FIG. 1 obtains the position of the vehicle-mounted mobile station MS.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the wireless communication base station apparatus shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is a diagram for explaining proper use of a communication unit of the wireless communication base station device shown in FIG. 1;

6 is a diagram showing another example of forming a narrow beam and a wide beam formed by the wireless communication base station apparatus shown in FIG.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a configuration of a communication area of a conventional large-zone mobile communication system.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a configuration of a communication area of a conventional small-zone mobile communication system.

[Explanation of symbols]

 BS ... Wireless communication base station device NB1, NB2 ... Narrow beam WB1, WB2, WB3 ... Wide beam MS ... In-vehicle mobile station PS ... Non-vehicle mobile station 11 ... Wide beam communication unit 12 ... Narrow beam communication unit 20 ... Narrow beam direction control Unit 30 Network interface unit 40 Control unit 41 Mobile station determination unit 42 Target direction detection unit

Claims (9)

[Claims] 1. A wireless communication base station device for connecting a mobile communication device connected via a wireless line to a wired communication network, wherein a first beam is formed in space and the mobile communication device is connected to the mobile communication device via a wireless line. A first communication means for performing communication with the mobile communication apparatus, a second beam having a wider beam width than the first beam formed by the first communication means is formed in space, and the second beam is communicated with the mobile communication apparatus via a wireless line. Second communication means for performing communication; identification means for identifying whether or not the mobile communication apparatus is a preset specific station based on a signal received from the mobile communication apparatus; A direction detecting unit that detects a direction in which the specific station is present from a signal received from the specific station when the specific station is identified; Communication means The controlled so as to form a beam, said first communication means radio communication base station apparatus, wherein a comprises a communication control unit that controls to communicate with the specific station. 2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the identification unit identifies whether the mobile communication device is a preset specific station from information included in a signal received from the mobile communication device. A wireless communication base station device according to claim 1. 3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the identifying unit determines that the mobile communication device is the specific station when the signal received from the mobile communication device includes information indicating that the mobile communication device is a vehicle-mounted mobile station. The wireless communication base station device according to claim 1, wherein the identification is performed. 4. The identification means identifies the mobile communication device as the specific station when a signal received from the mobile communication device includes information indicating a predetermined request from the mobile communication device. The wireless communication base station device according to claim 1, wherein: 5. The identification unit monitors a state of a radio channel from a signal received from the mobile communication device, and identifies whether or not the mobile communication device is a preset specific station based on a result of the monitoring. The wireless communication base station device according to claim 1, wherein: 6. The identification means monitors a signal-to-noise ratio from a signal received from the mobile communication device, and when the signal-to-noise ratio is degraded from a preset value, the identification means monitors the mobile communication device. The radio communication base station apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the radio communication base station apparatus is identified as a specific station. 7. The identification means monitors a delay spread from a signal received from the mobile communication device, and when the delay spread is equal to or greater than a preset value, identifies the mobile communication device as a specific station. The wireless communication base station apparatus according to claim 5, wherein 8. The identification means monitors a change in a fading pitch from a signal received from the mobile communication device, and when the change in the fading pitch is equal to or greater than a preset value, the identification means monitors the mobile communication device. The radio communication base station apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the radio communication base station apparatus is identified as a specific station. 9. A wireless communication base station apparatus for connecting a mobile communication device connected via a wireless line to a wired communication network, wherein a first beam is formed in space and the mobile communication device is connected to the mobile communication device via a wireless line. A first communication means for performing communication with the mobile communication apparatus, a second beam having a wider beam width than the first beam formed by the first communication means is formed in space, and the second beam is communicated with the mobile communication apparatus via a wireless line. A second communication unit for performing communication, a specific station detecting unit that monitors a frequency of occurrence of handover of the mobile communication device, and detects a mobile communication device in which the frequency of occurrence is equal to or greater than a preset value as a specific station; Direction detecting means for detecting a direction in which the specific station is present from a signal received from the specific station detected by the specific station detecting means; and the first communication means One bee Controlled so as to form a beam, said first communication means radio communication base station apparatus, wherein a comprises a communication control unit that controls to communicate with the specific station.