JP2003348630A - Information distribution apparatus and information distribution method - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an information distribution apparatus for downloading required information by using an onboard wireless device from an information distribution center so as to allow the onboard wireless device to simply update map information. <P>SOLUTION: The information of onboard wireless devices being the distribution destinations of contents is registered in a user DB 14 by each user ID. When receiving user identification information, a contents distribution request and a distribution-desired end time denoting the degree of emergency of distribution from a user terminal via a communication section 17, a CPU 11 acquires the information of the onboard wireless device corresponding to the user identification information from the user DB 14 and decides the priority when a wireless base station transmits the contents to the onboard wireless device on the basis of the distribution-desired end time. Then the CPU 11 transmits, via a communication section 17, the requested contents and the priority to the onboard wireless device designated as a distribution destination of the contents. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an information distribution apparatus and an information distribution method for distributing information to an in-vehicle wireless device installed in a vehicle.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, there is a navigation system as a technique for assisting a driver so that a vehicle can be moved comfortably and smoothly. This navigation system
It measures the position and direction of the vehicle by GPS (Global Positioning System) and displays the information on the map information read out from the CD-ROM as necessary to guide the vehicle to the destination. is there.

[0003]

However, when road conditions change due to regional development or road condition improvement, it is necessary to replace a CD-ROM or the like in order to update map information. Was troublesome.

[0004] In addition, the user often listens to music while the vehicle is running. Conventionally, a CD (Compact) storing music data is used.
Discs and MDs (Mini Discs) had to be brought into the vehicle, so there were many inconveniences, such as difficulty in placing the recording media and troublesome replacement of the recording media.

The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and an information distribution system and an information distribution system capable of easily updating map information and the like by downloading necessary information from an information distribution center by a vehicle-mounted wireless device. The purpose is to provide a distribution method. Further, the present invention provides an information distribution apparatus capable of controlling communication between a base station and a radio apparatus in accordance with the urgency of distribution of information to be acquired, thereby eliminating an increase in radio traffic and effectively allocating radio channels. And an information distribution method.

[0006]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a user database in which information of a mobile radio device to which a content is to be distributed is registered for each user identification information; Receiving means for receiving the user identification information, the content distribution request, and the desired distribution end time of the content from the user, and the distribution destination acquiring means for acquiring the information of the mobile radio apparatus corresponding to the user identification information from the user database The service area to which the mobile radio device belongs based on the desired distribution end time of the content, the average communication speed of the mobile radio device notified from a radio base station, and the data amount of the content. When the radio base station transmits content requested to be distributed to the mobile radio device, the radio base station transmits the content to another mobile radio device. Compared to the content you are requesting,
Priority determining means for determining a priority indicating how much priority is to be distributed; and for the wireless base station, the priority, the content requested to be distributed, and the distribution destination of the content. A transmitting unit for transmitting information on the mobile radio apparatus;

[0007] As described above, by directly distributing the content to the mobile radio device registered in advance, the burden on the user for updating data and the like can be reduced.
Further, the priority is determined according to the desired distribution end time, the average communication speed, and the data amount of the content to be distributed, so that the priority can be set accurately. In addition, since the communication speed is adjusted in accordance with the accurately set priority, that is, band allocation, channel allocation, and the like are performed, wireless channels can be used effectively, and content can be efficiently distributed. Become. Note that the base station may adjust the channel to be allocated to each wireless device based on the priority.

[0008] The invention described in claim 2 is the first invention.
Wherein the priority determining means calculates an estimated distribution end time of the content based on the average communication speed and a data amount of the content, and calculates the calculated estimated distribution end time and the distribution request. A margin is obtained based on the end time, and a priority is determined according to the margin.

As described above, the estimated distribution end time is calculated based on the average communication speed and the data amount of the content, and the calculated estimated distribution end time is earlier than the desired distribution end time specified by the user. , The radio base station uses the priority to determine the communication speed (specifically, the bandwidth or channel to be allocated to the content distribution) for distributing the content in time for the desired distribution end time. Can be adjusted. Thereby, the user's wish can be satisfied.

[0010] The invention described in claim 3 is the first invention.
Alternatively, in the information distribution device according to claim 2, when the mobile radio device to which the content is to be distributed is moving, the priority determining means is more preferable than the priority for the non-moving mobile radio device. A high priority is set.

[0011] While the vehicle is moving, the communication speed may fluctuate every moment, so that the communication state may be deteriorated. In such a case, the line may be disconnected. For this reason, by setting a high priority to the mobile radio device provided in the moving vehicle,
Consideration will be given to good communication even while moving.
Whether the mobile station is moving or not can be determined based on a change in the base station with which communication is being performed.

Further, the present invention provides a process of receiving user identification information, a content distribution request, and a desired distribution end time from a user terminal, and a mobile radio device serving as a content distribution destination for each user identification information. From the list in which the information is registered, the step of obtaining information on the mobile radio device corresponding to the user identification information received from the user terminal, the desired distribution end time of the content, and a notification from the radio base station. A wireless base station that controls a service area to which the mobile wireless device belongs based on the average communication speed of the mobile wireless device and the data amount of the content, When transmitting, how much priority should be given to distributing the content compared to the content requested by other mobile wireless devices. Determining the priority, and transmitting, to the radio base station, the priority, the content requested to be distributed, and information on the mobile radio device to which the content is distributed. An information distribution method is provided.

[0013]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. In this embodiment, a case will be described in which an in-vehicle wireless device is applied as a mobile wireless device.

(1) System Configuration of Wireless Communication System FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a system configuration of a wireless communication system according to an embodiment of the present invention. In FIG.
A, 1B,... Are various communication terminals (hereinafter, referred to as user terminals) such as personal computers and mobile communication terminals, respectively, and are connected to the Internet 4 through telephone lines, wireless lines, and the like. Here, the user terminals 1A, 1B
Has a display unit for displaying messages and screens, and an input unit such as a keyboard and a mouse for inputting information,
An application program of a WWW browser that can receive services on the Internet is installed. Reference numeral 10 denotes an information distribution device, which is connected to the Internet 4 via a telephone line.
A content distribution request or the like is received from the user terminals 1A and 1B via the Internet 4, and a content specified from the content of the content distribution request is transmitted to a predetermined content distribution destination via the Internet.

Reference numeral 20 denotes an on-vehicle wireless device.
The wireless communication system includes a wireless unit 21 for receiving information via a wireless base station (for example, the wireless base station 3B), and a storage device 22 for storing data received by the wireless unit 21.

(2) Configuration of Information Distribution Apparatus 10 Next, the configuration of the information distribution apparatus 10 according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 2 shows the information distribution apparatus 10.
FIG. In the figure, the CPU (Central
The Processing Unit 11 is connected to each of the other components as shown in the figure to control the entire operation of the information distribution device 10. ROM (Read Only Memory) 12
Stores a program to be executed by the CPU 11, and specifically stores a program or the like that defines processing of the CPU 11 in the operation description to be described later. RAM
(Random Access Memory) 13 stores various information used in the arithmetic processing of the CPU 11.

The user database 14 (hereinafter referred to as a user DB 14) distributes contents in addition to basic information such as a password, name, address, telephone number, and mail address for each user ID for identifying each user. A user file in which information of a transmission destination to be transmitted, for example, a telephone number and a mail address of the wireless unit 21 of the in-vehicle wireless device 20 is stored.

The accounting database 15 (hereinafter, accounting DB1)
5), charging information is stored in association with each user. This billing information is stored in the information distribution device 1
0 determines the amount to be charged to the user based on the amount of information of the content provided to the user based on a predetermined fee system, and uses the total amount as the charging information.

The content database 16 (hereinafter, referred to as the content DB 16) stores content data for each content ID and various information related to the content provider.

The above various databases 14 to 16
Is a non-volatile memory such as a hard disk device, a magneto-optical disk device, a flash memory, or a RAM (Random A
ccessMemory) or a computer-readable and writable recording medium using a combination thereof.

(3) Operation of Information Distribution Apparatus 10 Next, the operation of the information distribution apparatus 10 according to the present invention will be described. First, communication performed between the user terminal 1A and the information distribution device 10 will be described with reference to FIG.
First, the user of the user terminal 1A inputs a user ID and a password and transmits them to the information distribution device 10 (step SP1 in FIG. 3). By such an operation, the information distribution device 1
The communication unit 17 of “0” receives the user ID and the password transmitted through the Internet 4. Subsequently, the communication unit 17 outputs this information to the CPU 11. CPU11
Acquires from the user DB 14 the user file specified by the received user ID. Then, the user authentication is performed by determining whether or not the received combination of the user ID and the password matches the combination registered in the user file (step SP2). As a result,
When the user is authenticated by matching the two, access from the user terminal 1A is permitted.

Subsequently, the user inputs a content ID desired to be distributed from the user terminal 1A, and transmits this content ID to the information distribution device 10 (step SP).
3). By such an operation, the content ID is supplied to the CPU 11 via the communication unit 17 of the information distribution device 10.
Subsequently, the CPU 11 determines the supplied content ID,
Information on the content transmission destination (for example, the mail address of the in-vehicle wireless device 20 as the transmission destination) is acquired from the user file acquired in step SP2, and the information is stored in a predetermined memory area of the RAM 13 in association with the information ( Step SP4).

Next, the CPU 11 acquires from the content DB 16 the distribution fee of the content specified by the content ID registered in step SP4, and transmits this distribution fee to the user terminal 1A. Thereby, the distribution fee is displayed on the display unit of the user terminal 1A. After confirming the displayed distribution fee, the user subsequently inputs the desired distribution end time of the content and transmits it to the information distribution device 10 (step SP5). Thereby, the desired distribution end time is output to CPU 11 of information distribution device 10 via communication unit 17.

The CPU 11 registers the desired distribution end time in association with the information stored in the RAM 13 in step SP4 (step SP6). As a result, RA
In M13, a content ID, information on a content distribution destination, and a desired distribution end time are stored in association with each other. Thus, the registration of the content distribution ends. When the registration is completed, the CPU 11 notifies the user terminal 1A of the completion of the registration, and thereafter disconnects the line.

Next, the CPU 11 of the information distribution device 10
The content is delivered to the content delivery destination registered in the RAM 13 (step SP7). As a result, the contents can be transmitted to the vehicle
Is transmitted to the base station 3B that manages the zone where there is, and the content is transmitted to the in-vehicle wireless device 20 via the wireless base station 3B. And the in-vehicle wireless device 20
The content received by the wireless unit 21 is stored in the storage device 22.

Next, communication performed between the information distribution apparatus 10 and the radio base station 3B during the period of content distribution will be described with reference to FIGS.
The processing shown in FIG. 4 is processing that is repeatedly performed at predetermined intervals.

For example, it is now assumed that the radio base station 3B is transmitting content distributed from the information distribution device 10 to the on-vehicle radio devices 20A to 20D as shown in FIG. In this case, the wireless base station 3B measures the downlink data communication speed to each of the on-vehicle wireless devices 20A to 20D, calculates the average communication speed for each predetermined period, and notifies the information distribution device 10 of the calculation result (FIG. 4 step SP11).

When the communication section 17 of the information distribution device 10 receives the average communication speed of each of the on-vehicle radio devices 20A to 20D from the radio base station 3B, it outputs this information to the CPU 11. Based on the notified average communication speed and the undistributed content data amount at this time, the CPU 11
The content distribution end time is estimated for each in-vehicle wireless device (step SP12). The estimated time obtained as a result is shown in FIG. Here, the estimated time of the on-vehicle wireless device 20A is the earliest, and the estimated time of the on-vehicle wireless device 20B is the latest. Also, the in-vehicle wireless device 20
The estimated times of C and 20D are the same.

Subsequently, the CPU 11 calculates a difference between the estimated time and the desired distribution end time registered in step SP6 of FIG. 3 (step SP13), and calculates the difference between the calculation result and the radio base station 3B in step SP12. The margin is calculated by multiplying by the notified average communication speed (step SP14). The desired delivery end time for each in-vehicle wireless device is as shown in FIG. Here, assuming that the average communication speeds notified from the wireless base stations are all equal, each of the on-vehicle wireless devices 20A to 20A
As can be seen from FIG. 5A, the margin of 20D is obtained as follows. 20A>20C>20D> 20B

Next, priorities are determined in descending order of the margin obtained in step SP14, and the priorities are determined by the radio base station 3B.
(Step SP15). Here, the priority is set higher as the margin is lower. That is, the in-vehicle wireless device 20D having the lowest margin has the highest priority, while the in-vehicle wireless device 20A having the highest margin has the lowest priority. That is, each in-vehicle wireless device 2
The priorities of 0A to 20D have the following relationship. 20B>20D>20C> 20A

When the radio base station 3B receives the priority as shown in FIG. 5B from the information distribution device 10, based on the priority, each of the on-vehicle radio devices 20A under its own control.
Band allocation is performed for 〜20D. As a result, as shown in FIG. 5B, a band based on the priority is allocated to each vehicle-mounted wireless device. In other words, the band with the highest priority is assigned to the in-vehicle wireless device 20B, and the bandwidth with the lowest priority is assigned to the in-vehicle wireless device 20A. In this way, when the distribution of the content ends, the information distribution device 10 notifies the corresponding user terminal that the distribution of the content has been completed, and reflects the distribution fee of the content in the charging DB. The distribution fee is the same as the amount presented to the user. On the other hand, when the content transmission has failed, the information distribution device 10 notifies the communication terminal of the failure.

The process shown in FIG. 4 may be performed at regular intervals, or may be performed when a new in-vehicle wireless device for communication appears.

While the average communication speed of the on-board wireless device provided in a stopped car is always constant, the average communication speed of the on-board wireless device provided in a running car changes every moment. I do. Therefore, when the above-described processing shown in FIG. 4 is not performed at regular intervals, the priority for the on-vehicle wireless device provided in the traveling vehicle is higher than the priority determined in step SP15. By setting, it is possible to perform content distribution that satisfies the user's desired distribution end time even if the communication state deteriorates during traveling. The determination as to whether or not the vehicle is running can be made by switching the base station that is communicating with the in-vehicle wireless device. This can be recognized by the information distribution apparatus 10 receiving information on base station switching from the center managing the base station. Instead of the above method, the in-vehicle wireless device may notify the center that it is moving.

Further, steps SP12 to SP12 shown in FIG.
The process of P15, that is, the process of setting the priority, may be performed by the base station itself. This corresponds to step SP12
Each of the wireless base stations may be provided with a program corresponding to .about.SP15, and the program may be realized by executing the program by the CPU of the wireless base station. As described above, if the base station can set the priority and perform the content transmission based on the priority, the operation related to the content distribution can be completed only by the wireless base station. Processing can be performed smoothly.

The information downloaded from the information distribution apparatus 10 includes, for example, music content reproduced by a vehicle-mounted music reproduction player or the like, map information of a vehicle-mounted car navigation system, and the like. Further, by making such a content distribution request from the user terminal, it is possible to make a content distribution request even from a place away from the vehicle. In addition, since the desired distribution end time can be set together with the content distribution request, if the content is required immediately, the distribution desired end time is set to an earlier time. By setting the desired distribution end time to a sufficient time, it is possible to control the distribution of the content according to the degree of urgency.

The embodiment of the present invention has been described in detail with reference to the drawings. However, the specific configuration is not limited to this embodiment, and includes a design and the like without departing from the gist of the present invention. It is.

[0037]

As described above, according to the information distribution apparatus and the information distribution method of the present invention, the content can be directly distributed to the mobile radio apparatus registered in advance, so that the burden on the user for updating data and the like is increased. Can be reduced. The priority determination unit determines the priority based on the desired distribution end time, the average communication speed of the mobile radio device notified from the radio base station, and the data amount of the content. Band allocation, channel allocation, and the like can be performed more accurately, and content distribution according to priority can be performed efficiently.

Further, according to the information distribution apparatus of the present invention, the distribution end time of the content is estimated based on the average communication speed and the data amount of the content, and the distribution end time is estimated based on the estimated distribution end time and the desired distribution end time. Since the margin is determined and the priority is determined according to the margin, the radio base station can adjust the communication speed for distributing the content in time for the desired distribution end time based on the priority. Becomes Thereby, the user's wish can be satisfied.

Further, according to the information distribution system of the present invention, when the mobile radio device to which the content is to be distributed is moving, the priority determining means determines the priority of the non-moving mobile radio device. Higher priority than
Communication can be performed favorably even while moving.

[Brief description of the drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is an electrical configuration diagram of the information distribution apparatus 10 according to the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of the information distribution apparatus 10 according to the embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the information distribution device 10 in the embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a diagram for explaining the concept of priority;

[Explanation of symbols]

10 Information distribution device 1A, 1B user terminal 3A, 3B wireless base station 4 Internet 20 In-vehicle wireless device (mobile wireless device) 21 Radio section 22 Storage 11 CPU (delivery destination acquisition means, priority determination means) 12 ROM 13 RAM 14 User database (user DB) 15 Charging database (charging DB) 16 Content Database (Content DB) 17 Communication unit (receiving means, transmitting means)

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A user database in which information of a mobile radio device to which content is to be distributed is registered for each user identification information, user identification information from a user terminal, a content distribution request, and a content distribution request. Receiving means for receiving an end time; distribution destination acquiring means for acquiring information on the mobile radio device corresponding to the user identification information from the user database; and a desired distribution end time for the content, and a notification from the radio base station. A wireless base station that controls a service area to which the mobile wireless device belongs based on the average communication speed of the mobile wireless device and the data amount of the content. When transmitting to a mobile device, how much priority is given to the content relative to the content requested by other mobile wireless devices. Priority determining means for determining a priority indicating whether to distribute the content, for the radio base station, for the priority, for the content requested to be distributed, and for the mobile radio device to which the content is distributed An information distribution apparatus comprising: a transmission unit that transmits information. 2. The priority determining means calculates an estimated distribution end time of the content based on the average communication speed and a data amount of the content, and calculates the estimated distribution end time and the desired distribution end time. The information distribution system according to claim 1, wherein a margin is obtained based on the margin, and a priority is determined according to the margin. 3. The method according to claim 1, wherein when the mobile wireless device serving as the content distribution destination is moving, the priority determining unit sets a higher priority than the priority of the mobile wireless device that has not moved. The method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein
An information distribution device according to claim 1. 4. A process of receiving user identification information, a content distribution request, and a desired content distribution end time from a user terminal, and registering information of a mobile radio device to be a content distribution destination for each user identification information. Obtaining the information of the mobile radio device corresponding to the user identification information received from the user terminal from the list that has been transmitted, and the desired distribution end time of the content, and the mobile terminal notified from the radio base station. The average communication speed of the wireless device, based on the data amount of the content, when the wireless base station that has jurisdiction over the service area to which the mobile wireless device belongs, transmits the content requested for distribution to the mobile wireless device. Priority, which indicates how much priority the content is distributed over content requested by other mobile radio devices. And transmitting, to the wireless base station, the priority, the content requested to be distributed, and information on the mobile wireless device to which the content is distributed. Information distribution method to be.