JP2010283770A - Synchronizing signal producing apparatus and synchronizing signal producing method - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To enable synchronization between a plurality of devices to be maintained up to failure recovery even at the time of failure while suppressing an increase in cost. <P>SOLUTION: A synchronizing signal producing apparatus is equipped with: a reception unit for receiving a signal for synchronizing with the other device and for outputting a first synchronizing signal based on the received signal; an oscillation unit for outputting a second synchronizing signal while giving a predetermined delay from the first synchronizing signal; a storage unit for previously storing the delay between the first synchronizing signal and the second synchronizing signal; and a synchronizing signal producing unit for outputting a synchronizing signal, based on the first synchronizing signal when the reception unit is receiving the signal, and also for outputting the synchronizing signal by correcting the delay, based on the second synchronizing signal and the delay stored in the storage unit when the reception unit is not receiving the signal. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2011,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a synchronization signal generation device and a synchronization signal generation method for generating a synchronization signal for synchronizing multiple devices.

  Conventionally, several methods for synchronizing base stations in mobile communication systems have been proposed. For example, there are a method of synchronizing with absolute time such as GPS (Global Positioning System), and a method of controlling transmission timing in consideration of propagation delay between each base station by an upper base station controller. In addition, countermeasures in the event of a failure have been proposed according to each method. For example, in the method of synchronizing with absolute time such as GPS, a method of synchronizing with a high-precision oscillator provided in advance in the base station apparatus when the absolute time cannot be acquired from GPS or the like due to a failure has been proposed. (See Patent Document 1). Such a high-precision oscillator is constituted by a device having a highly stable clock generation function such as a crystal oscillator.

JP 2001-339373 A

  However, the conventional fault countermeasure configuration requires an expensive high-precision oscillator, which increases the cost. On the other hand, when a high-accuracy oscillator is replaced with an inexpensive one as it is, there is a problem that the timing difference between signals output from the oscillator is large, and synchronization between base stations cannot be maintained immediately. .

  In view of the above circumstances, the present invention provides a synchronization signal generation device and a synchronization signal generation method capable of maintaining synchronization between a plurality of devices until failure recovery even when a failure occurs while suppressing an increase in cost. It is an object.

  One aspect of the present invention is a synchronization signal generation device that receives a signal for synchronization with another device and outputs a first synchronization signal based on the received signal. An oscillation unit that outputs a second synchronization signal while causing a predetermined deviation from the first synchronization signal; a storage unit that previously stores a deviation between the first synchronization signal and the second synchronization signal; When the receiving unit receives the signal, it outputs a synchronizing signal based on the first synchronizing signal, and when the receiving unit does not receive the signal, the second synchronizing signal and the storage unit And a synchronization signal generation unit that outputs a synchronization signal by correcting the deviation based on the deviation stored in.

  One aspect of the present invention is a synchronization signal generation device that receives a signal for synchronization with another device and outputs a first synchronization signal based on the received signal. An oscillation unit that outputs a second synchronization signal while causing a predetermined shift from the first synchronization signal, a detection unit that detects a shift between the first synchronization signal and the second synchronization signal, and the reception When the unit is receiving the signal, it outputs a synchronization signal based on the first synchronization signal, and when the reception unit is not receiving the signal, the second synchronization signal and the detection unit A synchronization signal generation unit that outputs a synchronization signal by correcting the deviation based on the detected deviation.

  One aspect of the present invention is the synchronization signal generation device described above, further including a correction error storage unit that stores a value related to a correction error when the synchronization signal generation unit corrects the shift, and the synchronization signal generation unit Is characterized in that the correction error is corrected based on the value related to the correction error at a lower frequency than the process of correcting the deviation.

  One aspect of the present invention is a synchronization signal generation method, in which a synchronization signal generation apparatus including a storage unit that stores in advance a shift between a first synchronization signal and the second synchronization signal is A receiving step for receiving a signal for synchronizing between them, and outputting a first synchronizing signal based on the received signal, and a synchronizing signal generating device generating a predetermined deviation from the first synchronizing signal An oscillation step for outputting a second synchronization signal; and when the synchronization signal generator receives the signal in the reception step, outputs a synchronization signal based on the first synchronization signal, and in the reception step A synchronization signal generating step of outputting a synchronization signal by correcting the deviation based on the second synchronization signal and the deviation stored in the storage unit when no signal is received.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to maintain synchronization between a plurality of devices until failure recovery even when a failure occurs while suppressing an increase in cost.

It is a system configuration | structure figure showing the system configuration | structure of a base station communication system. It is a schematic block diagram showing the function structure of the base station apparatus in 1st embodiment. It is the schematic showing the outline of a GPS timing pulse, a preliminary | backup timing pulse, and a phase deviation. It is a figure showing the outline of amendment of phase deviation by a pulse generation part. It is a figure showing the outline of the correction process of a pulse generation part. It is a figure showing the outline of the correction process of a pulse generation part. It is a figure showing the outline of the correction process of a pulse generation part. It is a schematic block diagram showing the function structure of the base station apparatus in 2nd embodiment.

[First embodiment]
FIG. 1 is a system configuration diagram showing a system configuration of the base station communication system 1. The base station communication system 1 includes a plurality of base station apparatuses 100 (base station apparatus 100-1 to base station apparatus 100-3) and a GPS satellite 200. The base station communication system 1 operates as a base station system used for a mobile communication system in 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project), for example.

Base station apparatus 100 is a base station apparatus provided in a mobile communication system, and synchronizes the timing of performing wireless communication with other base station apparatuses 100.
The GPS satellite 200 is a satellite for GPS (Global Positioning System), and transmits a GPS signal including time data based on an atomic clock mounted on the GPS satellite 200.

  FIG. 2 is a schematic block diagram showing a functional configuration of the base station apparatus 100 in the first embodiment. The base station apparatus 100 includes a transmission / reception unit 10 and a timing pulse generation apparatus 20. The transmission / reception unit 10 transmits / receives a radio signal in synchronization with another base station apparatus 100 according to the communication timing pulse generated by the timing pulse generation apparatus 20.

  The timing pulse generation device 20 outputs a communication timing pulse synchronized with the timing pulse generation device 20 provided in the other base station device 100. Specifically, the timing pulse generation device 20 includes a GPS reception unit 11, an oscillation unit 12, a correction data storage unit 13, and a pulse generation unit 14, thereby outputting a communication timing pulse.

  The GPS receiver 11 receives a GPS signal from the GPS satellite 200 and outputs a GPS timing pulse synchronized with UTC (Universal Time, Coordinated) based on time data included in the GPS signal. The GPS receiver 11 outputs a GPS timing pulse having a period of 1 second, for example. With the GPS timing pulse, the absolute times of the base station devices 100 can be synchronized and synchronized.

  The oscillation unit 12 is configured using a general oscillator and outputs a preliminary timing pulse. Since a general oscillator used for the oscillator 12 is less accurate than an atomic clock mounted on the GPS satellite 200, a phase shift (phase deviation) occurs between the GPS timing pulse and the preliminary timing pulse as time passes. End up. However, the oscillating unit 12 receives a GPS timing pulse from the GPS receiving unit 11, and corrects the phase shift by synchronizing the GPS timing pulse and the preliminary timing pulse every time the GPS timing pulse is input. The frequency of the preliminary timing pulse output from the oscillating unit 12 may be any value, for example, a preliminary timing pulse having a higher frequency than the GPS timing pulse may be output, or from the GPS timing pulse and the communication timing pulse. Alternatively, a preliminary timing pulse having a higher frequency may be output. More specifically, for example, a preliminary timing pulse of several megahertz is output from the oscillation unit 12.

  The correction data storage unit 13 is configured using a semiconductor storage device, a magnetic hard disk device, or the like, and stores correction data used by the pulse generation unit 14 for correction processing. The correction data includes the amount of phase deviation between the GPS timing pulse and the preliminary timing pulse. The correction data also includes data used when the pulse generator 14 corrects the correction error. The amount of phase deviation between the GPS timing pulse and the preliminary timing pulse is calculated in advance by measuring the self-running accuracy of the oscillating unit 12 for a certain period of time with a timing master such as a GPS receiver in advance, and statistically calculating the deviation over time. Data used for correcting the correction error is also calculated by performing measurement and statistics in advance according to the correction accuracy of the pulse generation unit 14.

  The pulse generation unit 14 generates and outputs a communication timing pulse based on the GPS timing pulse output from the GPS reception unit 11, the preliminary timing pulse output from the oscillation unit 12, and the correction data stored in the correction data storage unit 13. To do. Specifically, when the GPS receiving unit 11 has successfully received a GPS signal and generated a GPS timing pulse, the pulse generating unit 14 generates a communication timing pulse based on the GPS timing pulse. On the other hand, if the GPS receiver 11 cannot normally receive the GPS signal due to the occurrence of a fault in the GPS system and cannot generate a GPS timing pulse, the pulse generator 14 generates a communication timing pulse based on the preliminary timing pulse and the correction data. Generate.

  FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram showing an outline of the GPS timing pulse, the preliminary timing pulse, and the phase deviation. In the following description, it is assumed that base station apparatus 100-1 cannot receive a GPS signal due to a failure, and base station apparatus 100-2 can receive a GPS signal. The upper timing chart represents the output timing of the communication timing pulse of the base station apparatus 100-2 that can receive the GPS signal. In this case, the communication timing pulse is output without shifting from the GPS timing pulse.

  The middle timing chart represents the output timing of the preliminary timing pulse of the base station apparatus 100-1 immediately after the GPS signal cannot be received due to the occurrence of a failure. The preliminary timing pulse immediately after the GPS signal cannot be received has a phase deviation of Ps from the GPS timing pulse. Ps represents a phase deviation between the GPS timing pulse and the preliminary timing pulse per unit time (1T). Further, the second preliminary timing pulse immediately after the GPS signal cannot be received has a phase deviation of 2 × Ps from the GPS timing pulse. Therefore, if the communication timing pulse is generated only by the preliminary timing pulse without using the correction data, the base station device 100-1 and the base station device 100-2 are based on the above phase deviation. Deviation occurs and synchronization between devices cannot be maintained.

  The lower timing chart represents the output timing of the communication timing pulse of the base station apparatus 100-1 immediately after the GPS signal that cannot receive the GPS signal due to the occurrence of a failure cannot be received.

  The value Ps of the phase deviation is stored in the correction data storage unit 13 as correction data. When generating the communication timing pulse, the pulse generation unit 14 uses the preliminary timing pulse output from the oscillation unit 12 based on the correction data and the communication timing of the other base station apparatus 100 that can normally receive the GPS signal. A communication timing pulse synchronized with the pulse is generated.

  As shown in the middle timing chart, the deviation of Ps accumulates as time elapses. Therefore, even if the value of Ps itself is small, the allowable time assumed by the system is exceeded when a certain time elapses. The allowable time represents the length of time allowed as a synchronization shift between the base station apparatuses 100 in the base station system 1. For example, when the allowable time of the base station system 1 is 10 microseconds, if the phase deviation of the communication timing pulse of the base station apparatus 100-1 with respect to the GPS timing pulse is 1 ppm (deviation of 1 microsecond per second), 10 After a second, this system tolerance time will exceed 10 microseconds. Therefore, the allowable time is exceeded 10 seconds after the GPS reception failure occurs.

  FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an outline of correction of the phase deviation by the pulse generation unit 14. Since there is a phase deviation of Ps per 1T, the pulse generator 14 corrects Ps for the preliminary timing pulse every 1T. By this correction, the difference between the communication timing pulse generated using the preliminary timing pulse and the communication timing pulse generated using the GPS timing pulse is reduced.

  However, in general, the pulse generation unit 14 cannot strictly correct Ps when performing correction, and thus a correction error ΔP occurs during correction. Since the correction error is accumulated every time the number of corrections is increased, even if the correction error value itself is small, the allowable time is exceeded after a certain period of time. Therefore, the pulse generation unit 14 further performs correction processing on the accumulated value of the correction error ΔP. A value related to the correction error is stored in advance in the correction data storage unit 13 as correction data, and the pulse generation unit 14 corrects the correction error based on the value stored in the correction data storage unit 13.

  Next, the correction process of the pulse generation unit 14 will be described based on a specific example. 5 to 7 show that the phase deviation of the GPS timing pulse from the preliminary timing pulse is 1 ppm (1 microsecond deviation per second), the allowable time is 10 microseconds, and the expected GPS failure recovery time is 24 hours (86400). S), the correction cycle (T) is 100 milliseconds, and the correction amount (P (T)) is 100 nanoseconds (one billionth of a second). It is. If there is no correction, the deviation exceeds the allowable time in 10 seconds.

Since the pulse generation unit 14 performs correction processing, a correction of 1 ppm is applied for calculation. Therefore, the phase deviation between the GPS timing pulse and the communication timing pulse is an allowable amount of phase deviation per 100 milliseconds Pc = 100 nanoseconds Within.
However, as described above, since there is a correction error (ΔP) that occurs during correction, the condition for the deviation within the recovery time to be within the allowable time is expressed by the following equation.

  In other words, a deviation within about 0.1 nanosecond per second is a condition. For example, when the correction error ΔP every 100 ms is 1 nanosecond, the pulse generator 14 corrects the correction error of 10 nanoseconds in units of one second, as shown in FIG. Further, as shown in FIG. 7, the pulse generator 14 corrects for 1 nanosecond with a period of 10 seconds. As described above, since the value of the phase deviation is generally larger than the value of the correction error, the pulse generation unit 14 corrects the correction error at a frequency lower than the frequency of the phase deviation value correction process. Further, as shown in FIG. 6, since a correction error further occurs during the correction error correction process, the pulse generator 14 corrects the correction error in the correction error correction process as shown in FIG. It may be configured.

  According to the timing pulse generation device 20 of the first embodiment configured as described above, even when a failure occurs that the GPS reception unit 11 cannot receive a GPS signal, the pulse generation unit 14 does not change over time. By correcting the deviation, it is possible to achieve synchronization between base stations within a range allowable in the system for a certain period without providing an expensive highly stable clock generation function. In addition, by performing correction processing for correction errors when correcting phase deviation and correction errors when correcting correction errors, the accuracy of communication timing pulses is further improved, and the time required for the deviation of communication timing pulses to reach the allowable time is increased. It can be made longer.

[Modification]
The timing pulse generation device 20 is not limited to the base station device 100 as long as it is a device that needs to be synchronized among a plurality of devices, and may be provided in any device.
Further, the GPS receiver 11 of the timing pulse generation device 20 may be another device as long as it can achieve high-precision synchronization with another device (other base station device 100 in the above description). For example, it may be configured as a functional unit that receives a synchronization signal from a higher-level control device, or may be configured as a functional unit that receives a synchronization signal from another base station device 100. In this case, the pulse generation unit 14 generates a communication timing pulse based on the preliminary timing pulse output from the oscillation unit 12 and the correction data stored in the correction data storage unit 13 when these functional units do not operate normally. Generate.

[Second Embodiment]
FIG. 8 is a schematic block diagram illustrating a functional configuration of the base station device 100a in the second embodiment. The same functional units as those of the base station apparatus 100 of the first embodiment are denoted by the same reference numerals as those in FIG. 2 in FIG.

The base station device 100a is different from the base station device 100 in that a phase deviation detection unit 15 is provided instead of the correction data storage unit 13, and the other configuration is the same as the base station device 100.
The phase deviation detector 15 receives GPS timing pulses from the GPS receiver 11 and receives preliminary timing pulses from the oscillator 12. Then, the phase deviation detector 15 calculates the phase deviation between the GPS timing pulse and the preliminary timing pulse, and outputs the result to the pulse generator 14. In this case, the pulse generation unit 14 performs correction processing based on the phase deviation calculated by the phase deviation detection unit 15 instead of the phase deviation stored in the correction data storage unit 13.

According to the timing pulse generation unit 20a of the second embodiment configured as described above, it is not necessary to calculate correction data in advance and store it in the correction data storage unit 13.
The embodiment of the present invention has been described in detail with reference to the drawings. However, the specific configuration is not limited to this embodiment, and includes designs and the like that do not depart from the gist of the present invention.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 11 ... GPS receiving part, 12 ... Oscillation part, 13 ... Correction data storage part, 14 ... Pulse generation part, 15 ... Phase deviation detection part, 20 ... Timing pulse generation apparatus

Claims (4)

A receiver that receives a signal for synchronization with another device and outputs a first synchronization signal based on the received signal;
An oscillation unit that outputs a second synchronization signal while causing a predetermined deviation from the first synchronization signal;
A storage unit for preliminarily storing a shift between the first synchronization signal and the second synchronization signal;
When the receiving unit receives the signal, it outputs a synchronizing signal based on the first synchronizing signal, and when the receiving unit does not receive the signal, the second synchronizing signal and the storage A synchronization signal generation unit that outputs a synchronization signal by correcting the deviation based on the deviation stored in the unit;
A synchronization signal generating device. A receiver that receives a signal for synchronization with another device and outputs a first synchronization signal based on the received signal;
An oscillation unit that outputs a second synchronization signal while causing a predetermined deviation from the first synchronization signal;
A detection unit for detecting a shift between the first synchronization signal and the second synchronization signal;
When the receiving unit receives the signal, it outputs a synchronizing signal based on the first synchronizing signal, and when the receiving unit does not receive the signal, the second synchronizing signal and the detection A synchronization signal generation unit that outputs a synchronization signal by correcting the deviation based on the deviation detected by the unit;
A synchronization signal generating device. A correction error storage unit that stores a value related to a correction error when the synchronization signal generation unit corrects the shift;
3. The synchronization signal according to claim 1, wherein the synchronization signal generation unit corrects the correction error based on a value related to the correction error at a lower frequency than the process of correcting the shift. Generator. A synchronization signal generation device having a storage unit that stores in advance a deviation between the first synchronization signal and the second synchronization signal has received and received a signal for synchronization with another device A receiving step of outputting a first synchronization signal based on the signal;
An oscillation step in which the synchronization signal generator outputs a second synchronization signal while causing a predetermined deviation from the first synchronization signal;
The synchronization signal generator outputs a synchronization signal based on the first synchronization signal when the signal is received in the reception step, and the first signal when the signal is not received in the reception step. A synchronization signal generating step of outputting a synchronization signal by correcting the shift based on the two sync signals and the shift stored in the storage unit;
A synchronization signal generating method comprising:

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