JP2003264562A - Radio terminal gateway device, radio base station device and method for controlling them - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide radio terminal gateway devices which attach a priority to a packet transmitted between a radio private network and a radio public network and/or fix a packet size and to provide radio base station devices. <P>SOLUTION: In the radio terminal gateway devices (figure 4), packet priority controlling means (405 and 408) are provided in both incoming communication and outgoing communication, a packet group arriving from an incoming (outgoing) communicating line is sorted in the order of a priority at a fixed time, and the sorted packet group is transferred to the opposite outgoing (incoming) communication line. A radio base station (figure 5) is provided with a means (506) for gathering packets with the same destination among packets arriving from the radio terminal gateway devices, shaping the gathered packets into fixed-length packets and transferring the fixed-length packets to a packet communication network. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2003,JPO

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a technique for installing a packet between a wireless terminal and a wired packet communication network and controlling the priority of packets when wireless communication is performed. In particular,
The present invention relates to a means for sending each packet according to priority regardless of the order of arrival packets, and a means for sending each packet with a fixed length to a wired packet communication network so that priority control becomes easy.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art From each wireless terminal in a private wireless network formed by wirelessly connecting terminals in a short distance, a terminal outside the private wireless network or a data center, etc.
When communicating via a packet communication network such as rnet, if a private wireless network and an external packet communication network or a public wireless network provided to connect to the external packet communication network intervenes, (public) A wireless terminal gateway device that relays with the wireless base station is required (see FIG. 1). As an example of the wireless terminal gateway device, a mobile phone having a Bluetooth interface, which is a short-range wireless system, can be considered. The applicable mobile phone is Blu
While configuring a wireless private network with an individual wireless terminal having an Ethernet interface, it has a communication function with a wireless base station that is a partner of a public wireless network, and sometimes Bl
The Bluetooth device functions as a wireless terminal gateway device when communicating with a wireless terminal or the like in the packet communication network or another wireless private network connected thereto via the public wireless network.

The conventional wireless terminal gateway device mainly converts the packet format of the wireless private network and the public wireless network and the difference between the protocols for exchanging packets to enable mutual data communication. That is, none of the devices has a function of priority control of packets. Therefore, for example, if a wireless telephone terminal and a wireless data terminal in the same wireless private network are used at the same time and an attempt is made to communicate with the outside through the same wireless terminal gateway device, the wireless telephone terminal will preferentially prevent voice from being interrupted. However, there is a possibility that data packets from other wireless data terminals may disturb the communication even if they try to communicate with each other.

[0004]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention is to solve the above-mentioned problems, and to transfer a packet from a wireless private network to a wireless public network according to the priority (hereinafter referred to as "uplink communication"). , And vice versa, it is possible to transfer a packet from the wireless public network to the wireless private network according to the priority (hereinafter referred to as “downlink communication”), and The communication of a wireless terminal in the network can be treated with priority over the communication of other wireless terminals.

In the packet communication network which is a wire communication section, the DiffServ method is well known as a priority control mechanism. In the DiffServ method, a terminal or router (generally called an edge router) located at the entrance of the network attaches the priority of the header of each packet to the inside of the network and sends it out to each relay router in the network. The transfer order is changed according to the priority of the header, and the packet is transmitted to the next relay router or terminal. In this work, if each packet size is different, the work of changing the transfer order and the calculation of the transfer rate in each relay router become complicated. Therefore, the packet size when entering the packet communication network is forcibly set to a fixed length. This simplifies the work of the relay router and enables high-speed processing. For example, the transfer rate calculation is "S x
It can be easily calculated by the number of packets transferred in a unit time.
Here, S is a fixed length packet size (constant).

[0006]

Means for Solving the Problems A packet priority control means is put in both an upstream communication and a downstream communication in a wireless terminal gateway device, and a packet group arriving from an upstream (downstream) communication path is sorted in order of priority at a fixed time, Transfer to the opposite downlink (uplink) channel. Further, the wireless base station is provided with a means for collecting packets arriving from the wireless terminal gateway device together with those having the same destination into a fixed-length packet and transferring the packet to the packet communication network.

[0007]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS [Embodiment 1] An embodiment of the present invention is shown in FIG.
This will be described using the communication network configuration shown in.

A wireless terminal gateway device is placed in each wireless communication section, and each wireless terminal can communicate with another wireless terminal gateway device by communicating with a nearby wireless terminal gateway device. Here, the wireless terminal is a generic term for a wireless telephone terminal for performing voice communication and a wireless data terminal for exchanging data. A communication network including a plurality of wireless terminals communicating with the same wireless terminal gateway device and the corresponding wireless terminal gateway device is called a wireless private network. When a wireless terminal in a certain wireless private network communicates with a wireless terminal in another wireless private network, it is performed via the packet communication network shown in FIG. The packet communication network is, for example, an IP network represented by Internet. Of course, the wireless terminals in the wireless private network are
It is also possible to communicate with terminals and data centers in the packet communication network.

In the communication network configuration of FIG. 1, a state in which the wireless terminals are communicating with each other will be specifically described. The wireless telephone terminal 201 includes a wireless telephone terminal 211 and a wireless data terminal 2
03 is a wireless data terminal 212 and a wireless data terminal 202
Respectively communicate with the data center 207. Further, it is assumed that 251, 252 and 253 communication paths are used for each communication. At this time, the wireless terminal gateway device 204 belongs to any of the above three communication paths. Here, the wireless telephone terminal 201 is the wireless telephone terminal 21.
Packets flowing on the route 251 connecting one to another route 25
Consider preferential treatment over packets flowing over 2 and 253. When the packet communication network 230 is an IP network, the above can be achieved by using DiffServ or the like for priority control. However, there is a case where there is no priority control mechanism. Therefore, the wireless terminal gateway device 204 receives more packets than the packets from the wireless data terminals 202 and 203.
It is provided with means for preferentially transferring the packet from the wireless telephone terminal 201 to the wireless base station 205 which is the next packet transfer destination.

FIG. 2 illustrates the means in terms of packet transfer. FIG. 2 shows that the order in which the packet groups (synonymous with “flow”) A, B, and C to be transferred to three different parties that are input to a certain wireless terminal gateway device are exchanged according to the priority, and are the same. An example is shown in which the packet is sent after being replaced with a packet having a length of.
The packets input to the wireless terminal gateway device have different lengths of individual packets depending on the originating wireless terminal,
Moreover, the order of packets arriving at the wireless terminal gateway device to receive packets from a plurality of wireless terminals at the same time is as shown in FIG. 2A, but the packet transmission order is maintained, but other packets are inserted in between. It is a so-called interleaved form. At this time, the priority of the packet is type A
Packet has the highest priority, and then B and C, that is, A>B> C. Further, the priority control is performed every certain time, and the time for that is T. The packets arriving within the time interval T are first rearranged according to the priority as shown in FIG. As a result, the packets are transmitted in the order of higher priority within T, regardless of the order of arrival of the packets.

Further, when transmitting a packet, it is also transmitted as a packet having a larger fixed length. Therefore, when multiple input packets are sent out, 1
May be carried in one packet. If the input packet is longer than the predetermined send packet length, the packet is divided into two or more fixed length packets and sent. Furthermore, in order to make each outgoing packet a fixed length, if the input packet data is less than the fixed length, the data not originally related to the data is padded (padded) to force the fixed length (Fig. 2 (3)
See). The padding data is appropriately discarded if it is not needed by the receiving radio base station or the like.

FIG. 3 shows the configuration of the wireless terminal gateway device. Communication with each wireless communication terminal is performed via the antenna 401. The electric wave from the wireless communication terminal is an antenna 401.
After being received by the private wireless packet interface 402, the packet is converted into an electric signal by the private wireless packet interface 402, and when the packet is recognized by the private wireless packet receiving unit / termination processing unit 403 as a packet, a packet used for communication in the wireless private network up to that point. Only data is retrieved from the format. The per-flow queue processing unit 404 and the transmission priority control unit 405 correspond to FIG.
The packets arriving from 3 are rearranged, and the packets rearranged at a certain transmission interval are transmitted to the public wireless packet generation unit 406. In 406, header information for public wireless is added to the data received from 405, a public wireless packet is generated, and the public wireless packet network interface 411 is generated.
To the radio base station as radio waves through the antenna 412. On the contrary, after the radio wave from the radio base station is received by the antenna 412, the public radio packet network interface 411, the public radio packet reception / termination processing unit 410, the flow queue processing unit 409, the transmission priority control unit 408, the private radio. Packet generator 407,
Data is transmitted to each wireless terminal through the private wireless packet network interface 402 and the antenna 401. In addition, data transfer means from 403 to 407 is provided so that wireless terminals in the same wireless private network can directly communicate with each other via the wireless terminal gateway device.

FIG. 4 shows the configuration of the radio base station. Although the circuit configuration is similar to that of FIG. 3, this device mediates communication between the wireless terminal gateway device and the wired communication network. That is,
Antenna 501 transmits radio waves from the wireless terminal gateway device
When received by the public wireless packet network interface 50
2, a public wireless packet reception / termination processing unit 503, a flow queue processing unit 504, a transmission priority control unit 505, a fixed length packet generation unit 506, a wired packet network interface 511, and a communication line 51 formed of an optical fiber or the like.
The data is sent to the wired communication network connected by 2. On the contrary, the data coming from the wired communication network via the communication line 512 includes the wired packet network interface 511, the wired packet reception / termination processing unit 510, the per-flow queue processing unit 509, the transmission priority control unit 508, and the public wireless packet. Generating unit 507, public wireless packet network interface 502,
It passes through the antenna 501, is superimposed on the radio wave, and is transmitted toward the wireless terminal gateway device.

The fixed length packet generator 506 is shown in FIG.
The fixed length packet shown by is generated. Specifically, the packet data from the transmission priority control unit 505 is once transferred to the FIFO.
The fixed-length packets are sequentially generated so that the same fixed-length packet is received by the buffer, and the fixed-length packets are included in the fixed-length packet.

In this embodiment, the fixed length packet generation is performed by the wireless base station device. However, since it is sufficient if the packet has a fixed length when it is sent out to the packet communication network which is the wired communication section, the fixed length packet generation function is installed in the wireless terminal gateway device instead of the wireless base station device, and in the upstream communication, Even if each packet is configured to have a fixed length when passing through the public wireless network and entering the wireless base station, and the wireless base station only terminates the wireless and transfers the packet to the packet communication network, Produce an effect.

FIG. 5 is a flow-based queue processing unit (404 and 409) and a transmission priority control unit (405 and 408) in the wireless terminal gateway apparatus of FIG. 3, and a flow-based queue processing unit in the wireless base station of FIG. (504 and 509) and the transmission priority control section (505 and 508) are commonly used.

The per-flow queue processing unit 601 and the transmission priority control unit 602 are connected to each other via four FIFOs. The data input from 603 is analyzed by the packet identification circuit 604, output from 607 to 610 in descending order of priority, and temporarily stored in FIFO1 to FIFO4.

Here, the priority can be known by comparing the information for identifying the flow such as the communication partner written in the header of the data with each entry of the flow identification information column 651 of the packet priority information table 650. It can be understood that the currently processed data may be written in the FIFO on the right side of the matched entry, that is, the FIFO indicated in the FIFO number column 652. In this example, FIFO1 has the highest priority, and FIFO2 and FIFO3 have lower priorities. Packet data belonging to the flows A, B, and C is FIFO1, 2,
3 are stored correspondingly. FIFO at 651
If the entry in the flow identification information column corresponding to 4 is “*”, it means that the entry matches all the flows.
51 is compared from the upper entry, and the packet data that does not match any of A, B, and C matches this entry, and the corresponding data is stored in the FIFO 4. Also, the same FIFO number can be registered in the FIFO number column 652. In that case, they are the same F
It is stored in the IFO and has the same priority. For example, 6
At 51, the value which is "1, 2, 3, 4" from the top is "1, 2,
1, 4 ”, the flows A and C are stored in the FIFO 1 as having the highest priority together. At this time, no packet is stored in the FIFO 3,
Virtually unused.

The value of each entry of the packet priority identification table 650 is set in advance by a network administrator or the like locally or remotely using a network management system or the like. The FIFO selection circuit 605 is
It is activated at every time interval T for the priority control shown in FIG. 2, and all the data accumulated in the FIFO1 is discharged to the output 620, and then the data accumulated in the FIFO2 is outputted.
Exhale to 20. Next, the data stored in the FIFO3 and the FIFO4 are similarly discharged to the output 620. As a result, the sorting according to the priority of the input packet shown in FIG. 2B can be realized. Here, the packet identification circuit manages the amount of data accumulated in each FIFO,
The value is sent via the signal line 619 to the FIFO selection circuit 605.
Be transmitted to. Therefore, the FIFO selection circuit 605 knows how many packets should be read from each FIFO based on the value. In this configuration example, four FIFOs are prepared,
Although the priority can be set up to four levels, it is of course possible to set a finer priority by increasing the number of FIFOs.

Up to this point, the format of the fixed length packet has not been concretely shown, but as shown in FIG. 2, the method of removing the header of each input packet and putting only the data in the fixed length packet is available. Conceivable. In this case, the original data size and delimiter shall be stored in the header of the fixed length packet.

FIG. 6 shows another format of a fixed length packet. That is, the source packet (original packet) mounted in the fixed-length packet is used as it is with the header information, and the beginning is stored in the header portion of the fixed-length packet. Here, padding data is inserted at the end as needed in order to make the size of the fixed length packet. This format is used when a packet arrives at the partner radio base station and the original packet is reproduced (priority packet reception / termination processing unit 510 in FIG. 4).
Work), the advantage that all that is needed is to take out the original packet loaded in the fixed length packet.

FIG. 7 is a diagram corresponding to FIG. 2 when the fixed length packet format of FIG. 6 is used. FIG. 7 (1) shows a packet that arrived during the time interval T for priority control. First, the packets are sorted as shown in FIG. Here, it is assumed that the packet has a higher priority in the order of A, B, and C. Finally, as shown in FIG. 7C, the original packets sorted into fixed-length packets are mounted and transferred. Here, if the packet transfer partners are the same wireless base station, the same fixed-length packet may be loaded with original packets having different priorities. In this example, A and B
Packet is supposed to be delivered to the same radio base station. Therefore, the fixed length packet 801 at the right end of FIG.
Contains the original packets A1, A2, A3 and B1
Will be installed. Further, since C is a packet to a wireless base station different from A and B, or to a partner in a packet communication network, it must be mounted in another fixed-length packet. Therefore, even if the fixed-length packet 802 still has a space for mounting the original packet, C1 is not mounted therein, padding data is filled, and packets after C1 are mounted in a new fixed-length packet 803. To do so.

[Second Embodiment] It is also possible to consider a communication network in which there is no communication between the wireless terminal gateway device and the wireless base station shown in the first embodiment, that is, there is no public wireless network. Figure 9
The communication network shown in is an example. The wireless terminal gateway device here controls the relay between the wireless private network and the packet communication network. FIG. 9 shows an example of the functional blocks of the wireless terminal gateway device used in the communication network of FIG. The left side of the wireless base station shown in FIG. 4, that is, a partial block (50 for connecting to the public wireless packet network
1,502,503,507) is 1001, respectively
It has been changed to 1002, 1003, 1007. This corresponds to 401, 402, 403, and 407 in FIG. 4, respectively.

[0024]

As described above, according to the present invention,
Transferring packets from the wireless private network to the wired packet communication network according to priority, and vice versa,
By enabling packets from the wired packet communication network to be transferred to the wireless private network according to the priority, the communication of the wireless terminal in a certain wireless private network is given priority over the communication of other wireless terminals. It makes it possible. At this time, a public wireless communication network may or may not be interposed between the wireless private network and the wired packet communication network. Further, by making the packet flowing through the wired packet communication network a fixed length, it becomes possible to efficiently use the priority control method widely used in the wired packet communication network such as DiffServ.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a wireless terminal that communicates using a communication network configuration according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing how packets are sorted according to priority and then shaped into fixed-length packets according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram of a wireless terminal gateway device according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a configuration diagram of a radio base station according to the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a configuration diagram of a queue processor for each flow and a transmission priority control unit according to the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing another format of a fixed length packet.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing how packets are sorted according to priority when the fixed-length packet of FIG. 6 is used and then shaped into fixed-length packets.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing another embodiment of the communication network configuration according to the present invention.

9 is a configuration diagram of a wireless terminal gateway device used in FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

201, 202, 203, 211, 212 Wireless telephone (data) terminal 204, 210 Wireless terminal gateway device 205, 209 Wireless base station 206, 208 Router 207 Data center 220, 240 Wireless private network 251 Highest priority telephone traffic route 252 Data traffic Route 1 253 Data traffic Route 2 401, 412 Antenna 402 Private wireless packet network interface 403 Private wireless packet reception / termination processing unit 404, 409 Flow-specific queue processing unit 405, 408 Transmission priority control unit 406 Public wireless packet generation unit 407 Private wireless Packet generation unit 410 Public wireless packet reception / termination processing unit 411 Public wireless packet network interfaces 501 and 512 Antenna 502 Public wireless packet network interface Face 503 Public wireless packet reception / termination processing unit 504, 509 Flow-specific queue processing unit 505, 508 Transmission priority control unit 506 Fixed length packet generation unit 507 Public wireless packet generation unit 510 Wired packet reception / termination processing unit 511 Wired packet network interface 601 Queue processing unit for each flow 602 Transmission priority control unit 603 Data input 604 Packet identification circuit 605 FIFO selection circuit 650 Packet priority information table 651 Flow identification information 652 FIFO number 801, 802, 803 Fixed length packet 1001, 1012 Antenna 1002 Private wireless packet Network interface 1003 Private wireless packet reception / termination processing units 1004, 1009 Flow queue processing units 1005, 1008 Transmission priority control unit 1006 Fixed length packet Generation unit 1007 private wireless packet generation unit 1010 wired packet reception / termination processing unit 1011 wired packet network interface

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ identification code FI theme code (reference) H04Q 7/26 7/30 7/38 F term (reference) 5K033 AA01 CB17 CC01 DA01 DA05 DA17 EA03 5K067 AA23 AA33 CC08 EE10 EE16 HH17 HH21 JJ17

Claims (10)

[Claims] 1. Intermediating communication between a plurality of wireless communication terminals,
Configure a wireless private network that enables mutual communication,
In a wireless terminal gateway method that has an intermediary function when a wireless terminal in the corresponding wireless private network connects to an external communication network, each wireless terminal in the corresponding wireless private network communicates with the outside when communicating with the outside. Depending on the priority of the route, the communication packets sent from the inside to the outside in the upstream communication are transferred at fixed time intervals according to the priority and the transfer order is changed, and vice versa. A method for controlling a wireless terminal gateway device, comprising: interchanging transmission orders of communication packets sent in a downward communication from the inside to the inside at regular time intervals according to priority. 2. The method of controlling a wireless terminal gateway device according to claim 1, wherein the wireless terminal in the wireless private network is connected to an external communication network via a public wireless network. 3. The method for controlling a wireless terminal gateway device according to claim 1, wherein the communication packet transmitted to the uplink is a fixed length packet having a predetermined length. 4. Mediating communication between a plurality of wireless communication terminals,
Configure a wireless private network that enables mutual communication,
In a wireless terminal gateway device that has an intermediary function when a wireless terminal in the relevant wireless private network connects to an external communication network, each wireless terminal in the relevant wireless private network communicates with each other when communicating with the outside. Means for intermediary transfer of communication packets sent in uplink communication from the inside to the outside according to the priority of the route, changing the transmission order according to the priority at regular intervals, and vice versa. A wireless terminal gateway device comprising means for intermediary transfer of a communication packet sent by private downlink communication from the outside to the inside by changing the transmission order according to the priority at regular time intervals. 5. The wireless terminal gateway device according to claim 4, further comprising means for converting a communication packet to be transmitted to an uplink into a fixed length packet having a predetermined length. 6. A method of controlling a wireless base station device, which communicates with a wireless communication terminal via a wireless terminal gateway device to terminate wireless communication to mediate a wired communication network, wherein a communication packet from the wireless terminal gateway device is provided. Is sent to the wired communication network by changing the transmission order according to the priority at regular time intervals, and the wireless terminal gateway by changing the transmission order of communication packets from the wired communication network at constant time intervals according to the priority A method for controlling a wireless base station device, the method comprising transmitting to a device. 7. The method of controlling a radio base station apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the communication packet transmitted to the wired communication network is a fixed length packet having a predetermined length. 8. A wireless base station device that communicates with a wireless communication terminal via the wireless terminal gateway device to terminate wireless communication and mediate with a wired communication network, wherein a communication packet from the wireless terminal gateway device is fixed. Means for switching the transmission order according to the priority for each time and sending it to the wired communication network; and the wireless terminal gateway for switching the communication order from the wired communication network for the fixed time according to the priority And a means for transmitting the radio base station apparatus to the apparatus. 9. The radio base station apparatus according to claim 8, further comprising means for converting a packet transmitted to the wired communication network into a fixed length packet having a predetermined length. 10. The fixed-length packet is at least one source packet or a part of the source packet, and the fixed-length packet uses the source packet including a packet header as new data as it is and at least one of the data. 9. The radio base station apparatus according to claim 8, wherein a new packet header for a fixed length packet is provided in a part of the data, and the header has information for extracting the original packet data.