JP2007005883A - Wireless communication system, wireless communication terminal, and method for acquiring wireless communication quality information - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a wireless communication system in which signal quality information indicative of the quality of a signal under actual use environment of a wireless communication terminal can be acquired over the entire communication area, and also to provide a wireless communication terminal, and a method for acquiring wireless communication quality information. <P>SOLUTION: A terminal 10 communicates with a partner terminal 50 through a basic station 20. The terminal 10 comprises a section 14 for acquiring information indicative of the quality of a signal transmitted from the basic station 20, and a section 13 for acquiring positional information of the terminal 10. When a user terminates telephone conversation at an operating section 15 (on hook), or when termination of telephone conversation is requested from the partner terminal 50, a control section 17 transmits the signal quality information acquired at the signal quality information acquiring section 14 and the positional information acquired at the positional information acquiring section 13, to a management unit 30 through the basic station 20. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a radio communication system that controls communication between radio communication terminal apparatuses performed via a base station, a radio communication terminal apparatus used in the radio communication system, and a radio communication quality information acquisition method.

  2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in a wireless communication system that controls communication performed between a mobile phone, a simple mobile phone (PHS: Personal Handyphone System), a car phone, and other wireless communication terminal devices, between the wireless communication terminal device and the base station. In order to measure wireless quality, it was necessary to use dedicated equipment. The dedicated equipment includes a terminal device corresponding to a wireless communication terminal device carried by the user, a position detection device that detects the position of the terminal device, a signal output from the terminal device, and a detection result of the position detection device. And an analysis device for analyzing the radio wave quality at the position where the terminal device is arranged. Then, the dedicated equipment is mounted on the vehicle and moved, and the radio quality in the communication area of the base station is measured by detecting the radio wave quality at various positions.

Further, in Patent Document 1 below, when a wireless communication terminal device existing within a communication area of a certain base station moves out of the communication area of the base station, the connection with the base station is adjacent. Each wireless communication terminal device at the time when control (so-called handover or handoff) for switching to a connection with another base station is performed or when the wireless communication terminal device exists at the boundary of the communication area of the base station Discloses a technique for obtaining wireless quality by collecting quality information indicating wireless quality and position information indicating the position of the wireless communication terminal device.
JP 2004-274313 A

  By the way, in order to measure the wireless quality using the dedicated equipment described above, a dedicated equipment is required, and an operator who measures the wireless quality using the equipment is required, which is costly. There was a problem. In addition, there is a problem that measurement of wireless quality over the entire communication area of the base station is difficult in terms of cost. Further, the wireless quality measured by this method is measured in an environment different from the environment in which the user actually uses the wireless communication terminal device, and does not include a temporal element due to the influence of traffic or the like. Therefore, it is practically impossible to measure the radio quality in the environment used by the actual user.

  Further, in the technique disclosed in Patent Document 1 above, quality information is obtained at the time of handover or when the wireless communication terminal device is located at the boundary of the communication area. For this reason, only the quality information of a specific area such as the vicinity of the boundary of the communication area is collected, and there is a problem that the quality information in the entire communication area cannot be collected.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and a wireless communication system capable of acquiring signal quality information indicating the quality of a signal under the actual use environment of the wireless communication terminal device over the entire communication area, An object of the present invention is to provide a wireless communication terminal apparatus and a wireless communication quality information acquisition method.

In order to solve the above-described problem, a wireless communication system according to the present invention controls wireless communication performed between a wireless communication terminal apparatus and a wireless base station, and receives the wireless base station received by the wireless communication terminal apparatus In a wireless communication system that collects signal quality information indicating the quality of a signal from the wireless communication system and manages the quality information by a management device, the wireless communication terminal device obtains signal quality information of a signal transmitted from the wireless base station. Signal quality information acquisition means to acquire, position information acquisition means for acquiring position information of the wireless communication terminal device when the signal quality information acquisition means acquires the signal quality information, and signal quality information acquisition means Information output means for outputting the signal quality information acquired in the step and the position information acquired by the position information acquisition means, and the management device includes the information output means The signal quality information and the location information output from the radio base station are acquired, the signal quality information and the location information are managed, and the signal quality information acquisition means is configured to transmit the radio communication terminal device. The signal quality information is acquired when the wireless communication is terminated with a communication termination operation at or when the wireless communication is terminated with a communication termination operation on the communication partner side.
The radio communication system according to the present invention further comprises quality information output selection means for selecting whether the signal quality information acquisition means can acquire the signal quality information or whether the information output means can output the signal quality information. It is said.
In order to solve the above-described problem, a radio communication terminal apparatus according to the present invention performs radio communication with a radio base station and transmits signal quality information indicating the quality of a signal transmitted from the radio base station to the radio base station. In the wireless communication terminal device that transmits to the management device via the signal quality information acquisition means for acquiring the signal quality information of the signal transmitted from the wireless base station, and the signal quality information acquisition means Information output for outputting position information acquisition means for acquiring position information at the time of acquisition, the signal quality information acquired by the signal quality information acquisition means, and the position information acquired by the position information acquisition means The signal quality information acquisition means is provided when the wireless communication is terminated with a communication termination operation or when the wireless communication is terminated with a communication termination operation on the communication partner side. It is characterized by obtaining signal quality information.
The radio communication terminal apparatus of the present invention further comprises quality information output selection means for selecting whether the signal quality information acquisition means can acquire the signal quality information or the information output means can output the signal quality information. It is a feature.
In order to solve the above problems, a wireless communication quality information acquisition method of the present invention is a wireless communication quality information acquisition method for acquiring signal quality information indicating the quality of a signal transmitted from a wireless base station to a wireless communication terminal device. The wireless communication is terminated when the wireless communication between the wireless base station and the wireless communication terminal apparatus is terminated with the communication termination operation at the wireless communication terminal apparatus or with the communication termination operation on the communication partner side. Sometimes the first step of acquiring the signal quality information, the second step of acquiring the position information of the wireless communication terminal device when the signal quality information is acquired, and the signal acquired in the first step And a third step of transmitting the quality information and the position information acquired in the second step to the management apparatus via the radio base station.
The wireless communication quality information acquisition method of the present invention includes a fourth step of selecting whether to acquire the signal quality information in the first step or to output the signal quality information in the second step. Yes.

  According to the present invention, the signal quality information indicating the quality of the signal from the radio base station and the position information of the radio communication terminal apparatus when the signal quality information is acquired are acquired by the radio communication terminal apparatus, and the radio communication terminal apparatus The signal quality information and the position information acquired when the wireless communication with the wireless base station is ended with the communication end operation in the communication, or when the wireless communication is ended with the communication end operation on the communication partner side. The data is transmitted to the management apparatus via the radio base station and acquired by the management apparatus. For this reason, there is an effect that the signal quality information in the actual use environment of the wireless communication terminal apparatus can be acquired over the entire communication area.

  Hereinafter, a wireless communication system, a wireless communication terminal device, and a wireless communication quality information acquisition method according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a main configuration of a wireless communication system and a wireless communication terminal device according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1, the wireless communication system of this embodiment includes a terminal 10 as a wireless communication terminal device, a base station 20 as a wireless base station, a management device 30, and a base station 40 and a terminal 50. The

  The base station 20, the management device 30, and the base station 40 are connected to each other via the network N. The terminal 50 is assumed to be a terminal carried by the communication partner of the user of the terminal 10, and the base station 40 is arranged at a position closest to the terminal 50 among a plurality of base stations constituting the wireless communication system. Suppose that it is a base station. In addition, a plurality of terminals may be connected to the base stations 20 and 40. Here, for simplicity, one terminal 10 is connected to the base station 20, and one terminal 50 is connected to the base station 40. It shall be connected.

  The terminal 10 is, for example, a mobile phone, a PHS, a car phone, or a notebook personal computer. In the present embodiment, a case where the terminal 10 is a PHS will be described as an example. The terminal 10 performs wireless communication with the base station 20, and signals transmitted / received by the wireless communication are transmitted / received to / from the base station 40 via the network N, and the terminal 50 is wireless with the base station 40. Communication is performed between the terminal 10 and the terminal 50 by performing communication.

  The terminal 10 includes an antenna 11, a wireless communication unit 12, a position information acquisition unit 13, a signal quality information acquisition unit 14, an operation unit 15, a display unit 16, and a control unit 17. Although not shown in the figure, a microphone unit that converts the voice of the user of the terminal 10 into a voice signal and a speaker unit that converts the voice signal into voice are also provided. The antenna 11 receives a radio wave transmitted from the base station 20 and transmits a signal to be transmitted to the base station 20 on the radio wave. The radio communication unit 12 performs various processes such as demodulation of a signal received by the antenna 11, modulation of a signal to be transmitted to the base station 20, and frequency conversion, and a base station that is performed via the antenna 11. Control communication with 20.

  The position information acquisition unit 13 acquires position information indicating the position of the terminal 10. Specifically, the position information acquisition unit 13 has a GPS (Global Positioning System) function, and acquires the position information of the terminal 10 by this GPS function. Note that the function of the position information acquisition unit 13 is not limited to the GPS function, and may be a function of obtaining the position information of the terminal 10 from the relationship between the strengths of radio waves transmitted from a plurality of base stations. It is possible to provide a function for obtaining position information.

  The signal quality information acquisition unit 14 acquires signal quality information (for example, carrier power to noise power ratio (CN ratio)) indicating the quality of the signal transmitted from the base station 20. The signal quality information of the signal from the base station 20 may be a signal-to-noise ratio (SN ratio) or the like in addition to the above CN ratio. The operation unit 15 includes various keys operated by the user such as a call key, an end key, a numeric keypad, and a soft key, and outputs an operation signal corresponding to the operation content to the control unit 17. The display unit 16 includes a display device such as a liquid crystal display device or an organic EL display device, and includes an operation state and a communication state of the terminal device 10, operation information indicating the operation content of the operation unit 15 by the user, mail text, and the like. Displays various information.

  The control unit 17 controls the operation of the terminal 10. Specifically, during a call, control is performed to output a voice signal converted in a microphone unit (not shown) to the radio communication unit 12 and transmit the signal to the base station 20 and receive the signal from the antenna 11 to receive the radio communication unit 12. The reception signal output from is output to a speaker unit (not shown). In addition, when the user ends the call by operating the call end key provided on the operation unit 15 (when on-hook) or when there is a call end request from the communication partner terminal 50, the control unit 17 The signal quality information acquired by the quality information acquisition unit 14 and the position information acquired by the position information acquisition unit 13 are transmitted to the base station 20 via the wireless communication unit 12 and the antenna 11. Whether or not to transmit these pieces of information may be set in advance by the user, or an inquiry may be made to the user every time the information is transmitted. Since the terminal 50 has the same configuration as that of the terminal 10, the description of the configuration of the terminal 50 is omitted.

  The base station 20 relays communication performed between the terminal 10 and the terminal 50 by performing wireless communication with the terminal 10 and, when the terminal 10 moves out of the communication area, the terminal 10 handovers are performed. In addition, the base station 20 includes a device having the same function as the signal quality information acquisition unit 14 provided in the terminal 10, and signal quality information (for example, carrier power) indicating the quality of the signal transmitted from the terminal 10. To noise power ratio (CN ratio)). Note that the base station 40 has the same configuration as the base station 20, and thus the description of the configuration of the base station 40 is omitted.

  The management device 30 collects signal quality information and position information transmitted from each terminal (terminal 10 or the like), acquires signal quality information over the entire communication area, and manages the distribution of signal quality over the entire communication area. To do. The management device 30 includes a location information calculation device 31, a quality management server 32, and a GIS (Geographical Information System) tool 33.

  The position information calculation device 31 calculates the position of each terminal based on the position information transmitted from each of the terminals including the terminal 10. The GIS tool 33 has, for example, map information for all of Japan, and when the position information is specified, the map information around the position indicated by the specified position information is output. The quality management server 32 passes the position calculated by the position information calculation device 31 to the GIS tool 33, obtains map information centered on the position, and superimposes and associates the collected signal quality information with the position. Thus, the distribution of signal quality over the entire communication area is managed.

  The quality management server 32 is configured to control wireless communication using a wireless base station corresponding to the communication area according to the signal quality over the entire communication area based on the acquired signal quality information and position information. Has been. For example, in a certain communication area, when an undesired signal quality distribution ratio that is less than or equal to a predetermined level is greater than or equal to a predetermined ratio, the service at the radio base station corresponding to the communication area is stopped, etc. Control (restrict) wireless communication by

  The configuration of the wireless communication system and the wireless communication terminal device according to this embodiment has been described above. Next, the wireless communication quality information acquisition method according to this embodiment will be described. 2 and 3 are timing charts showing a wireless communication quality information acquisition method according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a timing chart when a call is ended by operating a call end key provided on the terminal 10 (on hook), and FIG. 3 is a timing when a call end request is received from the terminal 50 of the communication partner. It is a chart. Hereinafter, the timing charts shown in FIGS. 2 and 3 will be described in order.

[Operation when the terminal 10 ends the call]
First, in a state where the terminal 10 is located in the call area of the base station 20 and the terminal 50 is located in the call area of the base station 40, as shown in FIG. It is assumed that a telephone call is being made (step S11). In this state, when the user of the terminal 10 operates the end call key provided in the operation unit 15 to enter the on-hook state (step S12), the signal quality information acquisition unit 14 of the terminal 10 transmits a signal transmitted from the base station 20 The signal quality information indicating the quality of the signal is acquired, and the position information acquisition unit 13 acquires the position information at the time when the signal quality information acquisition unit 14 acquires the signal quality information.

  The signal quality information acquired by the signal quality information acquisition unit 14 and the position information acquired by the position information acquisition unit 13 are output to the control unit 17. The control unit 17 outputs these pieces of information to the wireless transmission unit 12 and transmits the information to the base station 20 via the antenna 11 (step S13). When receiving the signal quality information and the position information from the terminal 10, the base station 20 acquires the signal quality information indicating the quality of the signal transmitted from the terminal 10, and the acquired signal quality together with the received signal quality information and the position information. Information is sent to the network N (step S14).

  In the following description, in order to distinguish between the signal quality information acquired by the terminal 10 and the signal quality information acquired by the base station 20, the signal quality information acquired by the terminal 10 (the signal transmitted from the base station 20). The information indicating quality) is referred to as “base station signal quality information”, and the signal quality information acquired by the base station 20 (information indicating the quality of the signal transmitted from the terminal 10) is referred to as “terminal signal quality information”.

  Base station signal quality information, position information, and terminal signal quality information from the base station 20 are collected by the management apparatus 30 via the network N (step S15). The location information calculation device 31 of the management device 30 calculates the location of the terminal 10 based on the collected location information, and outputs information indicating this location to the quality management server 32. The quality management server 32 passes the information from the position information calculation device 31 to the GIS tool 33 and obtains map information centered on the position. Then, a process of superimposing and associating the collected base station signal quality information and terminal signal quality information with the map information is performed.

  When the above processing is completed, a disconnection request is sent from the terminal 10 to the base station 20. When receiving this disconnection request, the base station 20 sends a disconnection request to the network N (step S17). This disconnection request is notified to the base station 40 via the network N, whereby the call between the terminal 10 and the terminal 50 is disconnected. It should be noted that after the on-hook at the terminal 10 (step S12), the disconnection request (step S16) is performed first, and after this disconnection request processing, processing for transmitting various information to the base station (step S13) is performed. good. In this case, the call with the terminal 50 is disconnected due to the disconnection request, but the communication is continued until various information is transmitted to the management device 30.

[Operation when there is a call termination request from the communication partner terminal 50]
First, in a state where the terminal 10 is located in the call area of the base station 20 and the terminal 50 is located in the call area of the base station 40, as shown in FIG. Assume that a telephone call is being made (step S21). In this state, when the user of the terminal 50 (the communication partner of the user of the terminal 10) operates the on-hook key provided in the operation unit of the terminal 50 (step S22), the disconnection request makes the base station 40 Via the network N and further notified to the base station 20 (step S23).

  When receiving this disconnection request, the base station 20 transmits a signal quality information transmission request to the terminal 10 (step S24). When the terminal 10 receives the signal quality information transmission request from the base station 20, the signal quality information acquisition unit 14 of the terminal 10 acquires the base station signal quality information, and the position information acquisition unit 13 receives the signal quality information acquisition unit 14 from the base station 20 The position information at the time when the station signal quality information is acquired is acquired.

  The base station signal quality information acquired by the signal quality information acquisition unit 14 and the position information acquired by the position information acquisition unit 13 are output to the control unit 17. The control unit 17 outputs these pieces of information to the wireless transmission unit 12 and transmits the information to the base station 20 via the antenna 11 (step S25). When receiving the base station signal quality information and position information from the terminal 10, the base station 20 sends a disconnection request to the terminal 10 (step S26). Thereby, the call between the terminal 10 and the terminal 50 is disconnected. The base station 20 acquires terminal signal quality information, and sends the acquired terminal signal quality information to the network N together with the received base station signal quality information and position information (step S27).

  Base station signal quality information, position information, and terminal signal quality information from the base station 20 are collected by the management apparatus 30 via the network N (step S28). The location information calculation device 31 of the management device 30 calculates the location of the terminal 10 based on the collected location information, and outputs information indicating this location to the quality management server 32. The quality management server 32 passes the information from the position information calculation device 31 to the GIS tool 33 and obtains map information centered on the position. Then, a process of superimposing and associating the collected base station signal quality information and terminal signal quality information with the map information is performed.

  Since the above processing is performed at the end of the call between the terminals, the signal quality information (base station signal quality information, terminal signal quality information) under the actual usage environment of each terminal is placed at the position where the terminal is located. It can be acquired in real time without having to ask. In addition, since the above processing is performed at the end of a call between a plurality of arbitrary terminals, collection of signal quality information is not limited to the position of the terminal in the communication area. For this reason, the signal quality information in the actual use environment of the wireless communication terminal device can be acquired over the entire communication area. Furthermore, using this acquisition result makes it easy to optimize the network N. Further, since the collected information includes the influence of traffic and the like, temporal communication quality can be managed. In addition, since the above processing is performed at the time of the end of the call accompanying the end of call operation, that is, when normal communication is difficult after that, it is possible to suppress the influence of information collection on normal communication (such as a call). it can. Further, when the user of the terminal 10 or 50 performs a call closing operation due to the deterioration of the communication state due to the deterioration of the communication quality or the like, the quality information and the like in this state can be collected effectively.

  The wireless communication system, the wireless communication terminal device, and the wireless communication quality information acquisition method according to an embodiment of the present invention have been described above. However, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and is freely within the scope of the present invention. Can be changed. For example, in the above embodiment, the base station signal quality information and the position information are acquired at the time when the terminal 10 is set to the on-hook state or when the signal quality information transmission request is received from the base station 20, When the signal quality information acquisition unit 14 and the location information acquisition unit 13 acquire the base station signal quality information and the location information at regular time intervals and the terminal 10 is brought into an on-hook state by a user operation, or the base station 20 The control unit 12 may transmit the base station signal quality information and the position information acquired last when there is a signal quality information transmission request from. This is the same when the terminal signal quality information is acquired by the base station 20.

  Further, in the above embodiment, the base station signal quality information and the position information acquired by the terminal 10 are always transmitted to the base station when the terminal 10 is set to the on-hook state or when a signal quality information transmission request is made from the base station 20. However, it is desirable to be able to set in advance whether or not to transmit these pieces of information. Such setting is performed on the control unit 17 by the user operating the operation unit 15. Further, when the base station signal quality information and position information acquired by the terminal 10 are transmitted, the user may be inquired whether or not to transmit.

It is a figure which shows the principal part structure of the radio | wireless communications system and radio | wireless communication terminal device by one Embodiment of this invention. 5 is a timing chart illustrating a wireless communication quality information acquisition method according to an embodiment of the present invention. 5 is a timing chart illustrating a wireless communication quality information acquisition method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Explanation of symbols

10 terminal (wireless communication terminal device)
12 Wireless communication unit (information output means)
13 position information acquisition unit (position information acquisition means)
14 Signal quality information acquisition unit (signal quality information acquisition means)
15 Operation unit (quality information output selection means)
17 Control unit (information output means, quality information output selection means)
20 Base station (radio base station)
30 Management device

Claims (6)

Controls radio communication performed between the radio communication terminal apparatus and the radio base station, collects signal quality information indicating the quality of the signal from the radio base station received by the radio communication terminal apparatus, and collects the quality In a wireless communication system in which information is managed by a management device,
The radio communication terminal apparatus acquires signal quality information acquisition means for acquiring signal quality information of a signal transmitted from the radio base station, and the radio communication when the signal quality information acquisition means acquires the signal quality information. Position information acquisition means for acquiring position information of the terminal device, and information output means for outputting the signal quality information acquired by the signal quality information acquisition means and the position information acquired by the position information acquisition means And
The management device acquires the signal quality information and the location information output from the information output means via the radio base station, manages the signal quality information and the location information,
The signal quality information acquisition unit is configured to output the signal when the wireless communication is terminated with a communication termination operation at the wireless communication terminal device or when the wireless communication is terminated with a communication termination operation on the communication partner side. A wireless communication system characterized by acquiring quality information.   2. The wireless communication system according to claim 1, further comprising quality information output selection means for selecting whether the signal quality information acquisition means can acquire the signal quality information or whether the information output means can output the signal quality information. . In a radio communication terminal apparatus that performs radio communication with a radio base station and transmits signal quality information indicating the quality of a signal transmitted from the radio base station to a management apparatus via the radio base station,
Signal quality information acquisition means for acquiring signal quality information of a signal transmitted from the radio base station;
Position information acquisition means for acquiring position information when the signal quality information is acquired by the signal quality information acquisition means;
An information output means for outputting the signal quality information acquired by the signal quality information acquisition means and the position information acquired by the position information acquisition means;
The signal quality information acquisition means acquires the signal quality information when the wireless communication is ended with a communication end operation or when the wireless communication is ended with a communication end operation on a communication partner side. A wireless communication terminal device.   4. The radio communication terminal according to claim 3, further comprising quality information output selection means for selecting whether the signal quality information acquisition means can acquire the signal quality information or whether the information output means can output the signal quality information. apparatus. In a wireless communication quality information acquisition method for acquiring signal quality information indicating the quality of a signal transmitted from a wireless base station to a wireless communication terminal device,
The wireless communication is terminated when the wireless communication between the wireless base station and the wireless communication terminal apparatus is terminated with the communication termination operation at the wireless communication terminal apparatus or with the communication termination operation on the communication partner side. A first step of sometimes obtaining said signal quality information;
A second step of acquiring position information of the wireless communication terminal device when the signal quality information is acquired;
And a third step of transmitting the signal quality information acquired in the first step and the position information acquired in the second step to a management apparatus via the radio base station. Communication quality information acquisition method. 6. The wireless communication quality information acquisition method according to claim 5, further comprising a fourth step of selecting whether the signal quality information is acquired in the first step or whether the signal quality information is output in the second step.

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