JP3080935B2 - Mobile communication system and mobile communication method - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a mobile communication system and a mobile communication method. The present invention relates to a mobile communication system and a mobile communication method, wherein a mobile station performs battery saving or the like as control of a standby operation by transmitting a signal from a base station to the mobile station.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A standby operation in a conventional portable telephone system will be described with reference to FIG.

In FIG. 1, mobile stations 3 to 6 included in a mobile station group 2 transmit and receive a control signal from a base station 1 at regular intervals in accordance with a transmission and reception timing.

[0004] A base station 1 knows a group of mobile stations 2 transmitting a control signal within a range where radio waves can reach, and a mobile station 3 included in the group 2 of mobile stations is transmitted from a telephone line side. If there is an incoming call, it is confirmed that there is a free communication channel, and the mobile station 3 is called by the control signal. When the mobile station 3 responds to the call, a call can be made. This is a normal standby operation.

[0005] However, if there is no available communication channel at the time of the incoming call, the call cannot be made.

[0006]

However, conventional base stations and mobile stations have the following problems.

[0007] There is no possibility that the base station 1 will call the mobile stations 3 to 6 included in the mobile station group 2 in a situation where all the communication channels are buried. Nevertheless, mobile station group 2
, The mobile stations 3 to 6 continue the standby operation.

The standby operation in this situation is a waste of battery for the mobile stations 3-6.

In the current mobile phone system, the base station transmits a control signal periodically regardless of the availability of the communication channel. And on the mobile station side,
Since the state of the communication channel is not notified, it is necessary to always perform a standby operation. At present, the base station does not inform the mobile station of the congestion state of the communication channel, so that the mobile station cannot perform necessary measures.

[0010] The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned conventional circumstances, and has been made in order to solve the above-mentioned disadvantages inherent in the conventional art. Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a mobile station from a base station while waiting. By adding data on the number of traffic channels or similar data to the transmitted control signal protocol, the mobile station can reduce power consumption by changing operation according to the number of traffic channels used. A mobile communication system and a mobile communication method are provided.

[0011]

In order to achieve the above object, a mobile communication system according to the present invention transmits congestion information of a communication channel to a mobile station when transmitting and receiving a control signal between a base station and the mobile station during standby. And transmitting the control signal from the base station to the mobile station so that the mobile station performs battery saving as a control of a standby operation based on the congestion information.

The control signal is stored in a portion indicated by the CAC of the slot in a superframe having an 18-frame structure in which one frame includes 6 slots.

[0013] The congestion information of the speech channel, which is a control signal of the mobile station, is added to broadcast information of a radio management RT message.

[0014] The broadcast information is transmitted on a BCCH channel.

The base station notifies the mobile station of the congestion information of the communication channel by adding the data format of the used communication channel to the information element field of the data format of the layer 2 or higher.

In the process of waiting for the control signal from the base station in the mobile station, a first determination is made as to whether the current state is a standby operation or not. A second determination is made to determine whether the state is intermittent standby, and if the result of the second determination is intermittent standby, the intermittent time is counted,
A third determination is made to confirm whether the count of the intermittent time has ended, and if the result of the third determination is a count end, a standby process is performed, followed by a control signal from the base station. And a fourth determination is made as to whether or not there is a free communication channel. If it is determined that there is a free communication channel as a result of the fourth determination, the next standby initial state is changed to the normal standby operation. Then, the process of the standby operation is completed.

If the result of the first determination is that the apparatus is not waiting, the next standby initial state is set to a normal standby operation, and then another processing is executed and the processing is terminated.

If the result of the second determination is that the intermittent standby operation is not being performed, a standby process is performed, then a control signal of the base station is received, and then the fourth process for determining whether or not there is an idle communication channel. Make a decision.

If the result of the third determination is that counting has not been completed, the standby operation processing is terminated.

As a result of the fourth determination, when it is determined that there is no idle communication channel, the state is changed to the intermittent standby operation, and the processing of the standby operation is terminated.

[0021]

In FIG. 1, a base station 1 adds congestion information of a current communication channel to a control signal and transmits the control signal to a mobile station group 2.

Each of the mobile stations 3 to 6 confirms the congestion information of the communication channel in the control signal from the base station 1 and controls the standby operation according to the congestion status.

As described above, according to the present invention, the congestion information of the communication channel is included in the control information from the base station to the mobile station, so that the mobile station suspends the standby operation based on the congestion state, and・ Can save.

[0024]

Next, a preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing one embodiment of the present invention.

[Configuration of Embodiment] Referring to FIG.
As an embodiment of the present invention, a mobile communication system in a standby state is shown. The base station 1 is a base station for a mobile phone, and the mobile station 2 is a mobile phone terminal.

In FIG. 2, the base station 1 transmits and receives a control signal to and from the mobile station 2 at regular intervals. The mobile station 2 transmits and receives a control signal to and from the base station 1 in accordance with the timing of the control signal from the base station 1.

The specification of the control signal, which is the main element of the present invention, is shown below. During standby, the base station 1 and the mobile phone terminal 2 transmit and receive necessary information (including a communication physical channel) from a determined frame in a superframe, which is one of the control signals.

As shown in FIG. 3, the superframe has an 18-frame structure (720 ms).
= 40 ms × 18), and one frame has a 6-slot configuration (40 ms = 6.6 ms × 6).

Data is exchanged using this slot as a minimum unit. One slot is composed of 280 bits, and a control signal (valid data) is stored in a portion indicated by CAC. At this time, a control signal that does not fit in one slot is divided into a plurality of slots and stored.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a data format of a unit (CAC portion of a slot).

Referring to FIG. 4, signal configuration information is stored in the first 8 bits, and the data configuration of the current unit can be grasped from this information.

In the signal configuration information stored in the first 8 bits, F1 designates the first slot, F2 designates the last slot, and Wo designates the number L of valid data bytes in the slot when F2 = 1, F2 = 0. In the case of, the remaining unit number Wr until the end of the data is designated.

FIG. 5 shows an example of signal configuration information of a slot in a state of a head unit, a middle unit, a last unit, one message = 1 unit, and idle (no data).

Next, a description will be given of the data contents of layer 2 and above stored after the signal configuration information of the data in the unit.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of a data format of layer 2 or higher.

In FIG. 6, a message type is stored at the head of data, and an information element field is stored after that. The information element field stores various types of information data in a predetermined order for each message type.

FIG. 7 is a table (table) showing a list of wireless management RT message types in a mobile phone.

Referring to FIG. 7, in the radio management RT message, a message for sending information on standby from the base station to the mobile phone to the mobile station is broadcast information.

Broadcast information is sent on the BCCH channel. And the BCCH channel always starts from the head of the superframe. The BCCH channel data is composed of variable data of one to a plurality of units.

By adding the data format of the specification communication channel shown in FIG. 8 to the information element field shown in FIG. 6, the base station can notify the mobile phone of the usage status of the communication channel.

In one embodiment of the present invention, the broadcast information (base station → mobile phone) shown in FIG. 6 is extended and a data format of the number of used communication channels is newly added as shown in FIG. Thus, it is possible to notify the mobile station (mobile phone) of the call congestion information.

[Operation of Embodiment] Next, the standby operation of the portable telephone terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.

FIG. 9 is a flow chart showing an example of an operation flow of a portable device according to the present invention.

In FIG. 9, the normal standby operation is a state where transmission and reception of control signals are performed, and the intermittent standby operation is a state where transmission and reception of control signals are stopped.

Referring to FIG. 9, in step S1, the process of the standby operation is started, and it is determined whether or not the current state is the standby operation. If the result of the determination in step S1 is not waiting, the next standby initial state is set to a normal standby operation (step S2), and then another process is performed (step S3), and the process ends.

If the result of the determination in step S1 is that the apparatus is in standby, it is checked in step S4 whether the current state is intermittent standby.

If the result of step S4 is that the intermittent waiting is being performed, the intermittent time is counted (step S4).
5).

Next, in step S5, it is confirmed whether or not the counting of the intermittent time is completed.

If the result of determination in step S6 is that counting has not been completed, the standby operation processing ends.

If the result of the determination in step S6 is that counting has ended, and if the result of step S4 is that the intermittent standby operation is not being performed, a standby process is performed (step S6).
7).

Next, the mobile phone terminal receives the base station control signal and acquires the vacant channel information (step S).
8).

Next, in step S9, it is determined whether or not there is an available communication channel.

As a result of the determination in step S9, when it is determined that there is no idle communication channel, the state is changed to the intermittent standby operation (step S10), and the processing of the standby operation ends.

If the result of determination in step S9 is that it is not determined that there is no available communication channel, the state is changed to the normal standby operation (step S11), and the processing of the standby operation ends.

[Other Embodiments] Other embodiments of the present invention include the following.

It is conceivable to configure the data of the communication channel somewhere in the structure of the downlink BCCH broadcast information.

Further, separately in any of the downstream communication information,
What constitutes data of a communication channel is conceivable.

[0059]

The present invention is constructed and operates as described above. According to the present invention, the following effects can be obtained.

The first effect is that current consumption can be reduced as compared with a conventional cellular phone by stopping transmission / reception operations in a standby mode when a communication channel is congested.

The effect of the invention described above is shown in FIG.
This will be described using.

The time period from time T1 to time T2 in FIG.
Every 20 ms from time T3 to time T4 in FIG. 10
A standby transmission / reception operation of about s is performed. It operates with a large current in the standby transmission / reception operation section from time T3 to time T4, and operates with a low current in other sections.

As a condition for numerically indicating the effect of the present invention, it is assumed that the base station is transmitting information that the communication channel is congested to the portable telephone terminal.

When the mobile phone terminal receives the congestion state from the base station, it stops the transmission / reception operation nine times in succession.

Assuming a period of 720 ms, the current consumption used during transmission and reception and the standby current constantly consumed are each set to one unit current.

Under the above conditions, the current consumption of the normal type portable telephone terminal indicated by 1 in FIG. 11 consumes a total of two unit currents of the transmission / reception current and the standby current in 720 ms from time T5 to time T6. Therefore, 20 unit currents are consumed in 10 cycles from time T5 to time T7.

On the other hand, the current consumption of the portable telephone terminal considered in the present invention shown in FIG. 11-2 is from time T8 to time T9.
Up to 720 ms, two unit currents are consumed by the transmission / reception current and the standby current. Here, since the congestion information is received and the transmission / reception operation is stopped, in this case, 11 unit currents are consumed in ten cycles from time T8 to time T10.

As described above, the current consumption of the portable telephone according to the present invention under the above-mentioned conditions is 55% (11/20 = 0.55) compared with the ordinary type portable telephone.

The second effect is that by stopping the transmission / reception operation in a state where the communication channel is congested, it is possible to avoid a call in a situation where the communication channel is unstable and to ensure the communication quality.

As a problem that has actually occurred, in the evening of a downtown area or the like, the radio wave intensity is sufficient, but when the communication channel is congested, the call can be made, but the sound quality of the call is very poor, In some cases, such troubles as disconnection may occur.

The above situation is substantially the same as when the mobile phone cannot be used. In such a situation, by performing the same control as the method shown in the former effect, it is possible to secure the communication quality as a result.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram of a mobile communication system to which the present invention is applied.

FIG. 2 is a schematic block diagram showing an embodiment according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of a superframe applied to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a data format of a unit having a slot as a minimum unit (CAC portion of the slot).

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an example of signal configuration information of a slot.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of a data format of layer 2 or higher.

FIG. 7 is a table showing a list of wireless management RT message types in a mobile phone.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a data format of a used communication channel.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating an example of an operation flow according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a conceptual diagram of standby current consumption of a mobile phone.

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing the effect of the present invention in comparison with a conventional example.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Base station 2 ... Mobile station group of radio wave range 3-6 ... Mobile station

Continuation of the front page (58) Field surveyed (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) H04B ^7/ 24-7/26 102 H04Q ^7/ 00-7/38

Claims (10)

(57) [Claims] In a control signal transmission / reception between a base station and a mobile station during standby, the mobile station transmits congestion information on a communication channel as a control signal of the mobile station from the base station to the mobile station. A mobile communication system having means for executing battery saving as control of a standby operation. 2. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising means for storing the control signal in a portion indicated by CAC of the slot in a superframe having 18 frames each including 6 slots. Mobile communication system. 3. The mobile communication system according to claim 1, further comprising means for adding the congestion information of the communication channel, which is a control signal of the mobile station, to broadcast information of a radio management RT message. . 4. The mobile communication system according to claim 3, further comprising means for transmitting the broadcast information on a BCCH channel. 5. The base station further comprises means for notifying the mobile station of traffic channel congestion information by adding a data format of a used traffic channel to an information element field of a data format of layer 2 or higher. Item 2. The mobile communication system according to Item 1. 6. The mobile station performs a first determination as to whether or not a current state is a standby operation in a standby operation process of a control signal from a base station. If the first determination indicates that the mobile station is in a standby state, the mobile station is in a standby state. A second determination is made to determine whether the current state is intermittent standby, and if the result of the second determination is intermittent standby, the intermittent time is counted, and the intermittent time is counted. A third determination is made to confirm whether the count is completed, and if the result of the third determination is a count completed, a standby process is performed, and then a control signal is received from the base station, A fourth determination is made as to whether or not there is an idle communication channel. If it is determined that there is an idle communication channel, the next standby initial state is changed to a normal standby operation and the standby operation is performed. The processing of A mobile communication method characterized by the following. 7. If the result of the first determination is that the device is not in a standby state, the next standby state is changed to a normal standby operation, another process is executed, and the process is terminated. The mobile communication method according to claim 6, wherein 8. If the result of the second determination is that the intermittent standby operation is not being performed, a standby process is performed, then a control signal of the base station is received, and then the second process determines whether or not there is an idle communication channel. 7. The mobile communication method according to claim 6, further comprising performing the determination of step 4. 9. The mobile communication method according to claim 6, further comprising terminating a standby operation process when the count is not completed as a result of the third determination. 10. The method according to claim 4, further comprising, if it is determined that there is no idle communication channel, changing the state to an intermittent standby operation and terminating the standby operation. 7. The mobile communication method according to 6.