JP2010114779A - Radio base station and radio communication method - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To achieve stable and speedy radio communication by improving radio communication quality at communication frequencies having deteriorated radio communication quality (CQI) even if assigning the communication frequencies to radio terminals. <P>SOLUTION: In a radio communication method, a radio base station 1A detects subbands, where the CQI is deteriorated as compared with thresholds, as interfered subbands in a plurality of subbands, based on CQI information received from a radio terminal 2A by the radio base station 1A (step S210). The radio base station 1A identifies a radio base station of an interference sources from adjacent radio base stations (step S220), and instructs either reduction in transmission power of interference signals or stop of transmission to the radio base station of the interference source (step S230). <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2010,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a radio base station and a radio communication method used in a radio communication system that notifies a radio base station of quality information indicating radio communication quality for each communication frequency.

  In a wireless communication system, frequency resources are limited, and various techniques have been developed to make maximum use of the limited frequency resources. As one of such techniques, a technique is known in which a communication frequency assigned to a wireless terminal by a wireless base station is dynamically changed according to wireless communication quality for each communication frequency.

  In such a technique, the wireless terminal measures wireless communication quality at each of a plurality of communication frequencies, and notifies the wireless base station of quality information indicating the measurement result. Based on the quality information received from the wireless terminal, the wireless base station assigns to the wireless terminal a communication frequency with good wireless communication quality among communication frequencies that can be assigned to the wireless terminal.

  As a result, the radio terminal can perform radio communication with the radio base station using a communication frequency with good radio communication quality (that is, a communication frequency with a low interference level from a neighboring radio base station). Wireless communication can be realized.

In LTE (Long Term Evolution), which is a wireless communication system standardized by 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project), quality information about a predetermined number of communication frequencies with high wireless communication quality is transmitted from a wireless terminal to a wireless base station. Is notified to the station (see Non-Patent Document 1).
3GPP TS 36.213 V8.3.0 “7.2 UE procedure for reporting channel quality indication (CQI), precoding matrix indicator (PMI) and rank indication (RI)”, [online], [October 17, 2008 search], <URL : Http://www.3gpp.org/ftp/Specs/archive/36_series/36.213/36213-830.zip>

  However, in a situation where there is a lot of traffic transmitted and received by the radio base station, such as when the radio base station performs radio communication with a large number of radio terminals, a shortage of communication resources occurs, and thus the radio base station does not necessarily have radio communication quality. A good communication frequency cannot be assigned to a wireless terminal.

  For this reason, a communication frequency with deteriorated radio communication quality (that is, a communication frequency having a high interference level from a neighboring radio base station) may be assigned to the radio terminal. In such a case, the conventional wireless communication system has a problem that the wireless terminal cannot realize stable and high-speed wireless communication.

  Therefore, the present invention provides a wireless base that improves wireless communication quality at a communication frequency and enables stable and high-speed wireless communication even when a communication frequency with deteriorated wireless communication quality is assigned to a wireless terminal. An object is to provide a station and a wireless communication method.

  In order to solve the above-described problems, the present invention has the following features. First, the first feature of the present invention is that quality information indicating wireless communication quality measured by the wireless terminal at a plurality of communication frequencies that can be used for the wireless communication by performing wireless communication with the wireless terminal (wireless terminal 2A). Is a wireless base station (radio base station 1A) that receives from the wireless terminal, and based on the quality information received from the wireless terminal, the wireless communication quality of the plurality of communication frequencies is deteriorated below a threshold value A detecting unit (interfered subband detecting unit 123) that detects a frequency as an interfered communication frequency, terminal position information indicating a position of the wireless terminal, and another wireless base station (neighboring within a predetermined range from the wireless base station) When the interference communication frequency is detected by an information acquisition unit (information acquisition unit 121) that acquires base station position information related to the position of the radio base stations 1B to 1G), and the detection unit, Based on the terminal location information and the base station location information, an interference source that identifies an interference source base station that transmits to the radio terminal an interference signal that is a radio signal using the interfered communication frequency among the other radio base stations. A specifying unit (notification processing unit 125) and an instruction unit (notification processing unit) that instructs the interference source base station specified by the interference source specifying unit to reduce transmission power or stop transmission of the interference signal 124).

  According to such a radio base station, the detection unit detects the interfered communication frequency, the interference source identification unit identifies the interference source base station that transmits the interference signal to the radio terminal, and the instruction unit transmits the interference signal. Instruct the interference source base station to either reduce power or stop transmission. As a result, transmission of interference signals is restricted, and wireless communication quality at the interfered communication frequency is improved.

  Therefore, even when a communication frequency (that is, an interfered communication frequency) with deteriorated wireless communication quality is assigned to a wireless terminal, wireless communication quality at the communication frequency can be improved and stable and high-speed wireless communication can be realized. Can be.

  The second feature of the present invention relates to the first feature of the present invention, wherein the quality information is received from the wireless terminal a plurality of times, or the quality information is received from a plurality of wireless terminals including the wireless terminal. An information receiving unit (wireless communication unit 110), and a counting unit (counting unit 122c) that counts the number of times the wireless communication quality has deteriorated below the threshold for each of the plurality of communication frequencies. Detecting the deteriorated communication frequency as the interfered communication frequency when the deteriorated communication frequency exists and the number of times counted by the counting unit for the deteriorated communication frequency has reached a predetermined number. Is the gist.

  A third feature of the present invention relates to the first or second feature of the present invention, and determines whether or not the wireless terminal is located at a communication area end of the wireless base station based on the terminal position information. A position determination unit (position determination unit 122b) that detects the presence of the deteriorated communication frequency, and the position determination unit determines that the wireless terminal is located at the end of the communication area. When it is determined, the gist is to detect the deteriorated communication frequency as the interfered communication frequency.

  A fourth feature of the present invention relates to any one of the first to third features of the present invention, wherein the quality information received from the wireless terminal is measured by the wireless terminal at each of the plurality of communication frequencies. Among the wireless communication qualities, the gist is to indicate a predetermined number of the lower wireless communication qualities with lower wireless communication qualities.

  A fifth feature of the present invention relates to any one of the first to fourth features of the present invention, wherein the interference source specifying unit calculates a distance between the wireless terminal and the other wireless base station. The gist is to identify the radio base station having the shortest calculated distance as the interference source base station among the other radio base stations.

  A sixth feature of the present invention relates to any one of the first to fourth features of the present invention, wherein the base station location information includes information indicating a communication area formed by the other radio base station, The gist of the interference source identifying unit is to identify, as the interference source base station, a radio base station that forms the communication area including the position of the radio terminal among the other radio base stations.

  A seventh feature of the present invention relates to the first feature of the present invention, wherein the information acquisition unit is included in the interference signal received by the wireless terminal, instead of the terminal location information and the base station location information. The base station identification information for identifying the interference source base station is acquired from the wireless terminal, and the interference source specifying unit specifies the interference source base station based on the base station identification information. To do.

  An eighth feature of the present invention is that wireless communication is performed with a wireless terminal, and quality information indicating wireless communication quality measured by the wireless terminal at a plurality of communication frequencies usable for the wireless communication is received from the wireless terminal. A wireless communication method used in a wireless base station, wherein, based on the quality information received from the wireless terminal, a communication frequency in which the wireless communication quality is deteriorated below a threshold among the plurality of communication frequencies is set as an interfered communication frequency. Detecting (step S214), acquiring terminal location information indicating the location of the radio terminal, and base station location information relating to the location of another radio base station within a predetermined range from the radio base station, When the interfered communication frequency is detected by the detecting step, the other nothing is based on the terminal location information and the base station location information. Identifying an interference source base station that transmits an interference signal, which is a radio signal using the interfered communication frequency, among the base stations to the wireless terminal (step S220), and the interference source base identified by the identifying step And a step (step S230) of instructing the station to either reduce the transmission power of the interference signal or stop transmission.

  According to the present invention, even when a communication frequency with degraded radio communication quality is assigned to a radio terminal, the radio base that improves radio communication quality at the communication frequency and enables stable and high-speed radio communication. A station and a wireless communication method can be provided.

  Next, a wireless communication system according to the first embodiment, the second embodiment, and other embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. In the description of the drawings in the following embodiments, the same or similar parts are denoted by the same or similar reference numerals.

[First Embodiment]
In the first embodiment, (1) a schematic configuration of a radio communication system, (2) a configuration of a radio base station, (3) an operation of the radio communication system, and (4) operations and effects will be described.

(1) Schematic Configuration of Radio Communication System FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of a radio communication system 10 according to the first embodiment. The wireless communication system 10 has a configuration based on the LTE standard. That is, in the radio communication system 10, an orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) system, which is one of multicarrier communication systems, is used. In the OFDMA scheme, a communication channel called a subchannel is configured using a plurality of subcarriers, and the communication channel is assigned to a wireless terminal.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the radio communication system 10 includes a radio base station 1A, a radio base station 1B, a plurality of radio terminals 2A, and a radio terminal 2B.

  The radio base station 1A (first radio base station) forms a communication area 5A that is an area where communication with a radio terminal is possible. The communication area 5A is an area within the radio wave reach of the radio base station 1A and is also called a cell.

  The radio terminal 2A is located in the communication area 5A, and performs radio communication with the radio base station 1A via the communication channel assigned by the radio base station 1A. Although only one wireless terminal 2A is illustrated in FIG. 1, a large number of wireless terminals 2A may be located in the communication area 5A and perform wireless communication with the wireless base station 1A. When a large number of wireless terminals 2A perform wireless communication with the wireless base station 1A in this way, a shortage occurs in the wireless communication resources of the wireless base station 1A.

  The radio base station 1B (second radio base station) forms a communication area 5B. Wireless communication is performed with the wireless terminal 2B located in the communication area 5B. Many wireless terminals other than the wireless terminal 2B may be located in the communication area 5B.

  The radio base station 1A and the radio base station 1B are connected to a backbone network 100 that is a wired communication network. The radio base station 1 </ b> A and the radio base station 1 </ b> B can communicate with each other via the backbone network 100.

  The communication area 5A formed by the radio base station 1A and the communication area 5B formed by the radio base station 1B are so-called adjacent cells that partially overlap. In the example of FIG. 1, the wireless terminal 2A is located in an overlapping portion between the communication area 5A and the communication area 5B.

  The communication channel assigned to the wireless terminal 2A by the wireless base station 1A and the communication channel assigned to the wireless terminal 2B by the wireless base station 1B are, for example, communication channels of the same frequency or adjacent frequencies. Since the wireless terminal 2A is located at the end 6A of the communication area 5A that overlaps the communication area 5B (hereinafter referred to as “area end”), the influence of the interference received from the wireless base station 1B is large.

  That is, the radio signal transmitted from the radio base station 1B to the radio terminal 2B is received not only by the radio terminal 2B but also by the radio terminal 2A. Hereinafter, radio communication between the radio base station 1A and the radio terminal 2A will be mainly described, and a radio signal received by the radio terminal 2A from the radio base station 1B will be referred to as an interference signal.

  In the OFDMA scheme, the communication channel assigned to the radio terminal 2A by the radio base station 1A can be dynamically changed. The radio communication system 10 employs adaptive modulation. In adaptive modulation, the higher the radio communication quality (SNR and CINR) between the radio base station 1A and the radio terminal 2A, the higher the radio communication using a modulation scheme can be realized.

  Under such circumstances, in the wireless communication system 10, the wireless terminal 2A measures the wireless communication quality and notifies the wireless base station 1A of the measured wireless communication quality. Specifically, the radio terminal 2A measures the radio communication quality for each frequency unit called a subband in which a plurality of subcarriers are collected. In the LTE standard, all frequency bands available in the wireless communication system 10 are divided into about 50 subbands, for example. Further, in the LTE standard, a value called CQI (Channel Quality Indication) is used as an index of wireless communication quality. In the 3GPP standard specification “3GPP TS 36.213 V8.3.0”, a method is defined in which a wireless terminal notifies a wireless base station of CQIs for upper M subbands with high CQI. Thereby, the radio base station can know a good subband for the radio terminal.

  Furthermore, in the first embodiment, the wireless terminal 2A extracts, for example, the lower N low CQIs from the CQI measured in each of the plurality of subbands, and wirelessly transmits CQI information indicating the extracted lower N CQIs. Notify the base station 1A.

  As shown in FIG. 2, a plurality of neighboring radio base stations 1B to 1G are installed in the vicinity of the radio base station 1A. The area ends 6B to 6G of the communication areas 5B to 5G formed by the neighboring radio base stations 1B to 1G overlap with the area end 6A of the communication area 5A formed by the radio base station 1A.

  Based on the CQI information received from the radio terminal 2A, the radio base station 1A detects an interfered subband that receives large interference from the neighboring radio base stations 1B to 1G among a plurality of subbands, and information on the affected subband To the neighboring radio base stations 1B to 1G. The neighboring radio base stations 1B to 1G execute a process for reducing interference according to the notified information. In the following, the radio base station 1B will be described as a representative of the neighboring radio base stations 1B to 1G.

(2) Configuration of Radio Base Station Next, (2.1) Configuration of the radio base station 1A and (2.2) Configuration of the radio base station 1B will be described.

(2.1) Configuration of Radio Base Station 1A FIG. 3 is a functional block diagram showing a configuration of the radio base station 1A according to the first embodiment.

  As illustrated in FIG. 3, the radio base station 1 </ b> A includes a radio communication unit 110, a control unit 120, a storage unit 130, and a wired communication unit 140.

  The wireless communication unit 110 includes an LNA (Low Noise Amplifier), a power amplifier, an up-converter, a down-converter, and the like, and transmits and receives wireless signals according to OFDMA. The wireless communication unit 110 constitutes a quality information receiving unit that receives CQI information (quality information) from the wireless terminal 2A.

  The wired communication unit 140 functions as an interface with the backbone network 100. The control unit 120 includes, for example, a CPU and controls various functions provided in the radio base station 1A. The storage unit 130 is configured by a memory, for example, and stores various information used for control and the like in the radio base station 1A.

  The control unit 120 includes an information acquisition unit 121, an information management unit 122, an interfered subband detection unit 123, and a notification processing unit 124.

  The information acquisition unit 121 includes a location information acquisition unit 121b that acquires location information (terminal location information) indicating the location of the wireless terminal 2A, and a CQI information acquisition unit 121a that acquires CQI information notified from the wireless terminal 2A. . The CQI information acquisition unit 121a receives CQI information from one wireless terminal 2A a plurality of times or receives CQI information from a plurality of wireless terminals 2A. The position information acquisition unit 121b acquires position information indicating at least one of the position of the wireless terminal 2A or the distance between the wireless terminal 2A and the wireless base station 1A.

  The information management unit 122 saves the CQI information acquired by the information acquisition unit 121 in the CQI information storage unit 131 of the storage unit 130 and manages the CQI information.

  The information management unit 122 includes a deterioration determination unit 122a, a position determination unit 122b, a count unit 122c, and an information deletion unit 122d. Based on the CQI information, the deterioration determination unit 122a determines whether there is a subband in which the CQI is deteriorated below a threshold among a plurality of subbands. The position determination unit 122b determines whether or not the wireless terminal 2A is located at the area end 6A of the wireless base station 1A based on the terminal position information. The counting unit 122c counts the number of times the CQI has deteriorated below the threshold for each of the plurality of subbands. The information deletion unit 122d deletes outdated information from the CQI information stored in the CQI information storage unit 131.

  The interfered subband detection unit 123 detects the interfered subband using information managed by the information management unit 122. The notification processing unit 124 notifies the neighboring radio base stations 1B to 1G of interference information indicating the interfered subband detected by the interfered subband detection unit 123. That is, in the first embodiment, the notification processing unit 124 configures an interference information notification unit.

  Hereinafter, processing executed by each functional block of the radio base station 1A will be described in detail. Specifically, (2.1.1) Acquisition of terminal location information, (2.1.2) Acquisition of CQI information, (2.1.3) Management of CQI information, (2.1.4) Coverage Detection of interference subbands and (2.1.5) notification of interference information will be described.

(2.1.1) Acquisition of terminal position information The position information acquisition unit 121b acquires the position information of the wireless terminal 2A using any one of the following methods A to C.
A. The wireless terminal 2A measures the position of its own terminal by position information detecting means such as GPS mounted on the wireless terminal 2A, and notifies the wireless base station 1A of the position information. The timing at which the radio terminal 2A notifies the location information may be a notification at a fixed period at the initial connection to the radio base station 1A, a notification when the location information changes, or the like.
B. Position estimation by the radio base station 1A measuring the reception power, Doppler frequency, etc. of the radio wave transmitted by the radio terminal 2A. In some cases, it is possible to accurately measure the position of the wireless terminal 2A based on the measurement results of a plurality of base stations.
C. Distance estimation based on a difference between the timing at which the radio base station 1A receives a radio signal transmitted by the radio terminal 2A and the signal transmission timing of the radio base station 1A. Alternatively, distance estimation is performed by notifying timing advance (TA) information performed by the wireless terminal 2A. Or a combination of these.

(2.1.2) Acquisition of CQI information The CQI information acquisition unit 121a can obtain a CQI from the wireless terminal 2A irregularly by requesting it from the wireless terminal 2A, but the CQI information with a low measurement result can be obtained. Let the band know. The number of CQIs to be notified to the wireless terminal 2A may be the lower M CQIs, the CQI less than or equal to a predetermined threshold, the lower M among CQIs lower than or equal to a predetermined threshold. Further, as a method for causing the wireless terminal 2A to recognize the reference (number M or threshold), there are system fixing, notification by broadcast information, notification by configuration at the time of initial connection of the wireless terminal 2A, and the like.

(2.1.3) Management of CQI Information The information management unit 122 stores the CQI information stored in the CQI information storage unit 131 according to the distance of the wireless terminal in the above C. Or the information management part 122 may preserve | save only CQI of the radio | wireless terminal determined to be located in the area edge 6A by the position determination part 122b.

The information management unit 122 stores the CQI information in the CQI information storage unit 131 by any one of the following methods D to E.
D. Method for storing subband and CQI together with terminal ID
E. Method for storing CQI for each subband
F. A method for storing the number of CQIs notified below a threshold for each subband

  When each storage method is arranged in the order in which the required memory amount is large, D.D. > E. > F. It becomes. If the amount of information is large, the amount of memory in the CQI information storage unit 131 increases, but more advanced interference detection is possible.

  Further, since the interference currently received cannot be correctly estimated based on the old information as a reference, the information deletion unit 122d deletes the old information when a certain time (TBD) elapses by any method.

  Table 1 shows an example of CQI information when stored by the method E.

表１では、サブバンド番号１〜４の各サブバンドについて、通知されたＣＱＩと、通知されてからの経過時間に応じた値とが記録されている。経過時間に応じた値は、時間の経過とともにデクリメント（１を減算）され、ゼロになった時点で、該当するＣＱＩが削除される。

In Table 1, for each subband of subband numbers 1 to 4, the notified CQI and a value corresponding to the elapsed time since the notification are recorded. The value corresponding to the elapsed time is decremented (subtracted from 1) with the passage of time, and when the value becomes zero, the corresponding CQI is deleted.

(2.1.4) Detection of Interfered Subband Since a subband having a low CQI is generally estimated to have received a higher level of interference, the degradation determination unit 122a determines that the CQI is below a certain threshold. In such a case, it can be determined that the interference level is high. However, in order to remove an instantaneous factor, the interfered subband detection unit 123 may determine the subband to be interfered when the CQI that satisfies the condition is observed a plurality of times using the count unit 122c.

  When storing information as in F above, the count unit 122c counts the number of times that CQI equal to or less than the threshold value is displayed for each subband, and the interfered subband detection unit 123 sets the count value to be equal to or greater than a preset number. Is determined to be an interfered subband.

  E. above. However, since the CQI is also stored for each subband, the interfered subband detection unit 123 weights the CQI level so that the number of times below the threshold is small. It can be determined as high interference.

  D. above. Then, since the wireless terminal that has notified each CQI can also be identified, it is possible to select individual factors such as a terminal failure when the CQI of a specific wireless terminal is poor.

(2.1.5) Notification of Interference Information When the interfered subband detection unit 123 detects the interfered subband, the notification processing unit 124 transmits the interference information to the neighboring radio base stations 1B to 1G via the backbone network 100. Notify For example, the interference information includes a subband number for identifying the interfered subband. The neighboring radio base stations 1B to 1G that have received the notification will avoid the subband or use it with low transmission power according to the traffic situation of the local station. The notification processing unit 124 may notify an instruction message with a strong forcing to stop using the interfered subband or to reduce the output.

(2.2) Configuration of Radio Base Station 1B Next, the configuration of the radio base station 1B will be described. FIG. 4 is a functional block diagram showing the configuration of the radio base station 1B.

  As illustrated in FIG. 4, the radio base station 1B includes a radio communication unit 210, a control unit 220, a storage unit 230, and a wired communication unit 240. The wireless communication unit 210 includes an LNA, a power amplifier, an up-converter, a down-converter, and the like, and transmits / receives a wireless signal according to OFDMA. The wired communication unit 240 functions as an interface with the backbone network 100. The wired communication unit 240 functions as an interference information receiving unit that receives interference information via the backbone network 100.

  The control unit 220 includes, for example, a CPU and controls various functions provided in the radio base station 1B. The storage unit 230 is configured by a memory, for example, and stores various information used for control and the like in the radio base station 1B.

  The control unit 220 includes an allocation management unit 221, a transmission determination unit 222, and a transmission control unit 223. The assignment management unit 221 assigns a communication channel to the wireless terminal 2B, and manages the assigned communication channel and subband information including the communication channel. Allocation information managed by the allocation management unit 221 is stored in the storage unit 230 (allocation information storage unit 231).

  The transmission determination unit 222 identifies the interfered subband based on the interference information received from the radio base station 1A, and determines whether the radio base station 1B is transmitting an interference signal using the interfered subband. Specifically, the transmission determination unit 222 determines whether or not a communication channel having a frequency corresponding to the interfered subband is allocated to the radio terminal 2B based on the allocation information managed by the allocation management unit 221. And the transmission determination part 222 determines with the radio base station 1B transmitting the interference signal, when the communication channel of the frequency corresponding to an interfered subband is allocated to the radio | wireless terminal 2B.

  The transmission control unit 223 controls the wireless communication unit 210 according to the determination result by the transmission determination unit 222. When the transmission determining unit 222 determines that the radio base station 1B is transmitting an interference signal, the transmission control unit 223 performs either reduction of the interference signal transmission power or transmission stop.

(3) Operation of Radio Communication System Next, the operation of the radio communication system 10 according to the first embodiment will be described. Specifically, (3.1) Overall operation, (3.2) Operation of the radio base station 1A, (3.3) Operation of the radio base station 1B will be described.

(3.1) Overall Schematic Operation FIG. 5 is a sequence diagram showing a schematic operation sequence of the wireless communication system 10 according to the first embodiment.

  In step S110, the radio communication unit 210 of the radio base station 1B transmits an interference signal to the radio base station 1A.

  In step S120, the radio terminal 2A notifies the radio base station 1A of CQI information. Thereafter, the wireless terminal 2A periodically notifies the wireless base station 1A of CQI information. The CQI information acquisition unit 121a of the radio base station 1A acquires the notified CQI information. The position information acquisition unit 121b acquires the position information of the wireless terminal 2A using any one of the methods A to C described above.

  In step S130, the information management unit 122 and the interfered subband detection unit 123 of the radio base station 1A execute interference detection processing for detecting the interfered subband. Details of the interference detection processing will be described later.

  In step S140, the notification processing unit 124 of the radio base station 1A notifies the neighboring radio base stations 1B to 1G via the backbone network 100 when the interfered subband is detected.

  In steps S150B, S150C, and S150D, the transmission determining unit 222 and the transmission control unit 223 of the neighboring radio base stations 1B to 1G determine whether or not to perform the interference avoidance process.

  In step S160, the transmission determining unit 222 of the radio base station 1B determines that an interference signal is being transmitted, and the transmission control unit 223 performs output regulation (in this case, transmission power reduction) of the corresponding communication channel.

(3.2) Operation of Radio Base Station 1A FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the operation of the radio base station 1A according to the first embodiment, specifically, details of step S130 (interference detection processing) shown in FIG. It is.

  In step S <b> 131, the information management unit 122 stores the CQI information in the CQI information storage unit 131 of the storage unit 130.

  In step S132, the position determination unit 122b determines whether or not the wireless terminal 2A is located at the area edge 6A based on the terminal position information. Note that information on the area edge 6A is required for position determination in the position determination unit 122b, but it is assumed that the information is stored in the storage unit 130 in advance. If it is determined that the wireless terminal 2A is located at the area edge 6A, the process proceeds to step S133.

  In step S133, the deterioration determination unit 122a determines whether there is a subband in which the CQI is deteriorated below a threshold value among the plurality of subbands based on the CQI information. Further, the count unit 122c refers to the CQI information storage unit 131, and counts the number of times that the CQI has deteriorated below the threshold for the deteriorated subband. If it is determined that there is a subband whose CQI has deteriorated below the threshold, the process proceeds to step S134.

  In step S134, when the number of times the counting unit 122c has counted the degraded subband reaches a predetermined number (S134; YES), the interfered subband detection unit 123 causes the degraded subband to be interfered. It is detected as a subband (step S135).

(3.3) Operation of Radio Base Station 1B FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing details of the operation of the radio base station 1B, specifically, step S150B (interference avoidance determination process) shown in FIG.

  In step S151, the transmission determination unit 222 determines whether or not a communication channel having a frequency corresponding to the interfered subband is used, based on the allocation information managed by the allocation management unit 221. If it is determined that a communication channel having a frequency corresponding to the interfered subband is being used, the process proceeds to step S152.

  In step S152, the transmission control unit 223 determines whether there is an unassigned subband (or communication channel) in a subband other than the interfered subband based on the assignment information managed by the assignment management unit 221. . If it is determined that there is an unassigned subband, the process proceeds to step S155. If it is determined that there is no subband, the process proceeds to step S153.

  In step S155, the transmission control unit 223 stops using the communication channel (interfered subband) that has been allocated to the wireless terminal 2B, that is, stops transmission of the interference signal, and supports the unassigned subband. The communication channel to be assigned is reassigned to the wireless terminal 2B.

  In step S153, the transmission control unit 223 determines whether the throughput for the wireless terminal 2B can be reduced. For example, when the amount of data addressed to the wireless terminal 2B is small, it is determined that the throughput can be reduced.

  In step S154, the transmission control unit 223 continues to use the communication channel (interfered subband) that has been allocated to the wireless terminal 2B until then, and reduces the transmission power in the communication channel. In this case, a low-speed modulation method is used, and the throughput is reduced, but the influence of interference on the wireless terminal 2A can be reduced.

(4) Operation and Effect In the first embodiment, the notification processing unit 124 notifies the radio base station 1B of interference information when an interfered subband is detected. When it is determined that the radio base station 1B is transmitting an interference signal, the transmission control unit 223 of the radio base station 1B performs either transmission power reduction or transmission stop of the interference signal. This improves the CQI in the interfered subband.

  Therefore, even when a subband with degraded CQI (interfered subband) is allocated to the wireless terminal 2A, CQI in the subband can be improved, and stable and high-speed wireless communication can be realized. .

  In particular, in a situation where there is a lot of traffic transmitted and received by the radio base station 1A and a shortage of communication resources has occurred, there is a high possibility that a subband (interfered subband) with degraded CQI will be assigned to the radio terminal 2A. It is suitable for such a situation.

  In the first embodiment, the interfered subband detecting unit 123 determines that the wireless terminal 2A is located at the area end 6A by the position determining unit 122b and the subband having the CQI deteriorated by the deterioration determining unit 122a. If it is determined that the subband is present, the subband with the CQI deteriorated is detected as an interfered subband. As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the area end 6A is a region that is easily affected by interference, and the interference subband can be detected more accurately by taking the area end 6A into consideration.

  In the first embodiment, the interfered subband detection unit 123 determines that there is a subband with CQI deteriorated by the deterioration determination unit 122a, and the count unit 122c counts the subband with CQI deteriorated. Has reached the predetermined number of times, a subband with degraded CQI is detected as an interfered subband. As a result, instantaneous deterioration of CQI can be eliminated, and the interfered subband can be detected more accurately.

  In the first embodiment, the radio terminal 2A extracts a lower predetermined number having a lower CQI from the CQI measured in each of the plurality of subbands, and transmits CQI information indicating the extracted lower predetermined number of CQIs to the radio base station. Notify 1A. For this reason, the amount of CQI information can be reduced as compared with the case where CQI information of all subbands is notified to the radio base station 1A, and the radio base station 1A can grasp the degraded subband.

  In the first embodiment, when the transmission determination unit 222 determines that the radio base station 1B is transmitting an interference signal, the transmission control unit 223 determines the subband (interfered subband) that has been allocated to the radio terminal 2B until then. Band) is stopped, and an unassigned subband is reassigned to the wireless terminal 2B. Therefore, communication with the wireless terminal 2B can be continued while avoiding interference more reliably.

  In the first embodiment, when the transmission control unit 223 determines that there is no unassigned subband, the transmission control unit 223 continues to use the subband (interfered subband) that has been assigned to the wireless terminal 2B until then, and performs transmission. Perform power reduction. Therefore, even when there is no unassigned subband, communication with the radio terminal 2B can be continued while reducing the influence of interference.

[Second Embodiment]
In the second embodiment, in addition to the configuration and operation described in the first embodiment, a mode in which the radio base station 1A specifies a radio base station as an interference source from the neighboring radio base stations 1B to 1G will be described. Hereinafter, (1) the configuration of the radio base station, (2) the overall schematic operation, (3) the operation of the radio base station, and (4) the action / effect will be described. However, the description overlapping with the first embodiment is omitted.

(1) Configuration of Radio Base Station FIG. 8 is a functional block diagram showing the configuration of the radio base station 1A according to the second embodiment.

  As illustrated in FIG. 8, the radio base station 1A further includes an interference source specifying unit 125 in addition to the configuration of the first embodiment. When the interfered subband detection unit 123 detects the interfered subband, the interference source specifying unit 125 transmits the interference signal to the wireless terminal 2A from the nearby wireless base stations 1B to 1G. A station (hereinafter referred to as an interference source base station) is identified.

  In addition, when the information management unit 122 according to the second embodiment stores the CQI information in the CQI information storage unit 131, the information management unit 122, based on the location information of each wireless terminal 2A, wireless terminals among the neighboring wireless base stations 1B to 1G The radio base station nearest to 2A is estimated, and is grouped and stored for each of the neighboring radio base stations 1B to 1G. By grouping and storing in this way, the interference source specifying unit 125 can specify the interference source base station related to the interfered subband detected by the interfered subband detection unit 123.

  Note that in order to estimate the radio base station nearest to the radio terminal 2A, the location information of the neighboring radio base stations 1B to 1G (hereinafter, base station location information) is required, but the base station location information is stored in the storage unit 130. Is stored in advance. For this reason, the location information acquisition unit 121b can acquire base station location information from the storage unit 130 and can be used when estimating the radio base station nearest to the radio terminal 2A.

  Alternatively, information indicating each communication area of the neighboring radio base stations 1B to 1G may be used as the base station position information. In this case, the interference source specifying unit 125 specifies, as an interference source base station, a neighboring radio base station that forms a communication area including the position of the radio terminal 2A among the neighboring radio base stations 1B to 1G.

  When the interfered subband detection unit 123 detects the interfered subband, the notification processing unit 124 reduces the transmission power of the interference signal or stops transmission to the interference source base station identified by the interference source identifying unit 125. An instruction message for instructing either is notified. That is, in the second embodiment, the notification processing unit 124 functions as an instruction unit for instructing either reduction of interference signal transmission power or transmission stop.

(2) Overall Schematic Operation FIG. 9 is a sequence diagram showing a schematic operation sequence of the wireless communication system 10 according to the second embodiment. In FIG. 9, since operations other than steps S210 to S230 are the same as those in the first embodiment, steps S210 to S230 will be described.

  In step S210, the information management unit 122 and the interfered subband detection unit 123 of the radio base station 1A execute an interference detection process for detecting the interfered subband. Details of the interference detection processing will be described later.

  In step S220, the interference source specifying unit 125 of the radio base station 1A specifies an interference source base station from among the neighboring radio base stations 1B to 1G. Here, it is assumed that the radio base station 1B is specified as the interference source base station.

  In step S230, when the interference subband is detected, the notification processing unit 124 of the radio base station 1A transmits an interference regulation instruction only to the radio base station 1B via the backbone network 100.

(3) Operation of Radio Base Station FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing the operation of the radio base station 1A according to the second embodiment, specifically, the details of step S210 (interference detection processing) shown in FIG. In FIG. 10, since operations other than step S211 are the same as those in the first embodiment, step S211 will be described. In step S <b> 211, the information management unit 122 stores the CQI information in the CQI information storage unit 131 of the storage unit 130. At that time, the information management unit 122 estimates the wireless base station nearest to the wireless terminal 2A among the neighboring wireless base stations 1B to 1G based on the terminal location information, and groups the wireless base stations 1B to 1G for each neighboring wireless base station 1B to 1G. save.

(4) Operation / Effect In the second embodiment, when the interfered subband detection unit 123 detects the interfered subband, the notification processing unit 124 determines whether the interference source base station identified by the interference source identifying unit 125 On the other hand, an instruction message for instructing to reduce the transmission power of the interference signal or to stop transmission is notified. Therefore, the amount of messages required for notification can be reduced compared to the first embodiment in which notification is made to all of the neighboring radio base stations 1B to 1G. Further, in the first embodiment, there is a possibility that the interference avoidance operation is also performed in the neighboring radio base stations 1B to 1G that are not actually interference sources, but the second embodiment can reduce the possibility.

[Other Embodiments]
As mentioned above, although this invention was described by embodiment, it should not be understood that the description and drawing which form a part of this indication limit this invention. From this disclosure, various alternative embodiments, examples and operational techniques will be apparent to those skilled in the art.

  For example, the first embodiment and the second embodiment described above may be implemented individually or in combination with each other.

  In addition to the interference source base station identification method described in the second embodiment, the following method may be used. Specifically, the radio terminal 2A notifies the radio base station 1A of cell IDs (base station identification information) of neighboring radio base stations 1B to 1G that can be observed instead of the position information. Thereby, the interference source specifying unit 125 can easily specify the interference source base station. When the signal reception strength from each of the neighboring radio base stations 1B to 1G is added simultaneously with the cell ID, the neighboring radio base stations 1B to 1G where the radio terminal 2A is susceptible to interference can be specified in advance.

  In the first embodiment and the second embodiment described above, the neighboring radio base stations 1B to 1G have been described as examples of interference sources. However, the interference base is not limited to such a macro base station, and the communication area 5A of the radio base station 1A is not limited thereto. Small base stations (so-called femtocells) that form a communication area may also be targeted.

  In the first embodiment and the second embodiment described above, the wireless communication system 10 based on the LTE standard has been described. However, the present invention is not limited to the LTE standard, but also for a wireless communication system based on the WiMAX standard (IEEE 802.16). The invention can be applied.

  In the first embodiment and the second embodiment described above, an example in which a frequency unit (subband) for measuring wireless communication quality is different from a unit (communication channel) for assigning a frequency to a wireless terminal has been described. The measurement unit and the allocation unit may be the same.

  Thus, it should be understood that the present invention includes various embodiments and the like not described herein. Therefore, the present invention is limited only by the invention specifying matters in the scope of claims reasonable from this disclosure.

1 is a schematic configuration diagram of a radio communication system according to a first embodiment. It is a figure for demonstrating a neighbor radio base station. It is a functional block diagram which shows the structure of the wireless base station (1st wireless base station) which concerns on 1st Embodiment. It is a functional block diagram which shows the structure of the wireless base station (2nd wireless base station) which concerns on 1st Embodiment. It is a sequence diagram which shows the schematic operation | movement sequence of the radio | wireless communications system which concerns on 1st Embodiment. 6 is a flowchart showing the operation of the radio base station (first radio base station) according to the first embodiment, specifically, the details of step S130 shown in FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the operation of the radio base station (second radio base station) according to the first embodiment, specifically, the details of step S150B shown in FIG. It is a functional block diagram which shows the structure of the wireless base station which concerns on 2nd Embodiment. It is a sequence diagram which shows the schematic operation | movement sequence of the radio | wireless communications system which concerns on 2nd Embodiment. It is a flowchart which shows the detail of operation | movement of the wireless base station which concerns on 2nd Embodiment, specifically, step S210 shown in FIG.

Explanation of symbols

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1A ... Wireless base station, 1B-1G ... Neighboring wireless base station, 2A, 2B ... Wireless terminal, 5A-5G ... Communication area, 6A-6G ... Area end, 10 ... Wireless communication system, 100 ... Backbone network, 110 ... Wireless Communication unit 120 ... Control unit 121 ... Information acquisition unit 121a ... CQI information acquisition unit 121b ... Position information acquisition unit 122 ... Information management unit 122a ... Degradation determination unit 122b ... Position determination unit 122c ... Count unit , 122d ... information deletion unit, 123 ... interfered subband detection unit, 124 ... notification processing unit, 125 ... interference source specifying unit, 130 ... storage unit, 131 ... CQI information storage unit, 140 ... wired communication unit, 210 ... wireless Communication unit, 220 ... control unit, 221 ... allocation management unit, 222 ... transmission determination unit, 223 ... transmission control unit, 230 ... storage unit, 231 ... allocation information storage , 240 ... wired communication unit

Claims (8)

A radio base station that performs radio communication with a radio terminal and receives quality information indicating radio communication quality measured by the radio terminal at a plurality of communication frequencies usable for the radio communication from the radio terminal,
Based on the quality information received from the wireless terminal, a detection unit that detects, as an interfered communication frequency, a communication frequency in which the wireless communication quality is deteriorated below a threshold among the plurality of communication frequencies;
An information acquisition unit that acquires terminal position information indicating the position of the wireless terminal, and base station position information related to the position of another wireless base station within a predetermined range from the wireless base station;
When the interfered communication frequency is detected by the detection unit, an interference signal that is a radio signal using the interfered communication frequency among the other radio base stations based on the terminal location information and the base station location information. An interference source identifying unit that identifies an interference source base station to transmit to the wireless terminal;
A radio base station comprising: an instruction unit that instructs the interference source base station identified by the interference source identification unit to reduce transmission power or stop transmission of the interference signal. A quality information receiving unit for receiving the quality information from the wireless terminal a plurality of times, or receiving the quality information from a plurality of wireless terminals including the wireless terminal;
A counting unit that counts the number of times the wireless communication quality has deteriorated below the threshold for each of the plurality of communication frequencies,
When the deteriorated communication frequency exists and the number of times counted by the count unit with respect to the deteriorated communication frequency reaches a predetermined number of times, the detection unit determines the deteriorated communication frequency as the interfered communication frequency. The radio base station according to claim 1, which is detected as: Based on the terminal position information, further comprising a position determination unit for determining whether the wireless terminal is located at the communication area end of the wireless base station,
The detection unit detects the deteriorated communication frequency when the deteriorated communication frequency exists and the position determination unit determines that the wireless terminal is located at the end of the communication area. The radio base station according to claim 1, wherein the radio base station is detected as a communication frequency.   The quality information received from the wireless terminal indicates a lower predetermined number of the wireless communication qualities having a lower wireless communication quality among the wireless communication qualities measured by the wireless terminal at each of the plurality of communication frequencies. The radio base station according to any one of 1 to 3. The interference source specifying unit includes:
Calculating the distance between the wireless terminal and the other wireless base station;
The radio base station according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein a radio base station having the shortest calculated distance among the other radio base stations is specified as the interference source base station. The base station location information includes information indicating a communication area formed by the other radio base station,
The said interference source specific | specification part specifies the radio base station which forms the said communication area including the position of the said radio | wireless terminal among said other radio base stations as said interference source base station. The radio base station described in 1. The information acquisition unit includes base station identification information for identifying the interference source base station included in the interference signal received by the wireless terminal, instead of the terminal position information and the base station position information, from the wireless terminal. Acquired,
The radio base station according to claim 1, wherein the interference source specifying unit specifies the interference source base station based on the base station identification information. A radio communication method used in a radio base station that executes radio communication with a radio terminal and receives quality information indicating radio communication quality measured by the radio terminal at a plurality of communication frequencies usable for the radio communication from the radio terminal Because
Detecting, as an interfered communication frequency, a communication frequency in which the wireless communication quality is deteriorated from a threshold value among the plurality of communication frequencies based on the quality information received from the wireless terminal;
Obtaining terminal location information indicating the location of the wireless terminal, and base station location information relating to the location of another radio base station within a predetermined range from the radio base station;
When the interfered communication frequency is detected by the detecting step, an interference signal that is a radio signal using the interfered communication frequency among the other radio base stations based on the terminal location information and the base station location information Identifying an interference source base station that transmits to the wireless terminal;
A step of instructing the interference source base station identified by the identifying step to either reduce transmission power or stop transmission of the interference signal.

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