JP2003153238A - Communication system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a communication system provided with both a broadcast communication service function and a 2-way communication service function that can attain uplink of information with respect to the broadcast communication service function without the need for providing a communication path with the express purpose of the uplink. SOLUTION: In the communication system provided with at least the broadcast communication service function for providing information and the 2-way communication service function for transmitting/receiving the information between a base station A and a terminal B, when the terminal B transmits prescribed information with respect to the broadcast communication service function to the base station A, the terminal B uses the 2-way communication service function to transmit the information.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a communication system having both a broadcast communication service function and a bidirectional communication service function.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, there are communication systems for providing various kinds of information to general users. For example, as shown in FIG. 3, there is a communication system including a base station A1 and a terminal device B1. This communication system can provide a broadcast communication service and a two-way communication service. The broadcast communication service is to provide information from the broadcast communication service function 510 (transmission) of the base station A1 to the broadcast communication service function 540 (reception) of the terminal device B1, and the information is mainly a communication path. Base station A via D1
1 to the terminal device B1.
On the other hand, although it is not frequent, there is a case where it is desired to uplink information such as the ID number of the user or the ID number of the terminal device B1 from the terminal device B1 to the base station A1. In this case, the terminal device B1 transmits the information desired to be uplinked via the communication path U1. Also,
The bidirectional communication service enables the bidirectional communication service function 610 (transmission / reception) of the base station A1 and the bidirectional communication service function 640 (transmission / reception) of the terminal device B1 to exchange information with each other. The communication path in this case is downlink (base station A1 → terminal device B1)
In this case, the communication path D2 is an uplink (terminal device B1 →
In the case of the base station A1), information is transmitted and received via the communication path U2. Since the two functions of the broadcast communication service function and the two-way communication service function correspond to the upper layers in the communication protocol of the above-mentioned conventional communication system, as a concrete concrete example, the above two functions are realized. You can think of it as a possible computer. Further, as another example of a communication system, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 8-331153 discloses a method of transmitting information from a base station to a terminal device (downlink in a single communication system including a base station and a terminal device). ) And the frequency band used for the transmission of information from the terminal device to the base station (uplink), and to increase the communication speed of the downlink with a large amount of information while increasing the communication speed of the downlink with a large amount of information. A technique for improving communication efficiency by performing asymmetric communication that reduces the communication speed is described.

[0003]

By the way, the above communication system is basically a system in which communication paths are provided for downlink and uplink, respectively. The communication path is a frequency assigned in a specific wireless communication, and the downlink frequency and the uplink frequency are assigned in the conventional communication system. Therefore, for example, in the case of FIG. 3 described above, two communication paths for the broadcast communication service and two communication paths for the bidirectional communication service, that is, a total of four communication paths, that is, a total of four frequencies are allocated. However, in the broadcast communication service of FIG.
The amount of information that is uplinked via 1 is the communication path D1
It is much smaller than the amount of information in the broadcast content that is downlinked via the Internet, and it will not be in a state in which some information is always uplinked. Therefore, it is considered very inefficient to provide the communication path D1 only for discontinuously uplinking such a small amount of information. In other words, since frequencies used in wireless communication can be said to be public resources, allocating frequencies only for discontinuously uplinking a small amount of information wastes public resources as described above. It can be said that they are doing. Therefore, the present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and it is an object of the present invention to provide information about a broadcast communication service function in a communication system having both a broadcast communication service function and a two-way communication service function. An object of the present invention is to provide a communication system that enables uplinking without providing a communication path only for uplinking.

[0004]

To achieve the above object, the present invention provides a broadcast communication service function for providing information from a base station side to a terminal device side, and information between the base station and the terminal device. In a communication system having at least two service functions including a two-way communication service function that enables the transmission and reception of the broadcast communication service function, the predetermined information related to the broadcast communication service function is transmitted from the terminal device to the base station. It is configured as a communication system characterized by transmitting using a two-way communication service function. Since the present invention is configured in this manner, it is not necessary to provide a communication path only for uplinking the predetermined information regarding the broadcast communication service function from the terminal device to the base station as in the conventional case. Furthermore, since the predetermined information is uplinked via the conventional two-way communication service, the present invention can be easily implemented. In the communication system of the present invention, a mixing unit for mixing the predetermined information with the two-way communication service function and the predetermined information mixed with the two-way communication service function are provided in the two-way communication. It is preferable that the base station comprises the separating means and the terminal device comprises the mixing means. By configuring the present invention in this way, it is possible to mix and transmit the predetermined information to the two-way communication service function, and further separate and extract the predetermined information from the mixed information. It becomes possible to easily carry out the above. Further, the predetermined information is any one of an identifier of the terminal device, an identifier of a user of the terminal device, and information about setting of the broadcast communication service.
It is also possible to transmit or receive information between the base station and the terminal device via wireless communication. With such a configuration, the present invention can realize a communication system having the same function as a conventional communication system having a broadcast communication service function and a two-way communication service function.

[0005]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments and examples of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings to provide an understanding of the present invention. It should be noted that the following embodiments and examples are merely examples embodying the present invention and are not of the nature to limit the technical scope of the present invention. Here, FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram showing a schematic configuration of a communication system according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 shows an outline of a communication frame of a time division type two-way communication service function according to an embodiment. A time chart, FIG. 3 is an example diagram showing an example of a schematic configuration of a conventional communication system. First, a schematic configuration of a base station A and a terminal device B adopting the communication system according to the embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. Of course, the communication system of the present invention is not limited to the above-mentioned base station A and the above-mentioned terminal device B, and may be any one as long as the same effect can be obtained by adopting the communication system of the present invention. It may be used for things.

First, the schematic configuration of the base station A will be described. The base station A has two components, a configuration related to broadcast communication service and a configuration related to bidirectional communication service.
The configuration related to the broadcast communication service is to store the content when downlinking information from the base station A to the terminal device B and the identifier such as the ID of the terminal device B or the user, and to provide the broadcast communication service to the terminal device B. A broadcast communication service function 110, which is an application for performing communication control for performing the communication control, and a broadcast transmitter 120 for actually transmitting information wirelessly to the terminal device B are provided. The configuration relating to the above-mentioned two-way communication service is information for downlink from the base station A to the terminal device B,
Alternatively, a bidirectional communication service function 210, which is an application for storing information uplinked from the terminal device B to the base station A, and performing communication control for providing the bidirectional communication service to the terminal device B, and the terminal device A communication transmitter 220 for actually wirelessly transmitting information to B and a communication receiver 231 for actually wirelessly receiving the information uplinked from the terminal device B are configured. There is. Further, in the configuration of the base station A shown in FIG. 1, since the two functions of the broadcast communication service function 110 and the two-way communication service function 120 are upper layers in the communication protocol of the communication system of the present invention, Although described as an application as described above, a concrete example of the application may be a computer that can realize the above two functions.

Next, a schematic structure of the terminal device B will be described. Similarly to the base station A, the terminal device B also has two components, that is, a configuration related to broadcast communication service and a configuration related to bidirectional communication service. The configuration relating to the broadcast communication service is as follows: a broadcast receiver 130 for receiving downlink information and contents from the broadcast transmitter 120 of the base station A, and information and contents received by the broadcast receiver 130. And a broadcast communication service function 140 that is an application for displaying the contents to the user while controlling the communication. The configuration relating to the above-described two-way communication service stores the information downlinked from the base station A to the terminal device B or the information uplinked from the terminal device B to the base station A, and provides the two-way communication service to the base station A. Two-way communication service function 210 that is an application for performing communication control for performing communication, and communication transmitter 2 for actually transmitting information wirelessly to base station A
21 and a communication receiver 230 for actually receiving wirelessly the information downlinked from the base station A. In addition, in the configuration of the terminal device B shown in FIG.
The two functions of 0 and the two-way communication service 240 correspond to the upper layer in the communication protocol of the communication system of the present invention, and thus are expressed as an application as described above, but as a concrete concrete example of the application, It may be a computer that can realize the above two functions.

The base station A and the terminal device B configured as described above further include the configurations described below to realize the communication system of the present invention. First, the terminal device B uses the two-way communication service function 240 to uplink the information to the base station A and the predetermined information on the broadcast communication service function 140 to the base station A (hereinafter, simply “predetermined information”). The mixer 310 is connected to the communication transmitter 221. With this configuration, the information to be uplinked by the two-way communication service function 240 and the predetermined information are mixed by the mixer 310 to be combined into one piece of information. Furthermore,
The information collected as one is the device related to the two-way communication service function 240 (that is, the communication transmitter 221).
Is uplinked to the base station A. Therefore, the terminal device B can transmit the predetermined information to the base station A. The predetermined information is, for example, information about a user who intends to receive a broadcast communication service, and is information such as the user ID of the user himself or the device ID of the terminal device B, and the size thereof. Is information that is much smaller than the content for broadcasting transmitted from the base station A to the terminal device B and does not need to be transmitted continuously.

Next, the base station A uses the communication transmitter 22.
A separator 320 for receiving the above-mentioned one-piece of information transmitted by the communication receiver 231 at the communication receiver 231 and separating and extracting the above-mentioned predetermined information from the received one-piece of information. By having it, the following processing is possible. This separator 320 is a receiver for communication 23
Acquiring the information summarized in the above 1 received in 1,
By separating and extracting the above-mentioned predetermined information from the information collected as one, the above-mentioned predetermined information is uplinked to the broadcast communication service function 110, and on the other hand, to the base station A by the two-way communication service function 240. It has a function of transmitting information to the two-way communication service function 210. Here, the separation may be performed as follows, for example. For example, when the mixer 310 mixes the predetermined information, some flag is attached to the predetermined information in advance. Then, the separator 320
However, when separating the predetermined information from the information combined into one by the mixer 310, by separating only the information having the flag from the information combined into one, It becomes possible to separate predetermined information. By configuring the base station A and the terminal device B as described above, it becomes possible to uplink the predetermined information to the base station A using the two-way communication service function, which is different from the conventional communication system. Differently, a communication path for uplinking the predetermined information to the base station A (see FIG. 3).
In this case, there is no need to provide the communication path U1).

[0010]

(Embodiment 1) In the above description, the bidirectional communication service function includes the communication transmitter 221 and the communication receiver 23.
1 communication path (for uplink) and communication transmitter 2
The communication system having the two communication paths, that is, the communication path (for downlink) between the communication receiver 20 and the communication receiver 230 has been described. In the first embodiment, the bidirectional communication service function is provided with only one communication path, and the communication path is transmitted / received by a generally known time division method.
An example of uplinking the predetermined information by using the time-division type bidirectional communication service function when the bidirectional communication service is provided to the user will be described with reference to the time chart of the communication frame in FIG. To do. In the normal time-division bidirectional communication, between the base station A and the terminal device B, there is a mechanism in which the transmission / reception timing of the communication frame is determined by the synchronization signal which is the reference of the transmission / reception of the mutual communication frame. Has become. For example, in the period between the synchronization signals, first, after the period US for uplinking the information of the bidirectional communication service function (from the terminal device B to the base station A), the bidirectional communication service function is also changed. There is a period DS for downlinking information (base station A → terminal B). That is, in a normal time division type bidirectional communication service, the period US and the period DS are set as one set for transmission and reception. On the other hand, when the predetermined information is mixed in the two-way communication service function, for example, in the period between the synchronization signals, first, after the period UH for uplinking the predetermined information, the period is again set. There may be a period DS for downlinking the information of the two-way communication service function. That is, in the period between the synchronizing signals, the period US is transferred to the period UH. As described above, by performing the transfer of the period as described above, it becomes possible to mix the predetermined information and to make an uplink even in the time division two-way communication service.

(Embodiment 2) Further, the broadcast communication service function 110 may further store information on the setting of the user's broadcast communication service, and the information on the setting is uploaded from the terminal device B to the base station A in advance. It is linked. The information on the above settings is, for example, an item such as content for which the user wants to receive a service. That is, since the above items are selected by the user, it can be said that the information about the above settings is one of the information that is uplinked from the terminal device B to the base station A.

[0012]

INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY The present invention provides a broadcasting communication service function for providing information from the base station side to the terminal device side, and a two-way communication service function for enabling information transmission and reception between the base station and the terminal device. In a communication system having at least two service functions, the two-way communication service function is used to transmit predetermined information about the broadcast communication service function from the terminal device to the base station. Is configured as a communication system. Since the present invention is configured in this manner, it is not necessary to provide a communication path only for uplinking the predetermined information regarding the broadcast communication service function from the terminal device to the base station as in the conventional case. Furthermore, since the predetermined information is uplinked via the conventional two-way communication service, the present invention can be easily implemented. In the communication system of the present invention, a mixing unit for mixing the predetermined information with the two-way communication service function and the predetermined information mixed with the two-way communication service function are provided in the two-way communication. Separating means for separating from the service, and further, the base station comprises the separating means,
It is desirable that the terminal device be configured to include the mixing means. By configuring the present invention in this way, it is possible to mix and transmit the predetermined information to the two-way communication service function, and further separate and extract the predetermined information from the mixed information. It becomes possible to easily carry out the above. Further, the predetermined information is configured by any one of an identifier of the terminal device, an identifier of a user of the terminal device, information on setting of the broadcast communication service, or a combination thereof, and the base station and It is also possible to exchange information between the terminal devices via wireless communication.
With such a configuration, the present invention can realize a communication system having the same function as a conventional communication system having a broadcast communication service function and a bidirectional communication service function.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram showing a schematic configuration of a communication system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a time chart showing an outline of a communication frame of a bidirectional communication service function.

FIG. 3 is an example diagram showing an example of a schematic configuration of a conventional communication system.

[Explanation of symbols]

A ... Base station B: Terminal device 110 ... Broadcasting communication service function (base station A side) 120 ... Broadcasting transmitter (base station A side) 210 .... Two-way communication service function (base station A side) 220 ......... Communication transmitter (base station A side) 231 .... Receiver for communication (base station A side) 320: Separator (base station A side) 140 ………… Broadcast communication service function (terminal device B side) 130: Broadcast receiver (terminal device B side) 240 ……… Two-way communication service function (terminal device B side) 221 ............ Communication transmitter (terminal device B side) 230 ……… Communication receiver (terminal device B side) 310 ……… Mixer (terminal device B side)

   ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued front page    (72) Inventor Yoichiro Mune             1-5-5 Takatsukadai, Nishi-ku, Kobe City, Hyogo Prefecture             Kobe Steel Co., Ltd.Kobe Research Institute F term (reference) 5C064 BB05 BC16 BC20 BD03 BD07

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. A broadcast communication service function for providing information from a base station side to a terminal device side, and a two-way communication service function for enabling information transmission and reception between the base station and the terminal device. In a communication system having at least a service function, when transmitting predetermined information regarding the broadcast communication service function from the terminal device to the base station, the two-way communication service function is used for transmission. Communications system. 2. Mixing means for mixing the predetermined information with the two-way communication service function and the predetermined information mixed with the two-way communication service function are separated from the two-way communication service. The communication system according to claim 1, further comprising a separating means for performing the operation. 3. The communication system according to claim 2, wherein the base station comprises the separating means. 4. The communication system according to claim 2, wherein the terminal device includes the mixing means. 5. The predetermined information is any one of an identifier of the terminal device, an identifier of a user of the terminal device, information on setting of the broadcast communication service, or a combination thereof. To the communication system according to claim 4. 6. The communication system according to claim 1, wherein information is transmitted and received between the base station and the terminal device via wireless communication.