JP2007049645A - Terminal, network system, management apparatus, and data distribution apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a terminal such as a mobile phone connectable to both a cellular network and a wireless LAN capable of increasing also the power consumption of the terminal by utilizing a present environment while suppressing increase in a facility improvement cost. <P>SOLUTION: In a network system including: the cellular network 100; the wireless LAN connected to the Internet 200; and the mobile phone 500 connectable to the both, a management apparatus 251 manages whether or not a concerned cell has accessibility to the wireless LAN by each base station, a data distribution apparatus 230 transmits a message including presence of data distribution to the terminal registered in a location server 310 as its existence in the cell accessible to the wireless LAN via the cellular network 100, and the terminal for receiving the message tries to connect to the wireless LAN. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a terminal device, a network system, a management device, and a data distribution device, and in particular, a terminal device that can be connected to both a cellular network and a wireless local area network (LAN), and the terminal device can be connected. The present invention relates to a network system, a management apparatus that manages information on base stations of a cellular network, and a data distribution apparatus.

  In recent years, a terminal device that can be connected to a cellular network such as a mobile phone has been widely connected to the Internet. Data transmission speed has been a problem in data communication over cellular networks, but the data reception speed in the second generation mobile phone (PDC) and PHS (Personal Handy Horn System) was about 128 kbps. For example, in a third generation mobile phone system such as cdma2000 1xEV-DO, a maximum transmission speed of 3.1 Mbps in downlink has been realized.

  However, when distributing a large amount of data, for example, when broadcasting a moving image, it seems that it is preferable to use a wireless LAN with a higher transmission speed at present. In view of such a situation, a terminal device that can be connected to both a cellular network and a wireless LAN has been devised (see Patent Document 1).

  In the case of a terminal device that can be connected to both a cellular network and a wireless LAN, in order to always be able to connect to both, a wireless LAN interface unit in addition to the standby reception performed in a normal mobile phone In addition, since it is necessary to always supply power, the power consumption increases and the waiting time of the terminal device is shortened. In the technique of the above-mentioned Patent Document 1, the state of the radio wave transmitted from the terminal to the cellular network is detected near the wireless LAN access point, and it is detected that the terminal device can access the wireless LAN. In such a case, the terminal device is notified via the base station of the cellular network to suppress an increase in power consumption of the terminal device.

Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-23768

  However, in the configuration of the above prior art, it is necessary to provide a receiving device for receiving radio waves to the cellular network in the vicinity of the access point of the wireless LAN, and the existing access point cannot be used as it is. In recent years, the number of access points has increased explosively. If a receiving device is provided in the vicinity of each access point, a huge facility improvement cost is generated, which is not practical.

  The present invention has been made in view of such problems, and suppresses an increase in facility improvement cost using an existing environment in a terminal device such as a mobile phone that can be connected to both a cellular network and a wireless LAN. However, an object of the present invention is to provide a terminal device, a network system, a management device that manages information on a base station of a cellular network, and a data distribution device that can suppress an increase in power consumption of the terminal device.

  In order to solve the above problems, a terminal device according to the present invention is a terminal device connectable to both a cellular network and a wireless local area network, and a cell corresponding to a base station to be handed off from the cellular network. And accessability information receiving means for receiving information indicating whether or not the device has access to the wireless LAN, and after handing off to a cell having access to the wireless LAN, registers itself in a predetermined area. And a message transmission means for transmitting a message.

  In this configuration, terminal devices that have access to the wireless LAN are managed on the cellular network side by registering their own devices in a predetermined area. As a result of searching for terminal device information, access to the wireless LAN is possible. It is possible to notify a message to a terminal having a property via a cellular network. Note that the “predetermined area” may be registration with a server, or registration with an area that is not necessarily referred to as “server”, such as an HLR (Home Location Register).

  That is, it is not necessary to improve the access point as in the prior art. Further, if the terminal device that has received the message turns on the power supply to the wireless LAN interface unit and tries to access the wireless LAN, an increase in power consumption of the terminal device can be suppressed. .

  The message for registering the device can be configured to be a registration message to a server based on SIP (Session Initiation Protocol). However, the protocol is not particularly limited, and HTTP, It is also possible to use a protocol such as SMTP. The SIP message can be configured to be, for example, a REGISTER message transmitted to the SIP server or a NOTIFY message transmitted to the presence server.

  The message transmitting means may be configured to periodically transmit the message while it exists in a cell having accessibility to a wireless LAN. On the other hand, if registration is deleted from the predetermined area (SIP server or the like) for a terminal that has not transmitted a message for a certain period of time, a SIP REGISTER message, a NOTIFY message, or a cellular mail via a cellular network as an example of the message The terminal device having the possibility of connection to the wireless LAN can be managed by using the transmission of, etc.

  The network system according to the present invention is a network system including a cellular network, a wireless local area network connected to the Internet, and a terminal device connectable to both. In the cellular network, a cell corresponding to each base station is provided. A terminal device that is registered as existing in a cell that has access to the wireless local area network, and whether or not the wireless local area network has access to the wireless local area network. A terminal device that transmits a predetermined message through the terminal device and receives the predetermined message attempts to connect to the wireless local area network.

  Whether or not the wireless LAN has accessibility is managed by, for example, whether or not there is an overlapping area between the cell corresponding to the base station and the accessible area of the wireless local area network. It can be configured. However, the method of managing the accessibility to the wireless LAN for each base station is not limited to this.

  The predetermined message is a message indicating that large-capacity data that is preferably received using a wireless local area network is distributed, and the terminal device that receives the message and is connected to the wireless local area network Can receive the large-capacity data via a wireless local area network. With this configuration, a large amount of data can be distributed efficiently. In addition, if the predetermined message is configured to be transmitted as a paging message in the cellular network, it is suitable for effective use of existing equipment.

  The management apparatus according to the present invention is a management apparatus that manages information on base stations of a cellular network, and for each base station, overlaps between a cell corresponding to the base station and an accessible area of the wireless local area network. It is characterized by managing whether or not there is an area to be used.

  The data distribution apparatus according to the present invention searches a terminal apparatus registered as existing in an area having accessibility to a wireless local area network when distributing data in the data distribution apparatus that distributes data. When there is a response from the search means, a delivery message transmission means for sending a message indicating that data is to be distributed to the searched terminal apparatus via the cellular network, and a response from the terminal apparatus, it is wireless to the terminal apparatus. And data distribution means for distributing data via a local area network.

  According to the terminal device and the like according to the present invention, effects such as effective use of existing facilities, efficient distribution of large-capacity data, and suppression of increase in power consumption of the terminal device are exhibited.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings, taking as an example the case of using a mobile phone as an example of a terminal device to which the present invention is applied.
(1) Overall Configuration of Network System (Data Distribution System) FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an example of the overall configuration of a network system in the present embodiment. In the network system according to the present embodiment, a large amount of data such as a moving image may be distributed to each terminal device. In such a case, a data distribution system is configured.

  In FIG. 1, reference numeral 100 represents a cellular network, and reference numeral 200 represents an Internet network, which are connected to each other via a gateway 250 or the like. In the present embodiment, a mobile phone 500 that can be connected to both the cellular network 100 and the wireless LAN is used as a terminal device. In this embodiment, the cellular network 100 connected to the mobile phone 500 is assumed to conform to the cdma2000 1x specification. However, the present invention is not limited to this.

  The cellular phone 500 normally transmits and receives radio waves to and from the base stations 110 and 111 of the cellular network 100, and performs communication by circuit switching (CS) and communication by packet switching (PS). When the mobile phone 500 is connected to the Internet network 200 by packet switching (PS), the connection is made via the gateway 250. Note that the cellular phone 500 is waiting for and receiving control signals from the base station 110 and the like even when voice communication and data transmission are not particularly performed with the cellular network 100.

  The Internet network 200 is provided with a wireless LAN access point 220 via a router 210, and the mobile phone 500 of the present embodiment can be connected to the Internet network 200 via the wireless LAN via the access point 220. It has a simple configuration. That is, the mobile phone 500 includes a wireless LAN interface unit that conforms to a wireless LAN standard such as IEEE802.11. Of course, always energizing the wireless LAN interface unit causes unnecessary power consumption. In the present embodiment, the energized state is set only when trying to access the wireless LAN, thereby reducing power consumption. Yes.

  The SIP server 300 is composed of three functions: a proxy server, a redirect server, and a registration server. The SIP server 300 receives SIP messages transmitted from the terminal devices such as the mobile phone 500 via the cellular network 100. Then, each terminal device is registered in the location server 310. In the present embodiment, the three functions of the SIP server 300 are implemented on the same host, but these functions can also be implemented on different hosts. Registration in the location server 310 is based on the function of the registration server, and information on each terminal device registered in the location server 310 can be used from the function of the proxy server or the redirect server function. Sending the SIP message from the mobile phone 500 via the cellular network 100 has the advantage of shortening the energization time to the wireless LAN interface unit of the mobile phone 500 and reducing the power consumption.

  The management device 251 manages information on base stations of the cellular network 100. In the present embodiment, for each base station, information indicating whether or not there is an overlapping area between the cell corresponding to the base station and the accessible area of the wireless LAN is held. In this specification, this information is referred to as accessibility information to the wireless LAN. The accessibility information is included in a neighbor base station list (neighbor list) message transmitted to the terminal device as a system overhead message. Although the management apparatus 251 is connected to the gateway 250 in the figure, the installation position of the management apparatus 251 is arbitrary. When the cellular network 100 is a network dedicated to a mobile phone, it is generally considered that the management device 251 is arranged in the cellular network 100. When the core network of the mobile phone is an IP network (in the case of a wireless IP phone), the management device 251 may be arranged on the Internet network 200.

  A data distribution device 230 is connected to the Internet network 200. When distributing a large amount of data such as a moving image, for example, the data distribution device 230 transmits a message to a terminal device such as the mobile phone 500 via the cellular network 100, while transmitting data to a terminal device that accesses a wireless LAN. On the other hand, data is distributed via a wireless LAN.

(2) Configuration of Mobile Phone 500 Next, the configuration of the mobile phone 500 of the present invention will be described. FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram showing an example of the configuration of the mobile phone 500 of the present embodiment. The cellular phone 500 includes a CPU 600, an antenna 610, a transmission / reception unit 620, a display control unit 630, a display unit 631, an audio processing unit 640, a microphone 641, a speaker 642, and a wireless LAN interface unit (WLANIF) 650. The CPU 600 can perform a time measurement process using the timer 601.

  The CPU 600 controls the entire mobile phone 500. When a call is made via circuit switching (CS), the voice input from the microphone 641 is AD converted by the voice processing unit 640, and processing matching the communication method is performed by the transmission / reception unit 620 and output from the antenna 610. . When radio waves are received from the base station 110 via the antenna 610, voice is output from the speaker 642 via the transmission / reception unit 620 and the voice processing unit 640, or received via packet switching (PS) of the cellular network 100. Data is input to the CPU 600 via the transmission / reception unit 620. The received data is processed by an application running on the CPU 600 and displayed on the display unit 631 via the display control unit 630.

  The cellular phone 500 according to the present embodiment has a configuration that can be connected to a wireless LAN access point 220 via a wireless LAN interface unit 650, and powers on the wireless LAN interface unit 650 and connects to the wireless LAN. The CPU 600 also controls connection, data transmission via the wireless LAN, and the like.

(3) Processing contents of the CPU 600 In the cellular network 100 of the present embodiment, the adjacent base station list (neighbor list) message included in the system overhead message transmitted from the base station 110 or the like to the mobile phone 500 is included. In addition to information specifying each base station, a cell area corresponding to each base station and an area accessible from a wireless LAN access point (hereinafter also simply referred to as “accessible area”). A flag (hereinafter referred to as “WLAN area flag”) that holds whether or not there is an overlapping area is included. FIG. 3 exemplifies a part of the content of the adjacent base station list message notified to the mobile phone from the base station side in the present embodiment.

  As described above, the cellular phone system according to the present embodiment is compliant with cdma2000 1x, and all cells in the system are all synchronized with reference signals such as GPS signals. In the example of FIG. 3, for the four base stations from the base station A to the base station D, the spread code (PN) assigned to identify each base station is offset from the reference signal ( 9 bits), and the mobile phone 500 side can establish chip synchronization in each base station by synchronizing with each offset value using the same type of spreading code as described above. Become.

  In the example in the figure, each of the above four base stations holds one bit each as a WLAN area flag (in the example of the figure, the field name is “WLAN Include”, but the field name is not limited to this). . This is the accessibility information referred to in this embodiment to determine the accessibility to the wireless LAN in each cell. For example, when the WLAN area flag is 0, the cell corresponding to the base station and the accessible area overlap, that is, the mobile phone 500 existing in the cell may have access to the wireless LAN. When the WLAN area flag is 1, it indicates that the cell and the accessible area do not overlap, that is, the mobile phone 500 existing in the cell has no possibility of accessing the wireless LAN. Can be set as follows.

  This WLAN area flag can be automatically set to some extent by, for example, acquiring access information to the wireless LAN from the mobile phone 500 or the like. Alternatively, the setting may be updated. This information can be managed by the management apparatus 251 in this embodiment, and the set flag value is managed so that it can be referred to on the cellular network 100 side.

  Hereinafter, the processing content of each part in the network system of this Embodiment is demonstrated, referring a flowchart etc. FIG. First, the processing content of the CPU 600 in the mobile phone 500 that has received the system overhead message including the above-mentioned adjacent base station list will be described. FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating an example of processing contents.

  When the mobile phone 500 receives an adjacent base station list message (shown as “NLMSG” in the figure) (S101: YES), the wireless LAN accessibility information (WLAN area flag) included in the message Is extracted (S102). The system overhead message including the adjacent base station list message is transmitted from the base station side to the terminal side using a paging channel (PCH), for example.

  After the handoff process (S103), if it is determined that there is a possibility of access to the wireless LAN in the cell corresponding to the base station of the handoff destination (S104: YES), the cellular phone 500 is connected via the cellular network 100. Then, SIP registration is performed periodically (S105). For example, when the mobile phone 500 hands off from another base station (for example, the base station 111) to the base station 110, the accessability information is referred to, and the cell corresponding to the base station 110 overlaps the accessible area of the wireless LAN. In this case, the SIP message is periodically transmitted using the timer 601 after the handoff. Note that when an SIP message is transmitted via the cellular network 100, an uplink access channel (R-ACH) can be used.

  Here, the SIP registration of the present embodiment will be briefly described. FIG. 5 is a diagram for explaining the SIP server 300 and the location server 310. The SIP server 300 receives a registration request by a REGISTER message via the Internet 200, transmits and receives information registered in response to a request from another device, etc., and relays the received IP packet to the location server 310 And a registration server 302 for registering terminal information with the location server 310.

  On the other hand, the location server 310 includes a timer 313 in addition to a location registration unit 311 that stores registration information and a location registration management unit 312 that manages (adds, deletes, etc.) information registered in the location registration unit 311. . In the present embodiment, the timer 313 is configured to automatically delete registration information after a predetermined time has elapsed after registration. Therefore, the terminal that regularly performs SIP registration in the above step S104 continues to store information in the location registration unit 311, but the terminal is handed off to an area where access to the wireless LAN is not possible. In this case, the information stored in the location registration unit 311 is automatically deleted. That is, by accessing the location server 310, it is possible to search for a terminal that has access to the wireless LAN.

  The timer value of the timer 313 can be notified to the mobile phone 500 or the like by including it in a system overhead message, for example. For example, when the timer value set in the timer 313 is 3 minutes, the timer value of the timer 601 on the mobile phone 500 that receives the notification is set to, for example, 2 minutes and 55 seconds, and the SIP message is periodically transmitted. . On the location server 310 side, a terminal that has undergone SIP registration again within 3 minutes continues registration, but a terminal that has no SIP registration within 3 minutes deletes registration.

  In the SIP registration in this embodiment, a SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) REGISTER message is used. Of course, the terminal device management having the same concept can be realized by a method of transmitting presence information to a presence server (not shown) by a NOTIFY message.

Next, processing contents in the data distribution device 230, the mobile phone 500, and the like when large-capacity data such as moving images is distributed will be described with reference to flowcharts.
FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the processing contents of the data distribution device 230 when transmitting a large amount of data such as a moving image that is preferably distributed via a wireless LAN. In the data distribution device 230, when an opportunity to transmit a large amount of data occurs (S201: YES), the SIP server 300 is accessed and terminal information registered in the location server 310 is acquired (S202).

  Since the registered terminal device is a terminal device registered as having access to the wireless LAN, the cellular network 100 is configured to transmit a message notifying the delivery of large-capacity data to the terminal device. (S203). This message can be transmitted as a paging message from the cellular network 100 to each terminal device such as the mobile phone 500 using a downstream paging channel (F-PCH).

  Here, processing contents in a terminal device such as the mobile phone 500 that has received the paging message will be described. FIG. 7 is a flowchart for explaining the processing contents of the CPU 600 of the mobile phone 500 in such a case.

  When receiving a paging message (displayed as “Page MSG” in the figure) indicating the delivery of large-capacity data (S301: YES), collation of whether or not the terminal ID of the own device is included in the paging message (S302). As a result, when the terminal ID of the own device exists (S303: YES), the power supply to the wireless LAN interface unit 650 is turned on (S304), and access to the wireless LAN is tried (S305).

  If the access to the wireless LAN is successful (S306: YES), a message (for example, ACK) including the terminal ID of the own device is transmitted to the data distribution device 230 via the wireless LAN (S307). This message may be transmitted via the cellular network 100, but ultimately it is necessary to establish a connection via a wireless LAN access point (S307).

  Here, returning to FIG. 6, on the data distribution device 230 side that has received the message and established the connection via the wireless LAN (S204: YES), the large-volume data is distributed to the terminal via the wireless LAN. (S205). Through such processing, the terminal device such as the mobile phone 500 can receive a large amount of data via the wireless LAN (S308 in FIG. 7).

  If the mobile phone 500 cannot access the wireless LAN (S306: NO), processing when access is not possible is executed (S309). Specifically, the energization stop to the wireless LAN interface unit, the transmission of a message to the data distribution device 230 via the cellular network, the request for re-notification, and the like can be considered.

(Modification)
Although the embodiment of the present invention has been described above, the content of the present invention is not limited to the specific examples described in the embodiment, and for example, the following modifications may be implemented. it can.

  (1) In the above embodiment, the terminal device having the accessibility to the wireless LAN is managed by registration with the SIP server, and the data distribution device 230 can be accessed by referring to the registration information with the SIP server. However, in addition to registration with the SIP server or presence server, for example, a configuration using an HLR (Home Location Register) is also possible.

  (2) In the above embodiment, the SIP message is used as the message for registering the terminal. However, the method for registering the device in the server is not limited to the SIP message, and other protocols such as HTTP can be used. However, as another example of the message, it is also possible to send and receive mobile mail via a cellular network. However, the processing content on the server side that received the message differs depending on the protocol, and when using e-mail, processing for extracting terminal information from the mail body or mail header may occur.

(3) Although the SIP server 300 is connected to the Internet network 200 in the above embodiment, a configuration in which the SIP server 300 is connected to the cellular network 100 is also possible.
(4) In the above embodiment, the case where a mobile phone is used as an example of a terminal device has been described. However, the present invention is applied to any terminal device that can be connected to both a cellular network and a wireless LAN. It is possible to do.

  The present invention can be applied to, for example, a terminal device, a network system, a management device, a data distribution system, and the like that can be connected to both a cellular network and a wireless LAN.

It is a figure which shows an example of the whole structure of a network system. 4 is a functional block diagram showing an example of a configuration of a mobile phone 500. FIG. FIG. 6 illustrates a part of the content of an adjacent base station list message. It is a flowchart which shows an example of the processing content of CPU600 in the mobile telephone 500 which received the system overhead message containing an adjacent base station list. It is a figure for demonstrating the SIP server 300 and the location server 310. FIG. It is a flowchart which shows the processing content of the data delivery apparatus 230 in the case of delivering large capacity data. It is a flowchart for demonstrating the processing content in terminal devices, such as the mobile telephone 500 which received the paging message which shows that large capacity data are delivered.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 100 Cellular network 110, 111 Base station 200 Internet network 210 Router 220 Wireless LAN access point 250 Gateway 251 Management apparatus 300 SIP server 301 Transmission / reception unit 302 Registration server 310 Location server 311 Location registration unit 312 Location registration management unit 313 Timer 500 Cellular phone 600 CPU
601 Timer 610 Antenna 620 Transmission / reception unit 630 Display control unit 631 Display unit 640 Audio processing unit 641 Microphone 642 Speaker 650 Wireless LAN interface unit (WLANIF)

Claims (14)

In a terminal device connectable to both a cellular network and a wireless local area network,
Accessibility information receiving means for receiving information indicating whether or not a cell corresponding to a base station to be handed off has access to a wireless LAN from the cellular network;
A terminal device comprising: message transmission means for transmitting a message for registering the mobile device in a predetermined area after handoff to a cell having accessibility to a wireless LAN. The message for registering the machine is
The terminal device according to claim 1, wherein the terminal device is a registration message to a server based on SIP (Session Initiation Protocol). The terminal device according to claim 2, wherein the SIP message is a REGISTER message transmitted to a SIP server or a NOTIFY message transmitted to a presence server. The message transmission means includes:
The terminal device according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the message is periodically transmitted while the wireless LAN exists in a cell having accessibility to the wireless LAN. The message transmission means includes:
The terminal device according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the message is transmitted via a cellular network. The terminal device according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein when a predetermined message notified from the cellular network is received, a connection to the wireless local area network is attempted. The terminal device according to claim 6, wherein when the predetermined message is received, the power supply to the interface unit connected to the wireless local area network is turned on. In a network system including a cellular network, a wireless local area network connected to the Internet, and a terminal device connectable to both,
In the cellular network, for each base station, whether or not the corresponding cell has access to the wireless local area network,
A predetermined message is transmitted via the cellular network to a terminal device registered as being present in a cell having accessibility to the wireless local area network;
The network system, wherein the terminal device that has received the predetermined message attempts to connect to the wireless local area network. Whether to have access to the wireless LAN is managed by whether there is an overlapping area between the cell corresponding to the base station and the accessible area of the wireless local area network. The network system according to claim 8, wherein: The network system according to claim 8 or 9, wherein the predetermined message is a message indicating that a large amount of data that is preferably received using a wireless local area network is distributed. The network system according to claim 10, wherein a terminal device connected to a wireless local area network receives the large volume data via the wireless local area network. The network system according to claim 8, wherein the predetermined message is transmitted as a paging message in the cellular network. In the management device that manages the information of the base station of the cellular network,
A management apparatus for managing, for each base station, whether or not there is an overlapping area between a cell corresponding to the base station and an accessible area of a wireless local area network. In a data distribution device that distributes data,
Search means for searching for terminal devices registered as existing in an area having accessibility to a wireless local area network when distributing data;
A delivery message transmitting means for transmitting a message indicating that data is distributed to the searched terminal device via the cellular network;
A data distribution device comprising: data distribution means for distributing data to a terminal device via a wireless local area network when a response is received from the terminal device.