JP2007166100A - Wireless terminal - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a wireless terminal capable of determining which communication environment of its own terminal or a communication partner terminal is deteriorated when received data of its own terminal are not correct. <P>SOLUTION: The wireless terminal includes: an antenna section 1 for receiving a wireless signal; an RF section 2 for converting the wireless signal into a baseband signal; a baseband processing section 3 for detecting errors when decoding the baseband signal to produce coded data; a multimedia processing section 4 for detecting errors when decoding the coded data to produce received data; and a communication quality determination section 5 for determining that uplink communication quality of the communication partner terminal is deteriorated on the basis of a result of the error detection by the multimedia processing section 4. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a wireless terminal device that performs voice calls, videophone calls, and the like.

  The call quality alarm ringing function installed in wireless terminal devices such as mobile phones determines the downlink communication quality from the access point such as a base station to the own terminal, and uses an alarm for the user of the own terminal when the quality deteriorates It is a function to notify. This is the conventional technique (1).

  Further, in the mobile phone terminal with an image transmission function described in Patent Document 1, the downlink communication quality of the terminal itself is determined, the obtained information regarding quality degradation is replaced with an arbitrary recognizable image, and added to the transmission image of the videophone By doing so, information on the degradation of the downlink communication quality of the own terminal is transmitted to the communication partner terminal. This is the prior art (2).

  In the portable terminal device described in Patent Document 2, the uplink communication quality from the own terminal to the access point is determined based on the temporal transition of the transmission power value when signals are transmitted and received between the own terminal and the access point such as the base station. However, the user of the own terminal is notified of the deterioration of the uplink communication quality of the own terminal. This is the prior art (3).

Technology (1) is a technology for notifying the user of the terminal of the deterioration of the downlink communication quality of the terminal. The technique (2) is a technique for transmitting information related to degradation of downlink communication quality of the own terminal to the communication partner terminal and notifying the communication partner. Furthermore, the technique (3) is a technique for notifying the user of the terminal of the deterioration of the uplink communication quality of the terminal.
From these prior arts (1) to (3), it is impossible for the own terminal to detect the deterioration of the uplink communication quality of the communication partner terminal.

Japanese Patent No. 3487280 Japanese Patent No. 3556259

  Since the conventional wireless terminal device is configured as described above, there is a problem that the own terminal cannot detect the deterioration of the uplink communication quality from the communication partner terminal to the access point.

  The present invention has been made to solve the above-described problems. When the received data of the own terminal is not correct, it is possible to determine which communication environment of the own terminal or the communication partner terminal is worse. An object is to obtain a wireless terminal device.

  A wireless terminal device according to the present invention is a wireless terminal device that communicates with a communication partner terminal via an access point, and includes an antenna unit that receives a wireless signal from the access point, and a wireless signal received by the antenna unit. A wireless communication unit for converting to a band signal, a baseband processing unit for performing error detection when decoding the baseband signal converted by the wireless communication unit to generate code data, and code data generated by the baseband processing unit When the received data is generated by decoding the received data, the uplink communication quality from the communication partner terminal to the access point is deteriorated based on the error detection by the multimedia processing unit that performs error detection and the multimedia processing unit. A communication quality determination unit that determines that the communication is in progress.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to detect deterioration of uplink communication quality from the communication partner terminal to the access point by the own terminal.

Embodiment 1 FIG.
Embodiment 1 of the present invention will be described below. FIG. 1 is an overall configuration diagram of a radio terminal apparatus according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention. The wireless terminal apparatus according to the present invention will be described as a wireless communication system in which the wireless terminal apparatus is a local terminal and communicates with a communication partner terminal via an access point (base station or the like).

In FIG. 1, an antenna unit 1 transmits and receives radio signals and is connected to an RF (Radio Frequency) unit 2 (radio frequency unit).
The RF unit 2 converts a high-frequency radio signal received from the antenna unit 1 into a low-frequency baseband signal. Also, the low-frequency baseband signal is converted into a high-frequency radio signal and output to the antenna unit 1.

The baseband processing unit 3 performs a decoding process on the baseband signal converted by the RF unit 2 and outputs the obtained code data to the multimedia processing unit 4. Further, information related to error detection at the time of decoding (hereinafter referred to as communication quality information) is output to the communication quality determination unit 5.
The baseband processing unit 3 further encodes the code data input from the multimedia processing unit 4 and outputs the encoded data to the RF unit 2 as a baseband signal.

The multimedia processing unit 4 includes an audio processing unit 6. The audio processing unit 6 performs a decoding process on the code data received from the baseband processing unit 4 and outputs the obtained audio (received data) to SPEAKER 7 (audio output unit: notification means). Further, the communication quality information at the time of decoding is output to the communication quality determination unit 5.
In addition, code processing is performed on speech input from the MIC 8 (speech input unit), and the obtained code data (speech code data) is output to the baseband processing unit 3.

When a coding method without error detection / correction capability is used as the voice coding method, the voice processing unit 6 cannot obtain communication quality information at the time of decoding.
However, the decoded speech code data is classified into several types, and a certain appearance pattern is defined for the classified speech code data.
Therefore, even if an encoding method without error detection / correction capability is adopted as the audio encoding method, the audio processing unit 6 generates an error when the audio code data deviates from this appearance pattern. As a result (error detection), it is possible to obtain communication quality information.

  Based on the communication quality information input from the baseband processing unit 3 and the audio processing unit 6 in the multimedia processing unit 4, the communication quality determination unit 5 determines the downlink communication quality from the access point to the own terminal or the communication partner. The uplink communication quality from the terminal to the access point is determined, and the determination result is output to the control unit 9.

The control unit 9 controls the SPEAKER 7 based on the input content from the communication quality determination unit 5 to sound a call quality alarm. A plurality of patterns of call quality alarms may be prepared in advance, and the notified user may be able to identify whether the downlink communication quality of the own terminal is deteriorated or the uplink communication quality of the communication partner terminal is deteriorated. SPEAKER 7 corresponds to means for notifying the user of the terminal itself.
The control unit 9 controls each unit in response to a user operation input from the operation unit 10 such as an input key. Furthermore, the memory unit 11 is accessed as necessary to read application data, write user input data, and the like.
With this configuration, it is possible to notify the user of the own terminal of the deterioration of the uplink communication quality from the communication partner terminal to the access point without changing the existing communication system.

Next, the operation will be described. FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a determination method in the communication quality determination unit in FIG.
In FIG. 2, first, the communication quality determination unit 5 receives communication quality information from the baseband processing unit 3 (step ST1).
Next, when an error is detected in the communication quality information received from the baseband processing unit 3, it is determined that the downlink communication quality of the terminal itself has deteriorated, and the process proceeds to step ST5. On the other hand, if no error is detected, the process proceeds to step ST3 (step ST2).

Next, in step ST3, error detection information is received from the multimedia processing unit 4.
Next, when an error is detected in the communication quality information received from the multimedia processing unit 4, it is determined that the uplink communication quality of the communication partner terminal has deteriorated, and the process proceeds to step ST5. On the other hand, if no error is detected, it is determined that the uplink communication quality of the communication partner terminal is good, and the process proceeds to step ST5.
Finally, in step ST5, the determination result obtained in step ST2 or step ST4 is output to the control unit 9.

  FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining the reason for determination in steps ST2 and ST4 in FIG. 2, and is a diagram illustrating a case where the degradation of uplink communication quality from the communication partner terminal to the access point occurs. FIG. 3 shows a change in data between the communication partner terminal and the own terminal when a radio signal transmitted from the communication partner terminal to the access point does not reach the access point correctly. In addition, about the base station etc. which are installed in a communicating party terminal and an access point, the thing of a conventional structure can be used as it is.

First, processing in the communication partner terminal will be described. The multimedia processing unit adds a bit string a for error detection to the data A to be transmitted. Then, code processing P is performed on the data A to which the bit string a is added to generate code data B. When the code data B generated by the code process P is received not by the access point but by the local terminal, the decoding process is performed.
The baseband processing unit adds to the code data B an error detection bit string b that is used when decoding is performed at the access point. Then, code processing Q is performed on the code data B to which the bit string b is added to generate a baseband signal X. When the baseband signal X generated by the code processing Q is received by the access point, the decoding processing is performed.
In the RF unit, the low-frequency baseband signal X is converted into a high-frequency radio signal and transmitted from the antenna unit to the access point.

Next, processing at the access point will be described. A high frequency radio signal received from the communication partner terminal received by the antenna unit is converted into a low frequency baseband signal X ′ by the RF unit. Since an error has already occurred in communication from the communication partner terminal to the access point, the error is superimposed on the radio signal received by the antenna unit. Therefore, the baseband signal X ′ is already different from the baseband signal X.
The receiving unit of the baseband processing unit performs a decoding process Q ′ corresponding to the encoding process Q at the communication partner terminal for the baseband signal X ′, and uses the error detection bit string b added at the communication partner terminal. The code data B ′ is generated by removing. The generated code data B ′ is different from the code data B which is input data to the baseband processing unit of the communication partner terminal because an error is superimposed on the radio signal transmitted by the communication partner terminal. is there.
Subsequently, in the transmission unit of the baseband processing unit, an error detection bit string c used when performing decoding processing in the own terminal is added to the code data B ′. Then, code processing R is performed on the code data B ′ to which the bit string c is added, and the baseband signal Y is generated.
The RF unit converts the low-frequency baseband signal Y into a high-frequency radio signal and transmits it from the antenna unit to the terminal itself.

Finally, processing in the own terminal will be described. A high-frequency radio signal from the access point received by the antenna unit 1 is converted into a low-frequency baseband signal Y by the RF unit 2.
The baseband processing unit 3 performs a decoding process R ′ corresponding to the encoding process R of the access point on the baseband signal Y, removes the error detection bit string c added at the access point, and generates encoded data B ′ is generated. The generated code data B ′ is the same as the code data B ′ that is input data to the transmission unit of the access point when the quality of the transmission path from the access point to the terminal itself is good (no error is superimposed). Therefore, no error is detected during the decoding process. This case corresponds to the case where “No” is determined in step ST2 of FIG.
The multimedia processing unit 4 performs a decoding process P ′ corresponding to the code process P of the communication partner terminal on the code data B ′, removes the error detection bit string a added by the communication partner terminal, and performs data processing. A ′ is generated. Since the generated data A ′ is different from the data A that is input data to the multimedia processing unit of the communication partner terminal, an error is detected during the decoding process. This case corresponds to the case where “Yes” is determined in step ST4 of FIG.

As described above, according to the first embodiment, the user can use the wireless terminal device according to the present invention without changing the existing communication system (base station, communication partner terminal, etc.). It is possible to detect deterioration in uplink communication quality from the terminal to the access point.
Further, it is possible to notify the user of the own terminal of the deterioration of the uplink communication quality from the detected communication partner terminal to the access point by ringing a call quality alarm or the like.
Further, it is possible to detect the deterioration of the downlink communication quality of the terminal itself and notify the user of the terminal itself by ringing a call quality alarm in the same manner.

Embodiment 2. FIG.
The second embodiment of the present invention will be described below. FIG. 4 is an overall configuration diagram of a radio terminal apparatus according to Embodiment 2 of the present invention. The configuration of the wireless terminal device according to Embodiment 2 (FIG. 4) is obtained by changing the multimedia processing unit 4 in the configuration of the wireless terminal device according to Embodiment 1 (FIG. 1). Therefore, only the parts different from the first embodiment will be described.

In FIG. 4, the multimedia processing unit 4 includes an audio image separation / combination unit 12, an audio processing unit 6, and an image processing unit 13.
The audio image separation / combination unit 12 performs a separation process on the code data received from the baseband processing unit 3, and outputs the obtained audio code data and image code data to the audio processing unit 6 and the image processing unit 13, respectively. . Further, the audio code data and the image code data input from the audio processing unit 6 and the image processing unit 13 are combined, and the obtained code data is output to the baseband processing unit 3.

  The audio processing unit 6 performs a decoding process on the audio code data input from the audio image separation / combination unit 12, and outputs the obtained audio (received data) to the SPEAKER 7. In addition, it performs a sign process on the sound input from the MIC 8 and outputs the obtained sound code data to the sound image separating / combining unit 12.

  The image processing unit 13 performs a decoding process on the image code data input from the audio image separation / combination unit 12 and outputs the obtained image data (received data) to the DISPLAY 14 (display unit). Also, it performs coding processing on images (including still images and moving images) input from CAMERA 15 (digital camera attached to the wireless terminal device: imaging unit), and separates / combines the obtained image code data into audio images To the unit 12.

  The communication quality determination unit 5 receives communication quality information detected by any (or a plurality) of the audio image separation / combination unit 12, the audio processing unit 6, and the image processing unit 13 in the multimedia processing unit 4, The downlink communication quality of the own terminal or the uplink communication quality of the communication partner terminal is determined, and the determination result is notified to the control unit 9.

  Since the audio image multiplexing method and the image encoding method use an encoding method having error detection / correction capability, the audio image separation / combination unit 12 and the image processing unit 13 obtain communication quality information. It is possible.

When the control unit 9 receives from the communication quality determination unit 5 the determination of deterioration of the downlink communication quality of the terminal itself, the control unit 9 controls the SPEAKER 7 to sound a call quality alarm.
On the other hand, when the deterioration determination of the uplink communication quality of the communication partner terminal is received, the image processing unit 13 is controlled. The image processing unit 13 controlled by the control unit 9 displays an image such as an icon (hereinafter referred to as a warning image) for notifying the deterioration of the uplink communication quality of the communication partner terminal with respect to the image (transmission data) input from the CAMERA 15. A process of reading from the memory unit 11 and adding it is executed. Then, encoding processing is performed on the image to which the warning image is added, and the obtained image encoded data is output to the audio image separation / combination unit 12.
Alternatively, the control unit 9 controls the sound processing unit 6 instead of the image processing unit 13. The voice processing unit 6 controlled by the control unit 9 adds to the voice (transmission data) input from the MIC 8 a voice (hereinafter referred to as warning voice) for notifying deterioration of the uplink communication quality of the communication partner terminal. Execute the process. Then, a sign process is performed on the sound to which the warning sound is added, and the obtained sound code data is output to the sound image separation / combination unit 12.

The control unit 9 may control the image processing unit 13 and the sound processing unit 6 separately, or may control them simultaneously.
Note that the above warning sound and warning image (information related to deterioration of the uplink communication quality of the communication partner terminal) may be output to the SPEAKER 7 or DISPLAY 14 of the own terminal.
Alternatively, a plurality of types may be prepared in advance, and output may be performed in accordance with degradation of downlink communication quality of the own terminal and degradation of uplink communication quality of the communication partner terminal.

  As described above, according to the second embodiment, in addition to the effects of the first embodiment, information related to the degradation of uplink communication quality from the communication partner terminal to the access point detected by the own terminal is transmitted to the communication partner terminal. It is possible to transmit and notify the user (communication partner) of the communication partner terminal.

In the first and second embodiments, as a method of notifying the user of the terminal or the communication partner terminal of the deterioration of the uplink communication quality of the communication partner terminal, an alarm ringing by a speaker, a display of a warning image, and the like have been shown.
In the present invention, other than that, vibration by a vibration motor, blinking of an LED or an antenna, blinking or color change of an antenna image indicating the downlink communication quality of the terminal displayed on the display unit, a warning stored in the memory unit 11 in advance You may make it display the character of a message.
These functions may be set ON / OFF by the user.

It is a whole block diagram of the radio | wireless terminal apparatus which concerns on Embodiment 1 of this invention. It is the flowchart which showed the determination method in the communication quality determination part in FIG. It is a figure for demonstrating the determination reason in step ST2, 4 in FIG. 2, and is a figure which shows the case where the degradation of the uplink communication quality from the communicating party terminal to the access point has arisen. It is a whole block diagram of the radio | wireless terminal apparatus which concerns on Embodiment 2 of this invention.

Explanation of symbols

  1 antenna unit, 2 RF unit, 3 baseband unit, 4 multimedia processing unit, 5 communication quality determination unit, 6 audio processing unit, 7 SPEAKER (audio output unit), 8 MIC (audio input unit), 9 control unit, 10 operation unit, 11 memory unit, 12 audio image separation / combination unit, 13 image processing unit, 14 DISPLAY (display unit), 15 CAMERA (imaging unit).

Claims (8)

In a wireless terminal device that communicates with a communication partner terminal via an access point,
An antenna unit for receiving a radio signal from the access point;
A radio communication unit that converts the radio signal received by the antenna unit into a baseband signal;
A baseband processing unit that performs error detection when generating code data by decoding the baseband signal converted by the wireless communication unit;
A multimedia processing unit that performs error detection when generating the reception data by decoding the code data generated by the baseband processing unit;
A wireless terminal device comprising: a communication quality determination unit that determines that uplink communication quality from the communication partner terminal to the access point is deteriorated based on an error detection result in the multimedia processing unit.   The communication quality determination unit determines that downlink communication quality from the access point to the terminal itself is deteriorated based on an error detection result in the baseband processing unit. Wireless terminal device.   When the communication quality determination unit determines that the uplink communication quality of the communication partner terminal is deteriorated, the communication quality determination unit includes notification means for notifying the user of the own terminal of the deterioration of the uplink communication quality of the communication partner terminal. The wireless terminal device according to claim 1.   4. The wireless terminal device according to claim 3, wherein the notification means is a speaker that sounds a communication quality alarm.   The wireless terminal device according to claim 3, wherein the notification unit is an image processing unit that displays a warning image on a display unit. When the communication quality determination unit determines that the uplink communication quality of the communication partner terminal is degraded,
The radio terminal apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the multimedia processing unit adds information related to degradation of uplink communication quality of the communication partner terminal to transmission data. Information regarding degradation of uplink communication quality of the communication partner terminal is a warning voice,
The wireless terminal device according to claim 6, wherein the multimedia processing unit includes a voice processing unit that adds the warning voice to the transmission data. Information regarding degradation of uplink communication quality of the communication partner terminal is a warning image,
The wireless terminal device according to claim 6, wherein the multimedia processing unit includes an image processing unit that adds the warning image to the transmission data.

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