JP2008167076A - Wireless communication terminal and method - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a wireless communication terminal and method capable of reducing useless power consumption in a secondary receiving part. <P>SOLUTION: A PPP data volume measurement part 9 measures the data volume of transmission data transmitted on a PPP session and the data volume of reception data received on the PPP session. A control part 4 controls the start/stop of diversity operation based on the measured data volumes of the transmission data and/or reception data, and when the data volume of reception data received on the PPP session exceeds a high watermark in a diversity operation state, the diversity operation is stopped, and when the data volume of transmission data transmitted on the PPP session exceeds the high watermark in a diversity stop state, the diversity operation is started. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a wireless communication terminal and a wireless communication method.

  In recent years, there are a plurality of systems corresponding to respective standards in wireless communication terminals such as mobile phones. For example, the TDMA system and the CDMA system are widely used in Japanese mobile phone systems.

  Normally, a wireless communication terminal is configured to correspond to any one of the standards. For example, in the mobile phone system, the frequency band assigned to each system is becoming tight as the terminal spreads. To multiband is considered. In addition, since it provides a stable and highly functional service, it is possible to perform handoff between different frequency bands, and multiband / multimode communication using a plurality of communication systems (for example, cdma2000 1x system and cdma2000 1xEV-DO system). Is also being made.

  As a wireless communication terminal compatible with such multiband / multimode, for example, a TDMA system and a CDMA system are combined, a TDMA transmission / reception unit and a CDMA transmission unit are coupled to a primary antenna, and a CDMA system is coupled to a secondary antenna. There is known a mobile phone terminal in which the receivers are combined (see, for example, Patent Document 1).

  In addition, recently, an SHDR (Simultaneous Hybrid Dual Receiver) function for performing transmission / reception in the cdma2000 1xEV-DO system with the primary antenna and receiving with the secondary antenna at the same time as the cdma2000 1x system is installed, and communication by the primary antenna is performed. A mobile phone terminal compatible with multiband / multimode for improving throughput is also considered.

  FIG. 11 is a functional block diagram showing a schematic configuration of a main part of a mobile phone terminal equipped with such an SHDR function.

  This mobile phone terminal includes a 1x communication system based on a cdma2000 system in the 800 MHz band (hereinafter abbreviated as 800 MHz band as appropriate) and a cdma2000 system in 2 GHz band (hereinafter abbreviated as 2 GHz band as appropriate), and 1xEV-DO ( In the following, the communication system is simply referred to as EVDO as appropriate, and has a GPS frequency reception function of 1575.42 MHz (hereinafter appropriately abbreviated as 1.5 GHz band), and has a modulation circuit and a demodulation circuit. A transmission unit (Tx) 101, a primary reception unit (primary Rx) 102, and a secondary reception unit (secondary Rx) 103 connected to the baseband unit 100 are provided.

  The transmitter 101 and the primary receiver 102 are connected to the primary antenna 105 via the duplexer 104, and can transmit and receive in the 800 MHz band and the 2 GHz band. The secondary receiving unit 103 is connected to the secondary antenna 106 and can receive signals in the 800 MHz band, the 2 GHz band, and the 1.5 GHz band independently of the primary receiving unit 102.

  In this cellular phone terminal, the diversity system is adopted in the communication using the EVDO system, and during the EVDO communication, the notification information (paging) for notifying the incoming call from the base station in the 1x communication is periodically received and the voice is received. Incoming calls are monitored, and there are two operation modes: a hybrid mode and an SHDR mode using the SHDR function.

  In the hybrid mode, as shown in FIG. 12A, during EVDO communication, the primary antenna 105 side is periodically switched to 1x communication to receive paging. In this hybrid mode, the secondary antenna 106 side may receive diversity paging by 1x communication in synchronization with the primary antenna 105 side. Also, in the SHDR mode, as shown in FIG. 12 (b), the primary antenna 105 side continues EVDO communication, and the secondary antenna 106 side is periodically switched to 1x communication to receive paging, thereby receiving voice incoming calls. I try to monitor.

  Here, in the SHDR mode, as shown in FIG. 12B, the EVDO communication is continued without switching the primary antenna 105 side to the 1x communication. Therefore, the throughput of the EVDO communication is compared with the hybrid mode. Can be improved.

  However, since the secondary antenna 106 receives three bands of 800 MHz band, 2 GHz band, and 1.5 GHz band, compared with the primary antenna 105 that transmits and receives in two bands of 800 MHz band and 2 GHz band, the secondary antenna 106 has 800 MHz band and 2 GHz band. The antenna gain is generally low. For example, as shown in FIG. 13, the antenna gain of the primary antenna 105 in the 800 MHz band and 2 GHz band is -3 dBi and 0 dBi, respectively, whereas the antenna gain of the secondary antenna 106 in the 800 MHz band and 2 GHz band is respectively It is −10 dBi and −3 dBi. For this reason, in the SHDR mode, the paging capture capability from the base station is lower than in the hybrid mode.

Therefore, conventionally, as shown in FIG. 11, the actual 1 × reception sensitivity received by the primary reception unit 102 or the secondary reception unit 103 and input to the baseband unit 100 and the 1 × reception sensitivity stored in the threshold memory 107 in advance. The mode switching unit 108 compares the upper limit threshold and the lower limit threshold, and based on the comparison result, when the 1x reception sensitivity exceeds the upper threshold during the hybrid mode, the mode is switched to the SHDR mode, and the 1x reception sensitivity is the lower limit during the SHDR mode. The baseband unit 100, the transmission unit 101, the primary reception unit (primary Rx) 102, and the secondary reception unit (secondary Rx) 103 are controlled so as to switch to the hybrid mode when the threshold value is reached.
JP 2004-15162 A

  In the mobile phone terminal equipped with the above-described SHDR function, in the EVDO system communication, in order to improve the reception quality as much as possible and increase the communication speed, diversity operation is performed using two antennas, a primary antenna and a secondary antenna. It is carried out. However, because the throughput is not balanced between the protocol side and the application side at the part where flow control of received data and transmission data is performed, if the processing on the application side cannot catch up, it is useless to perform diversity operation There is a problem that power is wasted in the secondary receiving unit.

  In addition, in multi RLP (Radio Link Protocol) operation used when data continuity is high, retransmission control and the like are performed independently, so it is considered that there is an effect of diversity operation. In this operation, since retransmission control is performed by the same RLP processing unit, it is considered that the communication is temporarily interrupted, and the effect of performing the diversity operation is reduced.

  In addition, when the restriction of transmission of an access channel (AccessChannel) for obtaining information necessary for the mobile phone terminal to communicate with the base station is high, the base station of the EVDO system is considered to be in a congested state. In a congested state, since the downstream throughput is not high, the diversity operation is always performed even in such a case even though it is not necessary to perform the diversity operation. Therefore, since the secondary receiver connected to the secondary antenna is always operating, there is a problem that power is wasted in the secondary receiver.

  Also, in communication using the EVDO system, even if reception is good using only the primary antenna and reception quality is good and high QoS (Quality of Service) can be maintained, reception using the primary antenna and the secondary antenna is possible. Since the diversity operation to be performed is performed, there is a problem that power is wasted in the secondary receiving unit connected to the secondary antenna.

  The present invention has been made in view of such problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a wireless communication terminal and a wireless communication method capable of reducing wasteful power consumption in a secondary receiving unit.

  In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a wireless communication terminal capable of diversity reception, a measuring means for measuring the amount of transmission data to be transmitted on a PPP session, and the amount of reception data to be received on a PPP session; Control means for controlling start / stop of the diversity operation based on the measured amount of transmission data and / or amount of reception data.

  The control means controls to stop the diversity operation when it is determined that the amount of received data received on the PPP session measured by the measurement means exceeds a threshold value while the diversity is operating. Preferably, the control means starts the diversity operation when it is determined that the amount of transmission data to be transmitted on the PPP session measured by the measurement means exceeds a threshold value while the diversity is stopped. It is preferable to control as described above.

  In addition, when a retransmission request is transmitted to a communication corresponding to one flow identifier, when the retransmission control is performed for the communication corresponding to the flow identifier and the communication corresponding to another flow identifier, the control unit includes: It is preferable to perform control so as to stop the diversity operation in response to transmission of the retransmission request.

  The present invention also relates to a wireless communication method of a wireless communication terminal capable of diversity reception, wherein the amount of transmission data to be transmitted on the PPP session and the amount of reception data to be received on the PPP session are measured and the measured transmission is performed. The diversity operation is started / stopped based on the amount of data and / or the amount of received data.

  According to the present invention, the diversity operation is stopped according to the amount of data on the PPP session and the operation of the secondary reception unit is stopped, so that useless power consumption in the secondary reception unit can be reduced. Therefore, it is effective for a battery-driven device.

  Embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram showing a schematic configuration of a main part of a mobile phone terminal as a wireless communication terminal of the present invention. As in FIG. 11, the mobile phone terminal according to the present embodiment includes a cdma2000 1x first wireless communication system (hereinafter abbreviated as 1x system as appropriate) using a 800 MHz band and a 2 GHz band, and a 1xEVDO second wireless communication system ( (Hereinafter, abbreviated as EVDO system as appropriate) and a function of receiving a GPS frequency of 1.5 GHz band.

  The mobile phone terminal shown in FIG. 1 includes a transmission unit 1, a primary reception unit 2, a secondary reception unit 3, a control unit (control means) 4, a reception antenna control unit 5, a diversity control value, and an SHDR control value. A storage unit (storage unit) 6 that stores the restriction information of the base station, a restriction information acquisition unit (acquisition unit) 7, a transmission rate detection unit (detection unit) 8, and a PPP data amount measurement unit (measurement unit) 9 I have. Note that the baseband unit, duplexer, threshold memory, and description thereof described in FIG. 11 are omitted because they are not directly related to the contents of the present invention. In FIG. 1, a transmission unit 1 and a primary reception unit 2 can transmit and receive in the 800 MHz band and the 2 GHz band. The secondary receiving unit 3 can receive signals in the 800 MHz band, 2 GHz band, and 1.5 GHz band independently of the primary receiving unit 2. The secondary antenna connected to the secondary receiving unit 3 has a lower antenna gain than the primary antenna connected to the primary receiving unit 2.

  Next, a first embodiment of the present invention will be described. In the first embodiment, the diversity operation is stopped according to the amount of data on the PPP session, and the operation of the secondary receiving unit is stopped.

  In FIG. 1, the wireless communication terminal can receive diversity. The PPP data amount measuring unit (measuring means) 9 includes a data amount of transmission data (hereinafter referred to as PPP transmission data) transmitted on the PPP session and reception data (hereinafter referred to as PPP reception data) received on the PPP session. Measure the amount of data. The control unit (control unit) 4 controls the start / stop of the diversity operation based on the measured amount of transmission data and / or amount of reception data.

  FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining the flow of transmission / reception data. At the time of reception, data received by the primary receiving unit 2 and the secondary receiving unit 3 is decoded by a decoder unit in the protocol unit 11, and an RLP (Radio Link Protocol) data processing unit 12 and a PPP (Point-to-to- The data is input to the application unit 14 that executes various application programs via the point protocol) data processing unit 13. At the time of transmission, the data output from the application unit 14 is input to the protocol unit 11 via the PPP data processing unit 13 and the RLP data processing unit 12, and is encoded by the encoding unit in the protocol unit 11 to be transmitted. Sent to 1.

  FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of a change in the data amount (average data amount) of the PPP transmission data and the PPP reception data in the PPP data processing unit. In the first embodiment, the PPP data amount measuring unit (measuring unit) 9 periodically measures the data amount of the PPP transmission data and the data amount of the PPP reception data in the PPP data processing unit 13 at a predetermined time. The reception antenna control unit 5 is instructed to switch the diversity operation depending on whether there is a lot of reception data or a lot of transmission data.

  FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of a change in the data amount (average data amount) of PPP reception data in the PPP data processing unit. The control unit (control unit) 4 compares the amount of PPP reception data measured by the PPP data amount measurement unit (measurement unit) 9 with the amount of PPP transmission data, and the amount of PPP reception data is the PPP transmission data. If it is determined that the PPP received data exceeds the high water mark (High Watermark) which is a threshold value and diversity is operating, the processing in the application unit is not in time even if reception is performed. Therefore, the PPP data processing unit issues an instruction to the reception antenna control unit, stops the diversity operation (OFF), continues the operation of the primary reception unit 2, and performs secondary reception. The operation of the unit 3 is stopped to reduce power consumption.

  FIG. 5 is a diagram for explaining data flow control during reception. In the PPP data processing unit, flow control is performed, and once the PPP received data exceeds the high water mark, the input of the received data to the PPP data processing unit is restricted until the PPP data processing unit becomes lower than the low water mark. Further, an instruction is given to the receiving antenna control unit to stop the diversity operation. The diversity operation is started again when the PPP received data buffer is lowered to the low water mark. If the PPP received data does not reach the high water mark, it is because the application is sufficiently processing even if diversity is operating, or because the received data is small, Diversity continues to improve.

  FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of a change in the data amount (average data amount) of PPP transmission data in the PPP data processing unit. The control unit (control unit) 4 compares the amount of PPP reception data measured by the PPP data amount measurement unit (measurement unit) 9 with the amount of PPP transmission data, and the amount of PPP transmission data is the PPP reception data. When the diversity is stopped and the PPP transmission data is determined to exceed the threshold high water mark, the transmission data cannot be sent or the radio is unstable. In this case, an instruction is given to the receiving antenna control unit to start the diversity operation, and the base station that can receive as much as possible is increased to facilitate the handoff, thereby stabilizing the transmission.

  FIG. 7 is a diagram for explaining data flow control during transmission. In the PPP data processing unit, flow control is performed in the same manner as when receiving, and once the PPP received data exceeds the high water mark, data from the application unit to the PPP data processing unit until it becomes below the low water mark. The output is limited, and further an instruction is given to the receiving antenna control unit to start the diversity operation. The diversity operation is stopped when the PPP transmission data buffer is lowered to the low water mark. If the PPP transmission data does not reach the high water mark, it means that sufficient transmission can be performed even if the diversity operation is stopped.

  When multi-RLP is used, only the above operation is performed. However, when a retransmission request (NAK) is transmitted for communication corresponding to one flow identifier, communication corresponding to this flow identifier and other flows are also transmitted. When retransmission control is performed for communication corresponding to the identifier (when operating with default RLP), the control unit (control unit) 4 transmits a retransmission request (NAK) with RLP in addition to the above operation. Sometimes, the diversity operation is stopped, and control is performed so as to continue until the next received data is processed by the RLP. By doing in this way, utilization of a secondary receiving part can be made efficient and power consumption can be reduced effectively.

  In the first embodiment of the present invention, the diversity operation is stopped according to the amount of data on the PPP session and the operation of the secondary reception unit is stopped, so that wasteful power consumption in the secondary reception unit can be reduced. it can. Therefore, it is effective for a battery-driven device.

  Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described. In the second embodiment, when the base station of the EVDO system is in a congested state and the access channel regulation is high, the downlink throughput is not high, so the diversity operation is stopped and the secondary receiving unit is operated. It will stop.

  In FIG. 1, a restriction information acquisition unit (acquisition means) 7 acquires restriction information (AP Persistence) for restricting access channel connection from a base station. The obtained restriction information (AP Persistence) for restricting connection of the access channel is stored in the storage unit (storage means) 6. The control unit (control means) 4 obtains restriction information for restricting access channel connection from the restriction information obtaining unit 7 in a state where communication is performed by operating diversity, and the obtained access channel connection The restriction information for restricting the access and the restriction information for restricting the connection of the access channel stored before the acquisition stored in the storage unit 6 are compared, and the connection of the acquired access channel is restricted. If the degree of restriction is higher in the restriction information, the diversity operation is controlled to stop.

  FIG. 8 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the second embodiment. When the restriction information acquisition unit 7 receives an access parameter message including a parameter indicating the congestion state of the base station and acquires an AP persistence value for restricting access channel connection from the access parameter message, the control unit 4 Acquires the AP persistence value from the restriction information acquisition unit 7 (step 100). Next, the previous AP persistence value stored in the storage unit 6 is compared (step 110). If the previous AP persistence value is the same as or lower than the previous AP persistence value, the acquired AP persistence value is stored in the storage unit 6 (step 120). If the AP persistence value acquired from the access parameter message is higher than the previous AP persistence value, the diversity operation is stopped (OFF) (step 130).

In the second embodiment of the present invention, when the base station is in a congested state and the access channel restriction is high, the downlink throughput is not high, so the diversity operation is stopped and the secondary receiving unit is operated. Since it stops, useless power consumption in the secondary receiving unit can be reduced. Therefore, it is effective for a battery-driven device.
Also, when the congestion state of the base station is confirmed by the restriction information and the diversity operation is stopped, the downlink communication quality (CIR) at the terminal is lowered, the DRC (Data Rate Control) value to the base station is lowered, and the congestion of the base station is reduced. Can contribute to recovery.

  Next, a third embodiment of the present invention will be described. In the third embodiment, when the uplink transmission rate is maintained higher than the required QoS rate, the wireless environment is stable and there is no reason to perform the diversity operation. Therefore, the diversity operation is stopped and the operation of the secondary receiving unit is stopped.

  In FIG. 1, a wireless communication terminal is capable of diversity reception and performs communication in which the quality of communication service (QoS) is controlled. The transmission rate detection unit (detection means) 8 detects the transmission rate of communication in which the quality of communication service is controlled. The control unit (control unit) 4 includes a long cycle average rate (first average rate) obtained by averaging the transmission rates detected by the transmission rate detection unit (detection unit) 8 over a long period (first interval), and a long period ( A short cycle average rate (second average rate) averaged over a short cycle (second interval) shorter than the first interval), and diversity based on the calculated long cycle average rate and short cycle average rate Controls start / stop of operation.

  9 and 10 are diagrams illustrating an example of a change in transmission rate. The transmission rate is the average of the rates acquired at regular intervals, using two types (long cycle average rate, short cycle average rate) of the long cycle and the short cycle average rate. ON) and stop (OFF) are dynamically switched as follows. First, the diversity operation is continued until both the long period average rate and the short period average rate exceed the required QoS rate, and the diversity is stopped when both exceed. Also, if the long cycle average rate is maintained higher than the requested QoS rate and the short cycle average rate falls below the requested QoS rate, the diversity is changed to ON. Furthermore, if the long cycle average rate is higher than the requested QoS rate and the short cycle average rate exceeds the long cycle average rate, the diversity is stopped again.

  In the third embodiment of the present invention, when the uplink transmission rate is maintained higher than the required QoS rate, the wireless environment is stable, and the diversity operation is performed. Since there is no reason, the diversity operation is stopped and the operation of the secondary reception unit is stopped, so that wasteful power consumption in the secondary reception unit can be reduced. Therefore, it is effective for a battery-driven device.

  In the above-described embodiment, when the control unit (control unit) 4 stops the diversity operation when the SHDR mode is set, the EVDO system uses the transmission unit and the primary reception unit (transmission / reception unit). The 1x system may be controlled to perform standby processing using the secondary reception unit (reception unit) at a predetermined timing. In addition, when the diversity operation is stopped, the control unit (control unit) 4 uses the secondary reception unit (reception unit) to 1x when the 1x system transitions from the standby state in which the standby process is performed to the out-of-service state. You may make it control so that the return process which returns a system to a standby state may be performed. In this way, even when the diversity operation is stopped, by enabling the out-of-service scan using the secondary receiving unit while maintaining the SHDR mode, the incoming call in the 1x system and the SMS (short message service) in the 1x system Can be received, and the convenience of the user can be improved.

It is a functional block diagram which shows schematic structure of the principal part of the mobile telephone terminal as a radio | wireless communication terminal of this invention. It is a figure explaining the flow of transmission / reception data. It is a figure which shows an example of the change of the data amount (average data amount) of PPP transmission data and PPP reception data in a PPP data processing part. It is a figure which shows an example of the change of the data amount (average data amount) of the PPP reception data in a PPP data processing part. It is a figure explaining the flow control of the data at the time of reception. It is a figure which shows an example of the change of the data amount (average data amount) of the PPP transmission data in a PPP data processing part. It is a figure explaining the flow control of the data at the time of transmission. It is a flowchart explaining operation | movement of 2nd Embodiment. It is a figure which shows an example of the change of QoS rate. It is a figure which shows an example of the change of QoS rate. It is a functional block diagram which shows schematic structure of the mobile telephone terminal carrying an SHDR function. It is a figure for demonstrating the hybrid mode and SHDR mode in EVDO communication. It is a figure which shows the gain of the primary antenna and secondary antenna which are shown in FIG.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Transmission part 2 Primary reception part 3 Secondary reception part 4 Control part 5 Reception antenna control part 6 Storage part 7 Control information acquisition part 8 Transmission rate detection part 9 PPP data amount measurement part 11 Protocol part 12 RLP data processing part 13 PPP data processing Part 14 Application part

Claims (5)

In a wireless communication terminal capable of diversity reception,
Measuring means for measuring the amount of transmitted data to be transmitted on the PPP session and the amount of received data to be received on the PPP session;
Control means for controlling start / stop of the diversity operation based on the measured amount of transmitted data and / or amount of received data;
A wireless communication terminal.   The control means controls to stop the diversity operation when it is determined that the amount of received data received on the PPP session measured by the measurement means exceeds a threshold value while the diversity is operating. The wireless communication terminal according to claim 1.   The control means controls to start the diversity operation when it is determined that the amount of transmission data to be transmitted on the PPP session measured by the measurement means exceeds a threshold value while the diversity is stopped. The wireless communication terminal according to claim 1.   When the retransmission request is transmitted to the communication corresponding to one flow identifier, when the retransmission control is performed for the communication corresponding to the flow identifier and the communication corresponding to the other flow identifier, the control means includes the retransmission request. 2. The wireless communication terminal according to claim 1, wherein control is performed so as to stop the diversity operation in response to transmission of the request. In a wireless communication method of a wireless communication terminal capable of diversity reception,
Measure the amount of transmission data to be transmitted on the PPP session and the amount of reception data to be received on the PPP session, and start the operation of diversity based on the measured amount of transmission data and / or amount of reception data. A wireless communication method characterized by stopping.

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