JP2017073578A - Management apparatus, network system, and communication control method - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To improve user experience quality by performing traffic control suitable for a user's condition.SOLUTION: The management apparatus connected to a network system having a base station communicating with a terminal acquires base station identification information identifying a base station acquired from a collecting apparatus, and congestion degree information indicating how much traffic is flowing to the base station, and information on an application with which the terminal communicates, determines a communication control method to the terminal using the acquired information, and outputs the control method which is determined to a distribution control device.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

The present invention relates to traffic control on a network centering on a mobile network.

Traffic flowing through the mobile network is increasing at a rate of 1.5 to 2 times a year, and the rate of increase in traffic during the most busy hours is particularly large. For this reason, the difference between the traffic during the most busy time and the average traffic is widening. If the capital investment of the network in accordance with the most busy time is continued, the average utilization rate of the network is lowered, which causes the profitability to deteriorate.
In order to improve this, a control function for reducing and leveling traffic peaks is required.

  Patent Document 1 discloses a method of detecting a terminal having poor communication quality in a wireless area, analyzing an application used by the terminal and a traffic amount in a wired section, and disconnecting the terminal connection. By disconnecting the connection in this way, it is possible to secure a bandwidth within the area.

JP 2013-143625 A

  Patent Document 1 describes a method for controlling traffic. The method of Patent Document 1 disconnects a connection for a user who uses a specific application when a situation such as low reception power of the terminal or poor throughput occurs. As a result, users who have not been disconnected are more likely to be able to secure bandwidth and communication quality may be improved. However, users who have been disconnected cannot use the services they were using. Therefore, the quality of experience of the user is reduced.

  Also, consider a case where communication control such as bandwidth limitation is performed using the method of Patent Document 1 in order to secure the bandwidth in the area without disconnecting the connection. In Patent Document 1, a terminal to be controlled is a terminal that uses a traffic volume or a specific application, but does not disclose how to determine the specific application. Therefore, control is performed without distinguishing between communication using an application with a large allowable delay and application using an application with a small allowable delay. As a result, there is a possibility that the service cannot be used in communication using an application with a small allowable delay. As a result, the user experience quality decreases. Therefore, when performing communication control, it is necessary to consider the user state such as an allowable delay of the application. And the communication control which considered the user's state can improve the user's experience quality.

  In view of such an event, in the present invention, traffic control is performed in a form suitable for the allowable delay of the application used by the sender / receiver in addition to the network status such as the congestion status of the line, and the user experience quality is improved. With the goal.

  In order to solve the above problems, the present invention is a management apparatus connected to a network system having a base station that communicates with a terminal, the congestion being based on the amount of traffic flowing from the collection apparatus to the base station According to the degree information, for each of a plurality of applications, a recording unit that records a control method determination table that associates a communication control method with the terminal, information on the application with which the terminal is communicating, and the control A processing unit that determines a communication control method for the terminal using a method determination table; and an output unit that outputs the determined communication control method to a distribution control device that controls communication to the terminal. Management device.

  According to the present invention, traffic control is performed in a form suitable for the allowable delay of the application used by the sender / receiver, the location of the sender / receiver, and the speed status of the sender / receiver in addition to the network status such as the congestion status of the line. Thus, it is possible to improve the quality of experience of the user. Problems, configurations, and effects other than those described above will become apparent from the following description of embodiments.

2 illustrates an outline of a mobile network to which the disclosed system is applied. The configuration of the terminal 101 is illustrated. The configuration of the distribution control apparatus 105 is illustrated. The configuration of the management device 107 is illustrated. The configuration of the position information history table 210 is illustrated. The structure of the control method determination table 403 before base station information registration of Example 1 is illustrated. The structure of the control method determination table 403 after the base station information registration of Example 1 is illustrated. The flowchart of the update method of the control method determination table 403 is illustrated. The representative sequence diagram of Example 1 is illustrated. The permission screen at the time of the service use start in Example 1 is illustrated. The packet format of Example 3 is illustrated. The structure of the control condition table 303 is illustrated. The configuration of the session management table 304 is illustrated. The structure of the network information table 404 is illustrated. The structure of the control method determination table 1401 before base station information registration of Example 2 is illustrated. The structure of the control method determination table 1401 after the base station information registration of Example 2 is illustrated.

  Embodiments will be described below with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 shows a configuration example of a network system using the present invention. The terminal 101 is connected to the service providing apparatus 106 via the base station 102, the mobile backhaul 103, the gateway apparatus 104, and the distribution control apparatus 105. Terminal 101 transmits / receives data to / from base station 102. Base station 102 connects to the Internet and transmits / receives data to / from terminal 101. The gateway device 104 serves as a connection point between the network on the wireless side and the Internet side, and performs protocol conversion. The distribution control device 105 limits and controls the bandwidth of a specific session. Service providing apparatus 106 transfers information requested from terminal 101. The management device 107 is connected to a network between the gateway device 104 and the distribution control device 105, and can communicate with other components. The DPI (Deep Packet Inspection) device 108 has a function of extracting packets passing between the gateway device 104 and the base station 102, and counting the number of accommodated terminals and traffic volume in each base station 102, and is connected to the management device 107. Has been. In addition, the management device 107 instructs the distribution control device 105 on a bandwidth control method for a specific terminal 101 via a PCRF (Policy and Charging Rule Function) device 109. The PCRF 109 performs billing and policy control.

  The operation of the entire system of this embodiment will be described. The management device 107 acquires information on the degree of congestion of the base station 102 and base station specifying information for identifying the base station 102 via the DPI device 108. Next, information on the application with which the terminal 101 is communicating is acquired from the terminal 101 or the DPI device 108. The management device 107 determines the control method of the terminal 101 using the acquired information on the degree of congestion of the base station 102, base station identification information, and application information. The management apparatus 107 notifies the distribution control apparatus 105 of the determined control method and session information of the terminal 101 to be controlled as a control condition. The distribution control apparatus 105 extracts session information and a control method from the notified control condition, and controls the extracted session using the extracted control method. Through the above processing, communication of the terminal 101 can be controlled according to the type of application.

  In this system, by transmitting terminal information to the management apparatus 107 that manages the network, the distribution control apparatus 105 can control communication for which the base station 102 close to the terminal 101 is a bottleneck. it can. As a result, the amount of communication between the distribution device 105 and the base station 102 can be reduced, and the processing load on the gateway 104 can be reduced. As a result, it is possible to prevent the occurrence of congestion in the section and to secure a bandwidth for other communications, and to improve the user experience quality.

  FIG. 2 shows a configuration diagram of the terminal 101. The terminal 101 includes an information processing unit 201, a storage unit 202, an input unit 203, an output unit 204, a communication interface unit 205, and a location information acquisition unit 206. The storage unit 202 includes a congestion detection program 207, terminal state management. A program 208, an information transmission / reception program 209, and a position information history table 210 are stored. An example of the position information history table 210 is shown in FIG. The position information history table 210 stores latitude, longitude, and position information acquisition time indicating the position of the terminal 101. The location information of the terminal 101 can be specified using the GPS function.

  Each function is realized by the information processing unit 201 reading and executing each program stored in the storage unit 202. For example, in order to avoid the complexity of the description that “the information processing unit 201 that has read the congestion detection program executes congestion detection”, the following description treats “program” as the subject for convenience, and “the congestion detection program detects congestion detection”. "Execute".

  FIG. 3 shows a configuration diagram of the distribution control device 105. The distribution control device 105 includes an information processing unit 306, a storage unit 305, an input unit 307, an output unit 308, and a communication interface unit 309. The storage unit 308 includes a delay / bandwidth control program 301, a control method reception program 302, and control conditions. A table 303 and a session management table 304 are stored. An example of the control condition table 303 is shown in FIG. In FIG. 11, information on the port IP of the terminal, the port IP of the service providing apparatus, the protocol being used, and the control method is stored. An example of the session management table 304 is shown in FIG. In FIG. 12, information on the port IP of the terminal, the port IP of the service providing apparatus, the protocol being used, and the control method is stored.

  FIG. 4 shows a configuration diagram of the management apparatus 107. The management device 107 includes an information processing unit 406, a storage unit 405, an input unit 407, an output unit 408, and a communication interface unit 409. The storage unit 405 includes a control method determination program 401, a network information collection program 402, and a control method determination. A table 403 and a network information table 404 are stored.

  The service providing apparatus 106 is a Web server configured by a general information processing apparatus, and has a function of responding to a content in response to an HTTP request. The gateway device 104 is assumed to be an LTE P-GW. In this embodiment, the gateway device 104 serves as a router placed between the mobile backhaul 103 and the distribution control device 105. For this reason, these two configurations are omitted.

[Example 1]
In this embodiment, a system that performs bandwidth control according to information on the congestion state of the base station 102 and terminal information of the terminal 101 when a content download request is sent from the terminal side to the Web server or mail server. An example applied to a network composed of a base station 102 communicating with 101 and a service providing apparatus 106 will be described.

  The information related to the congestion state of the base station 102 is information related to the state of how much traffic is flowing with respect to the bandwidth that can be accommodated by each base station 102, and is hereinafter referred to as the degree of congestion. The terminal information is information on the TCP connection to which the terminal 101 is connected, current location information of the terminal 101, and the like. The TCP connection information includes the IP address and port, the protocol used, the application name, etc. on the terminal 101 side and the service providing 106 apparatus side. Further, in this embodiment, the position information of the base station 102 is used as the base station specifying information.

  In the first embodiment, an embodiment in which the communication of the terminal 101 is controlled using the position information of the terminal 101 and the information of the application used by the terminal 101 will be described. By using the application information used by the terminal 101, it is possible to perform appropriate control considering each characteristic such as a large and small allowable delay. Therefore, a control method is possible in which control is performed in a range where a service can be provided in an application with a large allowable delay, and control is not performed so that a service can be provided in an application with a small allowable delay. As a result, the bandwidth can be maintained so that the service can be maintained in each terminal. That is, the number of users that cannot receive services because communication is controlled is reduced, and the user experience quality can be improved.

  This embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. Moreover, it demonstrates, referring suitably to another figure.

  The operation of the management apparatus 107 will be described.

  The management device 107 acquires the location information of the base station 102 and the congestion level for each base station 102 from the DPI device 108 (S801). The location information of the base station 102 and the congestion level of the base station 102 can be acquired at a timing when the congestion level is input from the DPI device 108 or at a timing instructed by the operator. Input from the DPI device 108 is performed at a periodic timing preset by the operator.

  At this time, it is not always necessary to collect the real-time congestion degree, and the congestion degree at the current time may be estimated from past statistical information. In this case, past statistical information can be stored in the storage unit 202 for each day of the week or every hour, and can be estimated using statistical information corresponding to the estimated time and day of the week. By estimating the day of the week and the time corresponding to each other, it is possible to predict the degree of congestion more accurately than the case of using the past statistical information collected without distinguishing the day of the week and the time.

  In response to the input from the DPI device 108, the management device 107 associates the acquired degree of congestion with the position of the base station 102 and records it in the network information table 404 (S802). The degree of congestion is the ratio of the amount of traffic flowing with respect to the band that can be accommodated by each base station 102, and is information indicating how much traffic is flowing through the base station. An example of the network information table 404 is shown in FIG. In this embodiment, the degree of congestion for each position represented by the latitude and longitude of the base station 102 is managed in a table. The network information collection program 402 registers the position information of the base station 102 in the base station information column of the control method determination table 403 based on the degree of congestion in the network information table 404, and updates the control method determination table 403. At this time, if the base station identifier for each base station 102 is acquired from the DPI device 108, the base station identifier and the degree of congestion may be recorded in association with each other.

  Next, the operation of the terminal will be described.

  The terminal state management program 208 of the terminal manages the position state of the terminal 101. For this purpose, the location information of the terminal 101 at that time is stored in the location information history table 210 at time intervals determined in advance by the user (S803).

  The location information stored in the location information history table 210 is, for example, the latitude and longitude of the terminal location acquired using the GPS in the location information acquisition unit 206, or the cell ID to which the communication interface unit 205 is connected. Records whenever the position or cell ID changes. The cell ID can be acquired, for example, by being notified from the base station to which the terminal is connected.

  Information that can be efficiently collected on the terminal side, such as the location information of the terminal 101, can be managed on the terminal side, thereby reducing the information collection load on the network side.

  The terminal 101 connects a TCP connection with the service providing apparatus 106 (S804). The information transmission / reception program 209 of the terminal 101 transmits an HTTP request to the service providing apparatus 106 in response to the input of the user of the terminal 101 via the input unit 203 (S805). The service providing apparatus 106 transmits a response message to the terminal 101 (S806). In this embodiment, it is assumed that HTTP uses TCP as a transport protocol, but other protocols (for example, SSL / TLS, SCTP, SPDY, etc.) may be used. The terminal 101 establishes a TCP connection with the service providing apparatus 106. At this time, the distribution control apparatus 105 on the communication path uses the IP address and port number of the terminal 101, the IP address and port number of the service providing apparatus 106, and uses The stored protocol is stored in the session management table 304. The distribution control device 105 manages these sets of information in the session management table 304 until the TCP connection is disconnected, and deletes it when the session disconnection is detected. An example of the session management table 304 is shown in FIG.

  The congestion detection program 207 of the terminal 101 monitors the communication interface unit 205 and checks the congestion state of the network with the device with which the terminal 101 is communicating. Detection of congestion is determined as congestion in the following cases. If the TCP sequence number is discontinuous and packet loss is detected, it is judged as congested. Further, when it is detected that ECN (Explicit Congestion Notification) information recorded when communication is congested is included in the IP packet, it may be determined that the traffic is congested. The ECN information is added to a packet by each device when the packet queue length in the device exceeds a reference value. In addition, CQI (channel quality indicator) indicating the communication quality in the wireless unit monitored by the communication interface unit 205, radio wave intensity, average download speed, etc. are monitored, and CQI, radio wave intensity, average download speed, etc. are determined by the operator. It may be determined that the traffic is congested when the value falls below a predetermined value. However, the detection and determination of the congestion state are not limited to these methods, and any method that can be used in the general terminal 101 can be used. FIG. 8 shows that when the terminal 101 receives content by HTTP (S807, S809) and returns a response of successful reception (S808), ECN information indicating congestion at the base station 102 or the gateway device 104 is displayed. The case where it is set is shown (S810). In response to this, the terminal transmits a response indicating successful reception (S811).

  When the terminal 101 detects congestion using the method described above, the congestion detection program 207 collects information on the TCP connection with which the transmission / reception program 209 is currently communicating. The TCP connection information can be acquired from the base station 102. Further, the current position of the terminal 101 is obtained from the position information history table 210. Then, the congestion detection program 207 transmits the terminal information of the terminal 101 to the management device (S812).

  As a method of transmitting terminal information to the management apparatus 107, the terminal 101 adds terminal information to the session itself during communication in addition to a method of transmitting information to the management apparatus 107, and the information is transmitted from the terminal 101 to the service providing apparatus. The information may be extracted by the distribution control device 105 on the communication path 106, and the distribution control device 105 may send the extracted information and the source session information to the management device 107. Further, it may be acquired from the result of monitoring by the DPI device 108 and input to the management device 107.

  When the management apparatus 107 receives terminal information from the terminal 101, the control method determination table 403 is retrieved and updated based on the terminal information (S813).

  A method for updating the control method determination table 403 will be described with reference to FIG. As shown in FIG. 6A, the management apparatus holds a control method determination table 403 that stores control methods associated with the congestion level, base station information, target range, and application information. The value of the congestion level, the target range, and the control method in FIG. 6A are determined in advance by the operator and the service providing apparatus.

  The update method of the control method determination table is updated by the following procedure.

  The management apparatus acquires the congestion level and position information for each base station 102 stored in the network information table 404 (S701). It is searched whether the acquired congestion degree is registered in the control method determination table (S702). If it is not registered, the terminal 101 connected to the base station 102 is not controlled and ends the process. If registered, the acquired location information of the base station 102 is registered in the column of base station information of the corresponding congestion degree (S703). The control method determination table after registration is shown in FIG. 6B. A range to be controlled is specified from the registered location information of the base station 102 and the target range of the control method determination table (S704). Thereby, the traffic control method for each position is determined. Check whether the terminal location information and application information used by the terminal have been acquired (S705). If the terminal location information and application information used by the terminal are acquired (S706), the acquired terminal location information is the target range. It is checked whether there is an item included in (S707). Further, if there is an item that includes the position information of the terminal 101 in the target range, a search is made as to whether there is an item corresponding to the application information acquired from the terminal 101 within the target range (S708). If there is corresponding application information, a control method corresponding to the application information is specified (S709). A control instruction is output to the distribution control device so as to control the session in which the terminal 101 is communicating with the specified control method (S710). By setting the control method based on the position information of the terminal 101 and the application information by this control method, appropriate control for the terminal 101 and the network system can be performed.

  FIG. 6B shows an example of the control method determination table. If there is a high degree of congestion over a wide area (an area with a congestion degree of 70% or more within a radius of 1 km appears) (At this time, an area with a radius of 1 km or more of a congestion degree of 70% or more will appear at a base with a congestion degree of 70% or more) By browsing to the web in a congested range (eg 47.47 degrees north latitude, 1km radius centered at 19.5 degrees east longitude) Web) Bandwidth is limited for users, and there is a delay for users in congested areas (e.g. 48.32 degrees north latitude, radius 400m centered around 19.11 degrees east longitude and congestion degree 70% or more). Create a policy such as temporarily suspending delivery to an acceptable application (eg, application is mail). The operator can set the radius condition, policy condition, and application condition at this time. Further, at this time, the determination of the congested area can be made from the amount of traffic flowing to the base station 102.

  In the above policy, the operator can determine the target range and the control method according to the degree of congestion. Thereby, for example, when the degree of congestion is low, the number of control target terminals can be reduced by narrowing the target range, and the number of users whose sensation quality is reduced can be reduced.

  As an example of the control method, when the distribution control device 105 relays communication from the service providing device 106 to the terminal 101, there is a method of holding the relay processing until the time instructed by the management device 107. This control method can be applied to e-mail with a large allowable delay. Thereby, it becomes possible to allocate a band to communication of other terminals in a congested area, and it is possible to improve the quality of experience of a user of a terminal to which a large band is allocated.

  Alternatively, as another control method, when the distribution control device 105 relays communication from the service providing device 106 to the terminal 101, the bandwidth consumed by the communication is limited to the bandwidth instructed by the management device 107. is there. This control method can be applied to the Web or the like.

  Furthermore, as another control method, it is possible not to control an application with a small allowable delay such as voice and video. As a result, it is possible to prevent a situation in which the service cannot be used as a result of the control, and it is possible to prevent deterioration in the quality of the user's experience.

  In addition, as a result of the movement of the terminal 101 performing the controlled communication to the communication instructing the hold control, the target of the base station 102 having a predetermined congestion degree or more registered in the control method determination table 403 If it is not within the range, a method of canceling the control and transmitting the controlled communication is also conceivable. As a result, when the controlled terminal 101 moves and is not communicating with a congested base station, that is, when communicating with a quiet base station, the controlled communication is immediately resumed, so that the user experience Quality is improved. Furthermore, traffic that has been put on hold when the amount of traffic is large is sent when the amount of traffic is small, so that traffic leveling can be realized.

  Returning to the description of FIG.

  The management device 107 transmits the control conditions stored in the updated control method determination table 403 to the distribution control device 105 via the PCRF device 109 (S814). The control condition includes information on the session of the terminal 101 that is the control target and a control method. The session information of the terminal 101 includes an IP address on the terminal side, an IP address on the service providing apparatus side, and a usage protocol.

  When the control method receiving unit 302 of the distribution control device 105 receives the control condition from the management device 107 via the PCRF device 109, the session information and the control method are extracted from the received condition, and the control condition table 303 is updated. (S815). The control condition table is updated by the following procedure. When receiving the control conditions for the session of the specific terminal from the management apparatus, the distribution control apparatus 105 extracts the IP address of the terminal, the IP address of the service providing apparatus 106 and the protocol from the control conditions, and extracts the IP of the terminal 101 extracted in the control condition table It is searched whether there is an item corresponding to the address, the IP address of the service providing apparatus 106, or the protocol. As a result of the search, if there is a corresponding item, the extracted control method is registered in the control method column of the corresponding item. If there is no item corresponding to the extracted IP address of the terminal 101, the IP address of the service providing device 106, and the protocol, the extracted IP address of the terminal 101, the IP address of the service providing device 106, the protocol and the control method are newly registered. . Thereby, the session of the terminal 101 can be associated with the control method.

  The delay / bandwidth control program 301 searches the current session management table 304 for a match with the conditions in the control condition table 303, and if there is a corresponding session, updates the control method for the corresponding session. (S816). If there is no corresponding session, it is added to the session management table 304. Then, control for a session that requires control is started. Thereafter, when the control is completed, the session management table 304 may be deleted.

  In FIG. 8, as control of the session, control is performed such that the distribution of the content sent from the service providing apparatus 106 to the terminal 101 is temporarily suspended (S821).

  During the control period, the content is transmitted from the service providing apparatus 106 to the distribution control apparatus 105 (S817, S819), and each time the terminal 101 returns a response indicating successful reception (S818, S820). Then, at the timing when the control period ends, the delivery control device 105 sequentially transmits to the terminal 101 (S822, S824, S826), and the terminal 101 returns a response indicating successful reception each time (S823, S825, S827). Thereafter, the connection is released (S828).

  As described above, by using the terminal information for determining the control method on the network side, it is possible to select a better control method for the user using the terminal 101 on the network side.

  The operation of each device described above can be periodically performed every time the congestion degree is input from the DPI device 108.

  When only some of the terminals 101 send to the terminal information management apparatus 107, a contract with the user can be made as a premium service. That is, for the terminal 101 that does not send terminal information, the control method is determined as before without considering the application used by the terminal. In this case, among users of the terminal, a user who uses an application with a small allowable delay may not receive the service. On the other hand, the control method using this embodiment is applied to the terminal 101 that sends terminal information. As a result, the contracted user is subjected to control suitable for the application being used, so that there is a high possibility that the user can use the service even when using an application with a small allowable delay.

  When executing this contract, it is conceivable to obtain permission from the user when using the service as necessary in order to send information related to the privacy of the user of the terminal 101. An example of the screen image at the time of permission is shown in FIG. At the time of permission, a message as shown in FIG. 9 is displayed on the display of the terminal used by the user.

  Furthermore, since the operator provides a new billing system to the user, the present invention can provide a new revenue source for the operator.

  Further, in the present embodiment, the terminal 101 acquires the position information of the terminal 101 and the information of the application used by the terminal 101. However, the DPI device 108 acquires the information by monitoring the communication of the terminal 101. It is also possible. The information acquired in this way can be processed in the same manner as described above.

According to this embodiment, appropriate traffic control is realized according to terminal information and network information, and traffic at a position where the degree of congestion is high is leveled. Thereby, a user's experience quality improves. Furthermore, in the mobile operator, the use efficiency of the network is improved by leveling the traffic, and the network can be stabilized at a lower cost than the addition of the base station facilities.
[Example 2]
In the present embodiment, a description will be given of an embodiment in which a band control method is determined by using the movement information of the terminal 101 in addition to the application information used by the terminal and the position information of the terminal 101 as the terminal information. Only differences from the first embodiment will be described.

  The control method determination table 1401 in the present embodiment is obtained by adding a column of the movement speed of the terminal 101 to the control method determination table 403 in the first embodiment. The added control method determination table 1401 is shown in FIG. 14A. FIG. 14B shows the base station information registered in the control method determination table 1401. Then, in a terminal in which the position information of the terminal 101 is included in the target range, the control method for the item in which the speed column and the application column match is the control method for the session in which the terminal 101 is communicating.

  Next, differences in the operation of the terminal will be described.

  When the terminal state management program 208 of the terminal 101 acquires the position information of the terminal 101, it can be acquired when a specific event that the terminal 101 has moved a predetermined distance has occurred.

  When the terminal 101 detects congestion, the movement history of the terminal 101 is collected from the position information history table 210. Based on this movement history, the current position of the terminal 101 and the moving speed of the terminal 101 are obtained. The moving speed of the terminal 101 can be calculated by the information processing unit 201 obtaining at least two pieces of position information and time information of the terminal 101 from the position information history table 210, and dividing the distance of the position by the time required for the change. . Then, the congestion detection program 207 transmits the TCP connection information, the current position of the terminal 101, and the moving speed to the management apparatus as terminal information.

  In the subsequent processes, the movement information of the terminal 101 may be handled in the same manner as the application information in each process.

  By using the movement information of the terminal 101, different controls are possible as follows even in terminals using the same application. When the terminal 101 is moving in a congested area, it is conceivable that the terminal 101 will exit the congested area after a certain period of time. Therefore, transmission is suspended until a predetermined time after which it is considered that the terminal 101 is out of the congested area. Since a terminal staying in a congested area can be considered to be in a congested area even after a certain period of time, the bandwidth is limited, not the transmission suspension. Thereby, the session of the terminal can be controlled more appropriately.

  In addition, it is possible to predict how many minutes a specific user leaves the crowded area from the movement information and the distribution of the crowded area, and determine the holding time based on the prediction result. As a result, the hold is released at the timing of moving to a quiet area and communication is resumed, so that traffic can be leveled.

[Example 3]
In the present embodiment, an embodiment will be described in which terminal information from the terminal 101 to the management apparatus 107 is transmitted by being superimposed on a session in which congestion is detected.

  FIG. 10 shows an example of a packet format when terminal information is superimposed on the IPv4 packet 1001. The IPv4 packet 1001 has a source IP address, a destination IP address, a part for storing data, and an option part. Information on the terminal position, speed, and application can be stored in the option section. Session information need only be extracted from the TCP / UDP header part in the data part of the packet containing this option, and need not be stored in this option part.

  The difference between the present embodiment and the first embodiment is that information such as the terminal position is optionally superimposed on the response to the server immediately after the terminal 101 detects congestion. Upon receiving an IP packet including an optional part, the distribution control apparatus 105 that transfers a response to the server on the communication path receives the terminal 101 and the service providing apparatus from the TCP header including the data part in addition to the optional part of the packet. Extract 106 IP addresses and port numbers. Then, the distribution control apparatus 105 sends a message including the terminal position, speed, and session information to the management apparatus 107.

  The advantage of this embodiment is that the information is appropriately transferred on the network side by adding information to the packet to be normally exchanged without having the function and setting for the terminal 101 side to send a message to the management device 107. Is a point. However, since information that can be added to one packet is limited, information that does not fit in one packet needs to be devised such as dividing the information into multiple packets and sending them. For example, a method may be applied in which only the position of the terminal 101 is divided into the first packet and only the speed of the terminal 101 is divided into the second packet.

  The function distribution in the embodiments described so far is merely an example, and it is arbitrary as to what kind of device each function is shared. For example, the functions of the management apparatus 107 and the distribution control apparatus 105 may be implemented in a single apparatus, or the distribution control function may be realized on the gateway 104.

101: terminal, 102: base station, 103: mobile backhaul, 104: gateway device, 105: distribution control device, 106: service providing device, 107: management device, 108: DPI device, 109: PCRF device, 201: information Processing unit 202: Storage unit 203: Input unit 204: Output unit 205: Communication interface unit 206: Location information acquisition unit 207: Congestion detection program 208: Terminal state management program 209: Information transmission / reception program 210: Position information history table, 301: Delay / bandwidth control program, 302: Control method reception program, 303: Control condition table, 304: Session management table, 401: Control method determination unit, 402: Network information collection unit, 403: Control method determination table, 404: network information table, 901: permission screen 1001: IPv4 packet format

Claims (15)

A management device connected to a network system having a base station that communicates with a terminal,
A control method determination table for associating a communication control method with the terminal for each of a plurality of applications is recorded according to congestion information based on the amount of traffic flowing from the collection device to the base station. Recording section to
Information of an application with which the terminal is communicating, and a processing unit that determines a communication control method to the terminal using the control method determination table;
A management apparatus comprising: an output unit that outputs the determined communication control method to a distribution control apparatus that controls communication to the terminal. The management device according to claim 1,
The communication control method associated with each of the plurality of applications in the control method determination table is:
The management apparatus is set based on an allowable delay for each application. The management device according to claim 2,
The management apparatus, wherein the communication control method associated with each of the plurality of applications in the control method determination table is further set based on movement information of the terminal acquired from the terminal. The management device according to claim 3,
The communication control method associated with each of the plurality of applications in the control method determination table is further set based on target range information. The management device according to claim 2,
The processing unit is configured to set the communication control method to a communication control method for holding a predetermined time when the application information is an application with a high allowable delay. The management device according to claim 1,
The management apparatus, wherein when the congestion degree of the base station with which the terminal communicates is equal to or less than a predetermined value, the processing unit transmits a controlled communication among the communications to the terminal. A base station that communicates with a terminal; and a collection device that monitors communication between the terminal and collects congestion degree information based on the amount of traffic flowing to the base station;
In accordance with the congestion degree information acquired from the collection device, a control method determination table for associating a communication control method with the terminal for each of a plurality of applications, and information on an application with which the terminal is communicating A management device that determines a communication control method for the terminal and outputs the determined communication control method to a distribution control device that controls communication to the terminal;
A network system comprising: a distribution control device that controls communication to the terminal according to the communication control method output from the management device. The network system according to claim 7,
The network system, wherein a communication control method associated with each of the plurality of applications in the control method determination table is set based on an allowable delay for each application. The network system according to claim 8, wherein
The network system, wherein a communication control method associated with each of the plurality of applications in the control method determination table is further set based on movement information of the terminal acquired from the terminal. The network system according to claim 9, wherein
The communication control method associated with each of the plurality of applications in the control method determination table is further set based on information on a target range. The network system according to claim 7,
The terminal
The terminal is a terminal that transmits information on the application used for communication by the terminal to the management device at a timing when the terminal detects congestion of the communication and a change in position information of the terminal. Network system. The network system according to claim 11, wherein
A relay device that relays communication to the terminal;
The terminal
When the packet queue length of the communication exceeds a reference value predetermined for the relay device, ECN information added to the packet by the relay device is detected, or packet loss is detected on the terminal side Or the radio wave intensity at the terminal from the base station, the average download speed at the terminal, the CQI at the terminal is less than or equal to a predetermined value, or a combination thereof is detected. A network system, characterized in that it is determined that an error has been detected. The network system according to claim 9, wherein
The terminal
A network system comprising: a display for displaying a message asking whether transmission of movement information of the terminal is possible. The network system according to claim 7,
The distribution control apparatus includes a management table in which an identifier of the terminal and a communication control method of the terminal are associated with each other. A communication control method in a network system having a terminal and a plurality of network devices communicating with the terminal,
For each type of application, store correspondence information that associates the application with a control method that is set based on an allowable delay of the application,
Using the stored correspondence information and information of the application with which the terminal is communicating,
Determining a method of controlling communication to the terminal so that the amount of traffic flowing through the network system is leveled;
A communication control method characterized in that the quality of experience of a user is improved by controlling communication to the terminal by the determined control method.

Images