JP5619926B2 - Femtocell base station, maintenance management method, and maintenance management program - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a technique for maintaining and managing a femtocell base station from a maintenance terminal via a local area network.

  The femtocell base station is a low-power wireless access point having a function of connecting a mobile device to a public line or the like using a home digital subscriber line or a cable band connection. As a prior art related to maintenance management of a femtocell base station, for example, as proposed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2011-259425, a method for remotely managing a femtocell base station based on the TR-069 protocol is known. ing. The TR-069 protocol is a communication protocol for remote management of communication devices established by Broad Band Forum (formerly DSL Forum). For example, it is adopted as a management protocol for DSL modems and FTTH modems, as well as femtocell technology. Has been adopted as a management protocol for femtocell base stations. The operation support system arranged in the mobile operator's core network can perform remote maintenance (for example, alive monitoring, operation setting, firmware update, etc.) of the femtocell base station based on the TR-069 protocol. . As described above, the conventional maintenance management of the femtocell base station is generally performed by remote maintenance, and it is not premised that the maintenance staff is dispatched to the site to perform the maintenance management. For these reasons, the LAN port of the femtocell base station is closed at the time of shipment, and unauthorized tampering of maintenance items (transmission output of the femtocell base station, position information, etc.) by the user is prevented.

JP2011-259425A

  However, remote maintenance alone is not always sufficient to solve a failure or malfunction that has occurred in the femtocell base station, and there are cases where it cannot be solved without dispatching maintenance personnel to the site. For example, if it is considered that the cause of the malfunction of the femtocell base station is the surrounding radio wave environment, it is desirable to dispatch maintenance personnel to the site to investigate the actual radio wave environment. In spite of the necessity of dispatching maintenance personnel to the site to maintain and manage the femtocell base station, the LAN port of the femtocell base station is closed at the time of shipment in the conventional maintenance management. This is inconvenient in that maintenance management cannot be performed by accessing the femtocell base station from the maintenance terminal via the local area network.

  Therefore, an object of the present invention is to enable maintenance personnel to maintain and manage femtocell base stations on site.

  In order to solve the above-mentioned problem, the femtocell base station according to the present invention includes a detecting means for detecting a special access number for maintenance via a public telephone line from a mobile station located in the local station, and a special access number for maintenance. And permitting means for permitting acceptance of an operation input related to maintenance management of the local station from the maintenance terminal via the local area network on condition of detection of transmission. Compared to the Internet network, the public telephone line is difficult for unauthorized users to access illegally, so the detection of the maintenance special number transmission from the public telephone line is detected by the femtocell base station via the local area network from the maintenance terminal. By making the conditions permitting the maintenance management of the femtocell, maintenance management of the femtocell base station at the site can be made possible while ensuring security.

  The femtocell base station according to the present invention may further include a communication port connected to the maintenance terminal via the local area network, and the permission means opens the communication port on condition that the maintenance special number transmission is detected, Acceptance of operation input related to maintenance management of the local station from the maintenance terminal via the local area network may be permitted. In addition, the permission means may permit the acceptance of the operation input related to the maintenance management of the own station via the local area network from the maintenance terminal only for a period until a certain time elapses after the detection of the maintenance special number transmission. Good. Here, the function of the permission means may be realized by hardware resources of the femtocell base station, or may be realized by a software module executed by a processor installed in the femtocell base station.

  In order to prevent unauthorized tampering of maintenance items due to leakage of maintenance special numbers, maintenance special numbers are permitted to accept operation inputs related to maintenance management of femtocell base stations via the local area network from maintenance terminals. It may be disposable every time.

  In order to realize high security maintenance management, the maintenance special number may be different depending on the item range related to the maintenance management of the femtocell base station.

  The mobile communication system according to the present invention includes an operation support system and a femtocell base station. The operation support system includes issuing means for issuing a maintenance special number. The femtocell base station has a detection means for detecting a special access number for maintenance via a public telephone line from a mobile station located in the local station, and a local area from the maintenance terminal on the condition that the special access number for maintenance is detected. Permission means for permitting acceptance of an operation input related to maintenance management of the local station via the network.

  The maintenance management method according to the present invention detects a special access number for maintenance via a public telephone line from a mobile station located in the local station, and the local area from the maintenance terminal is subject to detection of the special transmission number for maintenance. Permits the acceptance of operation inputs related to the maintenance management of the local station via the network.

  A maintenance management program according to the present invention is a computer program for causing a femtocell base station to execute the above-described maintenance management method.

  ADVANTAGE OF THE INVENTION According to this invention, a maintenance worker can perform maintenance management of the femtocell base station locally.

It is explanatory drawing which shows the structure of the mobile communication system concerning this embodiment. It is a flowchart which shows the flow of a process of the maintenance management method concerning this embodiment.

Embodiments according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram showing a configuration of a mobile communication system 100 according to the present embodiment. The mobile communication system 100 includes, for example, a femtocell base station 10 that provides a wireless access point for the mobile device 40 in an indoor 80 such as a home or office, and an operation for remotely maintaining the femtocell base station 10 via the Internet network 50. And a support system 70. The mobile device 40 is, for example, a high-function mobile phone device such as a smartphone, a personal digital assistant, a portable personal computer, or the like. The femtocell base station 10 is connected to the broadband router 30 installed in the indoor 80 and is connected to the Internet network 50 via the broadband line 51 to provide a mobile phone communication service to the mobile device 40. The broadband line 51 is, for example, an asymmetric digital subscriber line, an optical fiber, or a coaxial cable. The mobile phone communication system is, for example, LTE or W-CDMA. The operation support system 70 is a large-scale server device that constitutes a part of the core network 60 of the mobile phone. Automatically handle alarms that indicate occurrences.

  The femtocell base station 10 is connected to an external network such as a wireless communication unit 12 for performing wireless communication with the mobile device 40 via the antenna 11, a control unit 13 for performing various control processes, and the local area network 31 or the broadband line 51. A communication port 14 for connection and a network control unit 15 that performs network processing via the communication port 14 are provided. The wireless communication unit 12 includes a circuit board including a high-frequency circuit and a baseband circuit for performing wireless communication by a predetermined communication method (for example, LTE method, W-CDMA method). The control unit 13 includes a circuit board including a processor and storage resources. The communication port 14 is, for example, a LAN port. The network control unit 15 is configured by, for example, a network interface circuit conforming to the TCP / IP protocol.

  Maintenance management of the femtocell base station 10 is, for example, a maintenance special number via a public telephone line from a mobile device 40 located in the femtocell base station 10 while mainly performing remote maintenance from the operation support system 70. This is realized by supplementarily performing maintenance from the maintenance terminal 20 via the local area network 31 on the condition that transmission is detected. Compared with the Internet network, since the public telephone line is difficult to be accessed illegally by general users, the detection of the maintenance special number transmission from the public telephone line is detected by the femtocell via the local area network 31 from the maintenance terminal 20. By setting the conditions under which maintenance management of the base station 10 is permitted, unauthorized alteration of maintenance items (for example, transmission output of the femtocell base station 10, position information, etc.) by a general user can be effectively prevented.

  The communication port 14 for performing maintenance communication with the maintenance terminal 20 is blocked for ensuring security during normal times (when a maintenance mode described later is not activated). When the station 10 detects a maintenance special number transmission from the mobile device 40, the station 10 releases the security, opens the communication port 14, and accepts an operation input related to maintenance management from the maintenance terminal 20 via the local area network 31. To give permission. It is desirable to consider that the maintenance special number is not known to anyone other than the maintenance staff and related persons. In order to secure the confidentiality of the maintenance special number, for example, the maintenance special number is permitted to accept an operation input related to maintenance management of the femtocell base station 10 from the maintenance terminal 20 via the local area network 31. It may be disposable. Further, the femtocell base station 10 accepts an operation input related to the maintenance management of the own station via the local area network 31 from the maintenance terminal 20 only during a period until a certain time elapses after the detection of the maintenance special number transmission. Or the operation input related to the maintenance management of the own station via the local area network 31 from the maintenance terminal 20 on condition that a special number transmission from the mobile device 40 indicating the end of the maintenance operation is detected. The acceptance permission may be stopped. The maintenance terminal 20 is, for example, a notebook personal computer on which the maintenance management module 21 is mounted.

  FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a processing flow of the maintenance management method according to the present embodiment. The operation support system 70 issues a maintenance special number and a passcode associated with the special number (step 201), notifies the maintenance staff of this (step 202), and notifies the femtocell base station 10 of these. To do. The femtocell base station 10 stores the maintenance special number received from the operation support system 70 and the passcode associated with the special number in its own storage resource, and registers them (step 203). The maintenance special number and the passcode associated with the special number are thrown away each time operation input related to maintenance management of the femtocell base station 10 from the maintenance terminal 20 via the local area network 31 is permitted. Also good.

  The maintenance staff goes to the indoor 80 where the femtocell base station 10 is installed and starts a maintenance operation (step 204). First, the maintenance staff places the mobile device 40 in the femtocell base station 10 (step 205), operates the dial key of the mobile device 40, and issues a maintenance special number via the public telephone line. (Step 206). When the femtocell base station 10 detects a special access number for maintenance via the public telephone line from the mobile device 40 located in the local station (step 207), the femtocell base station 10 requests the maintenance staff to input a pass code (step 207). 208). When the maintenance staff inputs the passcode associated with the maintenance special number (step 209), the femtocell base station 10 activates the maintenance mode (step 210) and performs maintenance communication with the maintenance terminal 20. Open communication port 14. Here, the maintenance mode means an operation mode in which acceptance of an operation input related to maintenance management of the femtocell base station 10 from the maintenance terminal 20 via the local area network 31 is permitted.

  When the maintenance mode is activated, the maintenance staff starts up the maintenance management module 21 (step 211) and connects to the femtocell base station 10 from the maintenance terminal 20 via the local area network 31. Next, the maintenance staff inputs a predetermined ID and password, logs in to the maintenance management module 21 (step 212), and inputs an operation related to maintenance management of the femtocell base station 10 (step 213). The operations related to maintenance management of the femtocell base station 10 include, for example, various items related to maintenance management (for example, individual information of the femtocell base station 10, position information such as longitude and latitude, transmission output, gateway in the core network 60) Confirmation and / or change of network addresses of devices or exchanges, information on neighboring base stations, event logs). When the maintenance management by the maintenance personnel is completed (step 214), the femtocell base station 10 automatically ends the maintenance mode after a predetermined time has elapsed from the start of the maintenance mode, for example (step 215). Note that the maintenance mode may be ended after waiting for a logout operation of the maintenance management module 21 by a maintenance person, or after detecting a special number transmission from the mobile device 40 indicating the end of the maintenance operation. Good. When the maintenance mode ends, the permission to accept operation input related to maintenance management of the femtocell base station 10 from the maintenance terminal 20 via the local area network 31 is stopped.

  In order to realize maintenance management with high security, the maintenance special number may be a different special number depending on the item range related to the maintenance management of the femtocell base station 10. For example, a certain maintenance special number is set so that acceptance of an operation input related only to the transmission output of the femtocell base station 10 is permitted, and the other maintenance special numbers include the transmission output of the femtocell base station 10 in general. You may set so that reception of the operation input regarding a general maintenance item may be permitted.

  Steps 203, 207, 208, 210, and 215 described above are processed by the processor executing the maintenance management program stored in the storage resource of the control unit 13.

  According to the femtocell base station 10 according to the present embodiment, the local area from the maintenance terminal 20 is subject to the detection of the maintenance special number transmission via the public telephone line from the mobile device 40 located in the local station. By permitting the acceptance of operation inputs related to the maintenance management of the own station via the network 31, maintenance management of the femtocell base station 10 can be made possible while securing the security of the maintenance management.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 ... Femtocell base station 11 ... Antenna 12 ... Wireless communication part 13 ... Control part 14 ... Communication port 15 ... Network control part 20 ... Maintenance terminal 21 ... Maintenance management module 30 ... Broadband router 31 ... Local area network 40 ... Mobile device 50 ... Internet network 51 ... Broadband line 60 ... Core network 70 ... Operation support system 80 ... Indoor

Claims (8)

A detection means for detecting a special access number for maintenance via a public telephone line from a mobile station located in the local station;
Permission means for permitting acceptance of operation input related to the maintenance management of the local station from the maintenance terminal via the local area network on the condition of detection of the maintenance special number transmission;
A femtocell base station comprising: The femtocell base station according to claim 1,
A communication port connected to the maintenance terminal via the local area network;
The permission means permits the acceptance of operation input related to maintenance management of the local station from the maintenance terminal via the local area network by opening the communication port on condition that the maintenance special number transmission is detected. Femtocell base station. The femtocell base station according to claim 1 or 2,
The permission means permits the acceptance of the operation input related to the maintenance management of the local station from the maintenance terminal via the local area network only during a period until a certain time elapses after the detection of the maintenance special number transmission. , Femtocell base station. The femtocell base station according to any one of claims 1 to 3,
The maintenance special number is a femtocell base station that is discarded every time it is permitted to accept an operation input related to maintenance management of the local station via the local area network from the maintenance terminal. The femtocell base station according to any one of claims 1 to 4,
The maintenance special number is a femtocell base station that differs depending on a range of items related to maintenance management of the femtocell base station. A mobile communication system comprising an operation support system and a femtocell base station,
The operation support system includes issuing means for issuing a maintenance special number,
The femtocell base station is configured to detect a maintenance special number transmission from a mobile station located in the local station via a public telephone line, and from a maintenance terminal on condition that the maintenance special number transmission is detected. A mobile communication system comprising permission means for permitting acceptance of an operation input relating to maintenance management of the local station via a local area network. Detecting a special access code for maintenance via a public telephone line from a mobile station located in your station,
A maintenance management method for permitting acceptance of an operation input related to maintenance management of a local station from a maintenance terminal via a local area network on condition that the maintenance special number transmission is detected.   A maintenance management program for causing a femtocell base station to execute the maintenance management method according to claim 7.

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