JP2008193513A - Portable terminal and communication speed display system - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a portable terminal which can separately grasp communicable communication speeds and does not need a dedicated communication channel to grasp the communication speeds, and a communication speed display system. <P>SOLUTION: A TFCI (Transport Format Combination Indicator) detecting part 114 of the portable terminal 101 detects transmission format information 115 from a control channel 112 sent from a base station controller 103 via a radio base station 102. A communication speed control part 118 uses a slot format communication speed correspondence table 125 on the basis of control information 117 to acquire a communication speed and displays the communication speed on a display 124. The display may be performed in combination with a receiving level. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a mobile terminal and a communication speed display system, and more particularly to a mobile terminal that performs wireless communication using a wireless base station and a communication speed display system used in these mobile terminals.

  Mobile terminals such as mobile phones, PHS (Personal Handy-phone System) or PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) equipped with communication functions and portable personal computers can be used by wireless communication with wireless base stations, both indoors and outdoors. You can send and receive calls and data. However, these mobile terminals have a problem that the communication quality varies depending on the communication environment between the wireless base station and the current position, unlike the case where communication is performed by wire. For example, when trying to communicate in a remote mountainous area, unlike a special communication terminal that communicates with an artificial satellite, communication becomes difficult or impossible if it is far away from a wireless base station. Become.

  Therefore, conventionally, portable terminals have been provided with a function of displaying the reception level of radio waves transmitted from a radio base station in a stepwise manner. For example, many mobile terminals display the reception level as either “strong”, “medium”, “weak”, or “weak” on the display, and communication with a radio base station is impossible. Displays “out of range”. As a result, the user knows the outline of the communication quality and can take measures such as moving the location as necessary.

  However, such conventional display information is information that represents the reception level. Therefore, for example, when trying to connect to the Internet with a mobile terminal, it may be difficult to connect even though the reception level indicates “strong”. Similarly, despite the situation where the reception level is so high, the transmission of the e-mail may not be completed immediately.

  This cause depends on the bandwidth that the host device allocates to the communication of the mobile terminal. In other words, even if the radio wave reception level is “strong”, if a narrow-band physical channel is allocated, it takes time to transmit and receive the amount of data necessary for communication. For example, a base station controller (RNC: Radio Network Controller) is an individual mobile terminal depending on the number of mobile terminals used in the cell of the radio base station and the type of service used such as e-mail, telephone call, or the Internet. Allocating the bandwidth to be used. Therefore, even if the user needs high-speed communication, the desired communication speed is not always realized. Therefore, there are cases where communication is not successful just by looking at the display of the reception level.

  In order to solve such a problem, it has been proposed to acquire and display communication speed information using RAB (Radio Access Bearer) menu information (see, for example, Patent Document 1). In this proposal, the control apparatus of the radio base station includes an RAB assignment determination function unit, and calculates RAB menu information from the used band and the free band of the radio band. Then, the calculated RAB menu information is transmitted by broadcast communication using a broadcast channel at a constant cycle to mobile terminals and fixed terminals scattered in the radio base station using the broadcast channel. .

The mobile terminal receives the RAB menu information transmitted from the radio base station and displays it on the RAB menu information display unit.
JP 2004-56467 A (the 0032 paragraph, the 0035 paragraph, the 0043 paragraph, FIGS. 1 and 2)

  As described above, in this proposal, the mobile terminal receives the RAB menu information, so that the use band and the free band of the radio band at each time point can be determined. Therefore, the user can predict the communication speed to some extent before accessing the radio base station. As a result, in a situation where the expected communication speed cannot be obtained, access is forgotten or access is made with the intention of communication at a low speed.

  However, since the RAB menu information is broadcast in this proposal, mobile terminals of the same radio base station acquire information on the used band and the free band of the same radio band. Therefore, each mobile terminal cannot take measures according to individual circumstances. For example, it is assumed that a certain mobile terminal is trying to send an email with a small amount of data, and another mobile terminal is trying to download a large amount of video data.

  In such a case, even if the communication band allocated to each mobile terminal is different, this proposal makes it possible for each user to predict communication quality using exactly the same information. There was a problem of lacking.

  Further, in this proposal, since the radio base station communicates the RAB menu information using the broadcast channel, there is a problem that the communication band that can be used by each mobile terminal is reduced by the communication band required for that purpose. There was also.

  SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a portable terminal and a communication speed display system capable of individually grasping the communication speed at which communication is possible.

  Another object of the present invention is to provide a portable terminal and a communication speed display system that do not require communication using a dedicated communication channel for grasping the communication speed.

  In the invention of claim 1, (a) correlation data extraction means for extracting correlation data correlated with a communication band allocated to itself from a control signal sent from the base station control device via the radio base station; (B) a communication speed association means for associating the correlation data extracted by the correlation data extraction means with a communication speed capable of communication between the radio base station and itself; and (c) associated with the communication speed association means. The mobile terminal is provided with a communication speed display means for displaying the communication speed.

  That is, in the present invention, a mobile terminal extracts correlation data correlated with a communication band allocated to itself from a control signal sent from a base station controller via a radio base station, and performs communication based on the extracted correlation data. The speed is displayed. Thereby, each portable terminal can discriminate the communication speed of its own terminal. In addition, since the communication speed is displayed based on the control signal that is sent, a dedicated communication channel is not required and the communication load is not increased.

  Here, the communication speed display means may display the communication speed as a numerical value per unit time. If this is somewhat specialized, the communication speed or the communication band is selected in stages. It may be displayed as a typical mark. The representative of the correlation data here can be slot format information as a control signal allocated to each portable terminal in order to change the transmission rate according to the contents of the communication service.

  Regarding the communication quality, since the reception level of the radio wave has been conventionally displayed, this and the communication speed may be displayed together, or one of these may be performed as required by the user. May be displayed.

  In the invention described in claim 6, (b) a radio base station and (b) a control signal including correlation data correlated with a communication band assigned to each communication partner performing radio communication via the radio base station are transmitted wirelessly. (C) Correlation data extracting means for extracting correlation data from a control signal sent from the higher order communication apparatus via the radio base station, and correlation extracted by the correlation data extracting means. Communicating with a mobile terminal as a communication partner of a radio base station comprising a communication speed association means for associating data with a communication speed and a communication speed display means for displaying the communication speed associated with the communication speed association means Provided in the speed display system.

  That is, in the present invention, a communication speed display system is configured by the radio base station, its higher-level communication device, and the mobile terminal. When a higher-level communication device typified by a base station control device allocates the communication band of each mobile terminal, the mobile terminal extracts this information by the correlation data extraction means, and displays the communication speed based on this information. ing. Therefore, each mobile terminal can determine the communication speed of its own terminal, and displays the communication speed based on the control signal sent, so there is no need for a dedicated communication channel. Do not increase the communication load.

  As described above, according to the present invention, since the correlation data correlated with the communication band is extracted from the control signal transmitted from the radio base station, the communication speed or the communication speed or the bit rate at which the communication is actually performed is determined. There is no need to calculate the communication bandwidth. Therefore, it is not necessary to significantly increase the burden of data processing on the portable terminal, increase the circuit scale, and shorten the time required for display. Furthermore, since the communication speed or communication band is individually displayed according to the content of the communication service received by each mobile terminal, information for simply displaying the used bandwidth and free band on the radio base station side on each mobile terminal Compared with the provision, highly reliable information corresponding to each portable terminal is provided to the user.

  Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail with reference to examples.

  FIG. 1 shows a main part of the configuration of a communication speed display system in an embodiment of the present invention. The communication speed display system 100 includes a mobile terminal 101, a wireless base station 102 that performs wireless communication with the portable terminal 101, and a base station control device 103 that is connected to the wireless base station 102 by wire.

  Among these, the portable terminal 101 of a present Example respond | corresponds to 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project) which is a 3rd generation mobile communication standard. The receiving unit 105 of the portable terminal 101 includes an antenna 106 for receiving radio with the radio base station 102 and includes a radio receiving unit 107 that receives radio signals. The wireless reception unit 107 despreads the received wireless signal 108 to obtain a baseband signal 109.

  A baseband signal 109 output from the wireless reception unit 107 is input to the physical channel division unit 111. The physical channel dividing unit 111 divides the baseband signal 109 into a control channel 112 and a data channel 113. Here, the control channel 112 stores control data for controlling the mobile terminal itself and the received signal. On the other hand, the data channel 113 stores user data as data handled by the user.

  The divided control channel 112 is sent from the physical channel divider 111 to a TFCI (Transport Format Combination Indicator) detector 114. The TFCI detection unit 114 extracts the TFCI from the transmitted control channel 112 and sends transmission format (TF) information 115 obtained from the TFCI to the decoding unit 116. Here, the transmission format information 115 includes slot format information.

  The slot format information is information created by the base station control device, and defines a transmission rate for communication from the radio base station to the mobile terminal 101. For example, in WCDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access), in order to change the transmission rate in accordance with the content of the service, information on the communication band is transmitted from the base station controller 103 to the radio base station 102 as slot format information. It is like that. In this embodiment, paying attention to the fact that this slot format information has a deep relationship with the communication speed at which communication can be performed between the radio base station 102 and the mobile terminal 101, the transmission format information 115 including this information is diverted. The communication speed is calculated.

  The decoding unit 116 decodes the data channel 113 sent from the physical channel dividing unit 111 using the transmission format information 115. The obtained control information 117 is sent to the communication speed control unit 118. In the case of voice communication, communication does not necessarily include data. Therefore, it is possible to calculate the communication speed more accurately by counting the received data amount and obtaining the data communication speed from the received data amount per unit time. However, when this method is adopted, the circuit scale for calculating the communication speed increases, and the power consumption also increases. Therefore, in this embodiment, the current communication band between the radio base station 102 and the portable terminal 101 is obtained by approximating the slot format information.

  The communication speed control unit 118 includes a CPU (Central Processing Unit) 119 and a memory 121 such as a ROM (Read Only Memory) storing a control program. Then, the CPU 119 executes the control program to approximate the calculation of the communication speed of the physical channel that is currently communicating based on the slot format information included in the decoded control information. The calculated communication speed of the physical channel is returned to the decoding unit 116. The calculated communication speed is returned to the decoding unit 116 as communication speed setting information 122 for setting. The communication speed calculation result 123 is sent to the display 124, and the communication speed is displayed on the display 124. Thus, the user can know the communication speed together with the reception level. In this embodiment, the communication speed is calculated using the slot format communication speed correspondence table 125 stored in the nonvolatile memory area in the memory 121. This will be described later.

  In the above description, it is assumed that the communication speed control unit 118 includes the CPU 119. However, the receiving unit 105 uses the CPU 119 as a whole, and control other than the calculation of the communication speed and the setting of the decoding unit 116 is also performed by software. It may be realized.

  FIG. 2 shows a state of communication speed display control performed by the portable terminal of this embodiment. This will be described with reference to FIG. The communication speed control unit 118 waits for the control information 117 to be received from the decoding unit 116 (step S201). When the control information is received (Y), the slot format information sent from the host device (base station control device 103) is extracted from the control information (step S202). Based on the extracted slot format information, the communication speed V (kbps) of the mobile terminal 101 is calculated (step S203). At this time, the slot format communication speed correspondence table 125 stored in the memory 121 is referred to.

  FIG. 3 shows a main part of the slot format communication speed correspondence table. The slot format communication speed correspondence table 125 describes the relationship between slot format information (Slot Format) 132, channel bit rate (Channel Bit Rate) 133, SF (Spread Factor) 134, and communication speed 135. Yes. The communication speed control unit 118 shown in FIG. 1 may search the slot format information 132 that matches the extracted slot format information, and read the communication speed 135 corresponding to this. As an example, if the slot format information 132 extracted in step S203 of FIG. 2 is “0B”, the communication speed 135 is 15 kilobits / second (kbps). If the slot format information 132 is “8A”, the communication speed 135 is 60 kilobits / second.

  The channel bit rate 133 and the SF 134 are values shown for reference in order to clarify the correlation between the slot format information 132 and the communication speed 135, and can be omitted from the description of the slot format communication speed correspondence table 125. For example, SF 134 is a communication method based on CDMA, and the communication speed and spreading factor are closely related. Accordingly, the slot format communication speed correspondence table 125 shows a reference value in relation to the communication speed 135.

  The relationship between the slot format information 132, the channel bit rate 133, and the SF 134 is extracted from the table shown in 3GPP TS 25.211. When the slot format information 132 is “B”, the SF 134 is ½ compression mode, and the capacity for storing user data in the data channel is half, so the channel bit rate 133 is halved. Correction is performed.

  Returning to FIG. 2, the description will be continued. When the communication speed is calculated in step S203, it is determined whether or not the communication speed is a calculation result by the initial operation for calculating the communication speed (step S204). For example, the communication speed calculation flag is initially turned on when the portable terminal 101 shown in FIG. 1 is turned on, and if it is turned on when the check in step S204 is completed, the flag is turned off. While the process is performed, if this flag is turned on when the check in step S204 is performed, it may be determined that the operation is an initial operation.

  If it is determined that the operation is an initial operation (Y), the communication speed calculation result 123 is sent to the display 124 for display (step S205). Then, the process is returned to the initial state (return), and the reception of the next control information 117 is awaited.

  On the other hand, when it is determined that the operation is not the initial operation (step S204: N), it is determined whether or not the communication speed is changed from the numerical value displayed on the display 124 (step S206). If it has been changed (Y), the communication speed calculation result 123 after the change is sent to the display 124 for display (step S205). When the communication speed is the same as the previous time (step S206: N), the process is returned to the initial state (return) without sending the communication speed calculation result 123 to the display 124, and the next control information 117 is received. Will wait.

  FIG. 4 shows an example of a display related to the communication state on the display of the present embodiment. In addition to the iconized reception level display 141, a communication speed display 142 is displayed on the display 124. Thereby, the user of the portable terminal 101 (FIG. 1) can know the communication speed together with the reception level indicating the strength of the radio wave.

  FIG. 5 shows reception level icons used for display in this embodiment. FIG. 3A shows an icon when the reception level is low and the area is out of service. FIGS. 7B to 7E show icons in a state where the reception level is increased from weak to weak, medium, and strong in order.

  As described above, since the mobile terminal 101 of this embodiment displays not only the reception level but also the communication speed on the display 124, it is possible to provide the user with a communication quality state different from the reception level. In addition, the communication speed is not displayed based on actual data reception, but is calculated based on slot format information created by the base station controller. Therefore, the communication speed can be displayed only by preparing a minimum circuit or software on the portable terminal 101 side. Therefore, the present invention can be applied to existing mobile phones with simple measures.

  <Deformability of invention>

  FIG. 6 shows a configuration of a communication speed control unit as a main part of the mobile terminal in the modification of the present invention. The communication speed control unit 118A of the mobile terminal 101A of this modification example uses a slot format coefficient correspondence table 301 in the nonvolatile memory area of the memory 121A instead of the slot format communication speed correspondence table 125 (FIG. 1) of the previous embodiment. I have. In the portable terminal 101A, circuits other than those shown in FIG. 6 are the same as those of the portable terminal 101 shown in FIG.

  FIG. 7 shows a slot format coefficient correspondence table. The slot format coefficient correspondence table 301 describes the relationship among slot format information (Slot Format) 132, channel bit rate (Channel Bit Rate) 133, SF (Spread Factor) 134, and coefficient 311. The communication speed control unit 118A illustrated in FIG. 6 searches for the slot format information 132 that matches the extracted slot format information, and reads the coefficient 311 corresponding thereto. Here, the coefficient is a category defined for displaying a rough communication speed. In this embodiment, the coefficients are set in four stages from “1” to “4”.

  The channel bit rate 133 and SF 134 are values shown for reference in order to clarify the correlation between the slot format information 132 and the coefficient 311, and can be omitted from the description of the slot format coefficient correspondence table 301.

  FIG. 8 shows an icon for each coefficient used in this modification. FIG. 6A shows a case where the coefficient is “1” and the communication speed is “low speed”. FIG. 5B shows a case where the coefficient is “2” and the communication speed is “medium speed” faster than “low speed”. FIG. 6C shows a case where the coefficient is “3” and the communication speed is “fast”. FIG. 4D shows the case of the “fastest” communication speed when the coefficient is “4”. By displaying the four character icons in this way, it is possible to intuitively determine the communication speed by reading the meaning of the combination of kanji characters compared to the icons with pictures.

  FIG. 9 shows a state of display control of the communication speed of the mobile terminal in this modification. This will be described with reference to FIGS. The communication speed control unit 118A waits for the control information 117 to be received from the decoding unit 116 (step S401). When the control information is received (Y), the slot format information sent from the host device is extracted from the control information (step S402). Based on the extracted slot format information, the above-described coefficient is calculated (step S403). At this time, the slot format coefficient correspondence table 301 stored in the memory 121A is referred to.

  As an example, if the slot format information 132 is “0B” in the slot format coefficient correspondence table 301 shown in FIG. 7, the coefficient 311 is “1”. This is a communication speed corresponding to "low speed" from FIG. If the slot format information 132 is “8A”, the coefficient 311 is “2”. This is a communication speed corresponding to "medium speed" from FIG.

  When the coefficient is calculated in step S403, it is determined whether or not it is a calculation result by the initial operation of calculating the communication speed (step S404). For example, the coefficient calculation flag is initially turned on when the power of the portable terminal 101A shown in FIG. 6 is turned on, and is turned off if the flag is turned on when the check in step S404 is completed. On the other hand, if this flag is on when the check in step S404 is performed, it may be determined that the operation is an initial operation.

  If it is determined that the operation is an initial operation (Y), the coefficient calculation result 123 (FIG. 1) is sent to the display 124 (FIG. 1) for display (step S405). Then, the process is returned to the initial state (return), and the reception of the next control information 117 is awaited.

  On the other hand, when it is determined that the operation is not the initial operation (step S404: N), it is determined whether or not the coefficient representing the communication speed in steps is changed from the value displayed on the display 124. (Step S406). If it has been changed (Y), the coefficient calculation result 123 after the change is sent to the display 124 to display the corresponding character icon (step S405). If the coefficient is the same as the previous time (step S406: N), the process returns to the initial state (return) without sending the coefficient calculation result 123 to the display 124, and waits for reception of the next control information 117. Will do.

  FIG. 10 shows a state of switching control of the reception state display of the display in this modification. With this control, the user can switch the display of the reception state of the portable terminal 101A in several ways. This is due to the control program stored in the memory 121A shown in FIG.

  The communication speed control unit 118A shown in FIG. 6 monitors whether a setting button (not shown) arranged in an operation unit (not shown) of the portable terminal 101A is pressed (step S421). When the setting button is pressed to perform various settings (Y), the CPU 119 monitors whether or not the “reception status display” item is selected (step S422). If another item is selected (step S422: N), the process proceeds to setting processing for the selected item.

  When the item “reception status display” is selected (step S422: Y), the reception status is blinked and displayed in the currently selected display mode (step S423). The reception state is displayed in a blinking manner in order to highlight a portion whose setting is to be changed, and the display color may be changed instead of the blinking.

  FIG. 11 shows the reception state currently set as an example. The display 124 displays a reception level display 141 and a communication speed display 142A corresponding to the coefficient.

  In this state, when the user presses a next key (not shown) arranged in the operation unit (step S424: Y), the reception state display is changed to the next display mode in a predetermined order (step S425).

  FIG. 12 shows the second display mode as the next display state of the display. Compared to FIG. 11, the communication speed display 142 </ b> A disappears, and only the reception level display 141 is displayed. The user can further change the reception status display to the next display mode by pressing the next key.

  FIG. 13 shows a third display mode. This time, only the communication speed display 142 </ b> A is displayed on the display 124. The user can cyclically switch the reception status display shown in FIGS. 11 to 13 by pressing the next key one after another. When a confirmation key (not shown) is pressed when a desired reception state display is obtained (step S424: N, step S426: Y), the currently selected reception state display is set as the nonvolatile memory area of the memory 121A. And the setting mode ends (step S427).

  As described above, according to the modification of the present invention, it is possible to notify the user who is not familiar with communication of the state of communication quality in an easy-to-understand manner. Further, by causing the user to select the display of the communication quality state, information unnecessary for the user can be excluded from the display on the display, and the display space can be efficiently utilized.

  In the modification, the selection of the display form using the reception level display 141 and the communication speed display 142A corresponding to the coefficient has been described. However, the reception level display 141 and the communication speed display 142 described in the embodiment are used. The same display form may be selected by using. Further, it is natural that the communication speed display 142A corresponding to the coefficient may be displayed by using a normal icon made up of a symbol or a graphic that visually indicates the level of the communication speed.

  In the embodiment and the modification, the communication speed is displayed by utilizing the slot format information in the portable terminal to which the third generation mobile communication standard is applied. The present invention can be similarly applied to other cases in which information to be used is used.

It is a block diagram showing the principal part of the structure of the communication speed display system in one Example of this invention. It is the flowchart showing the mode of the display control of the communication speed which the portable terminal of a present Example performs. It is explanatory drawing showing the principal part of the slot format communication speed correspondence table used in a present Example. It is the top view which showed an example of the display regarding the communication state in the display of a present Example. It is a top view showing the icon of the reception level used for the display in a present Example. It is a block diagram showing the structure of the communication speed control part as a principal part of the portable terminal in the modification of this invention. It is explanatory drawing showing the principal part of the slot format coefficient correspondence table used in this modification. It is a top view showing the icon of each coefficient used in this modification. It is a flowchart showing the mode of the display control of the communication speed of the portable terminal in this modification. It is a flowchart showing the mode of the switching control of the reception status display of the display in this modification. It is a top view of the display showing the reception condition currently set as an example in this modification. It is the top view which showed the 2nd display mode as the next display state of a display in this modification. It is the top view which showed the 3rd display mode of the display in this modification.

Explanation of symbols

101, 101A mobile terminal 102 wireless base station 103 base station controller 107 wireless receiver 112 control channel 114 TFCI detector 115 transmission format information 118, 118A communication speed controller 119 CPU
124 display 125 slot format communication speed correspondence table 132 slot format information 135 communication speed 141 reception level display 142, 142A communication speed display 301 slot format coefficient correspondence table 311 coefficient

Claims (6)

Correlation data extracting means for extracting correlation data correlated with a communication band assigned to the device from a control signal sent from the base station controller via the radio base station;
A communication speed associating means for associating the correlation data extracted by the correlation data extracting means with a communication speed capable of communicating between the radio base station and itself;
A portable terminal comprising: a communication speed display means for displaying a communication speed associated by the communication speed association means.   2. The portable terminal according to claim 1, wherein the communication speed display means is means for displaying the communication speed as a numerical value per unit time.   The communication speed association means includes a table in which the correlation data is individually associated with a communication speed or a communication band corresponding to a plurality of stages, and the communication speed display means is a communication speed in each case. The mobile terminal according to claim 1, wherein the communication band is displayed as a visual mark selected stepwise.   The mobile terminal according to claim 1, wherein the correlation data is slot format information as a control signal allocated to each mobile terminal in order to change a transmission rate in accordance with a content of a communication service. Reception level measuring means for measuring the reception level of radio waves transmitted from the radio base station;
Reception level display means for displaying the reception level measured by the reception level measurement means;
2. The portable terminal according to claim 1, further comprising display content selection means for selecting and displaying either or both of the communication speed display means and the reception level display means. A radio base station;
A higher-level communication device that provides the radio base station with a control signal including correlation data correlated with a communication band assigned to each communication partner that performs radio communication via the radio base station;
Correlation data extraction means for extracting the correlation data from the control signal sent from the host communication device via the radio base station, and a communication speed for associating the correlation data extracted by the correlation data extraction means with a communication speed Communication comprising: association means; and a mobile terminal as a communication partner of the radio base station, comprising communication means for displaying the communication speed associated by the communication speed association means. Speed display system.

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