JP5734468B2 - Terminal device - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a terminal device.

  In a system that aggregates a plurality of terminal devices and provides a wireless communication service, the terminal device is notified of information related to communication quality by displaying the received power intensity called “electric field pict” etc. on the terminal device. Thus, a technology is used that gives convenience to the user, such as making it possible to determine whether the user is within or outside the service area.

On the other hand, in recent years, high-speed and large-capacity communication speeds for communication have been demanded, and as a technology for realizing further highly efficient communication, either the transmitting side or the receiving side uses a plurality of antenna elements in a radio wave propagation environment. An adaptive array antenna (Smart Array) or a smart antenna (Smar) that amplifies the desired wave, suppresses the disturbing wave, and improves the efficiency of wireless communication under the interference of the desired wave / jamming wave in the radio signal generated accordingly.
t Antenna) (hereinafter referred to as SA), or MIMO that improves the efficiency of wireless communication by using a plurality of antenna elements on both the transmitting side and the receiving side and performing weighting suitable for the radio wave propagation environment at each antenna element (Multiple Input Multiple Output) technology.

For these reasons, it is inevitable that information regarding communication quality will be provided to users even in terminal devices equipped with SA and MIMO in the future.
Patent Document 1 describes a technology in which a mobile terminal device that performs communication using a plurality of antennas displays a reception level.

JP 2002-135198 A

  In general, display such as “electric field pictogram” and “in-range / in-range” is performed based on the strength of the received power value at which the base station apparatus can receive the radio signal by the terminal apparatus.

  In a communication system including a terminal device, the position and angle of an object that absorbs or reflects radio waves changes temporally in the environment that constitutes the system, and the radio wave propagation environment changes.

  For this reason, when using a technology that needs to respond to a radio wave propagation environment such as SA or MIMO, simply receiving a signal transmitted by the base station apparatus actually uses the SA or MIMO to meet the radio wave propagation environment. A situation different from the communication quality obtained when communication is performed will be shown.

  The present invention has been made to solve the above-described problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide information on communication quality to a system user in a communication system using SA or MIMO technology.

The communication system according to the present invention is a communication system in which a base station apparatus and a terminal apparatus subordinate to the base station apparatus can communicate with each other by a plurality of multiplex communication methods. A terminal apparatus station control unit that controls transmission of a signal including information indicating that an operation involving transmission by a predetermined multiplex communication method is requested, and a signal including information that the base station apparatus requests the operation A base station apparatus control unit that controls the base station apparatus to transmit the signal of the multiplex communication system based on the reception of the communication signal, and communication that detects the communication quality of the signal of the multiplex communication system received by the terminal apparatus A quality detection unit; a multiplex communication system display unit that performs display intended for the predetermined multiplex communication system; and a communication display quality display unit that performs display according to the communication quality information. To.

  A terminal apparatus according to the present invention includes: a transmission unit that transmits a signal in a terminal apparatus of a communication system in which a base station apparatus and a terminal apparatus subordinate to the base station apparatus can communicate with each other by a plurality of multiplex communication methods; A control unit that controls the transmission unit to transmit at least a signal including an information requesting an operation involving transmission by a predetermined multiplex communication method from the base station apparatus, and a communication quality that detects the communication quality of the received signal A detection unit, a multiplex communication system display unit (subscript, LED, etc.) that performs display intended for the predetermined multiplex communication system, and a communication display quality display unit (antenna bar, pictograph) that performs display according to the communication quality information Display) and the like.

  One aspect of the terminal device according to the present invention includes an operation unit, and the control unit performs the control based on a predetermined input from the operation unit.

  One aspect of the terminal device according to the present invention includes a timer unit, and the control unit performs the control based on the expiration of a predetermined time.

  A base station apparatus according to the present invention is a base station apparatus of a communication system in which a terminal apparatus subordinate to the base station apparatus can communicate with a plurality of multiplex communication systems. A base station apparatus control unit that controls the transmission unit to transmit a signal of the multiplex communication method based on reception of a signal including information requesting to execute a predetermined multiplex communication method. Features.

  A display method according to the present invention is a display method implemented in a communication system in which a base station apparatus and a terminal apparatus subordinate to the base station apparatus can communicate with each other by a plurality of multiplex communication methods. The base station apparatus is controlled to transmit a signal including information indicating that at least an operation involving transmission by a predetermined multiplex communication method is requested, and the base station apparatus includes information indicating that the operation is requested. Based on receiving the signal, the base station apparatus controls to transmit the signal of the multiplex communication system, detects the communication quality of the signal of the multiplex communication system received by the terminal apparatus, and performs the predetermined multiplex communication. The display intended for the system is performed, and the display according to the communication quality information is performed.

  According to the terminal apparatus according to the present invention, in a communication system in which a base station apparatus and a terminal apparatus subordinate to the base station apparatus can communicate with each other by a plurality of multiplex communication systems, an operation involving transmission by a predetermined multiplex communication system The communication quality of the intended multiplex communication system can be obtained by requesting.

1 is a system configuration diagram of a wireless communication system including a base station device 10, a terminal device 20, and a higher-level communication network 30 according to an embodiment of the present invention. It is a block diagram of the configuration of the base station apparatus 10 according to an embodiment of the present invention. It is a block diagram of the terminal device 20 according to an embodiment of the present invention. It is a flowchart which shows the operation | movement at the time of the terminal device 20 which concerns on one Embodiment of this invention at a standby operation. It is a flowchart which shows operation | movement at the time of the service operation | movement of the terminal device 20 which concerns on one Embodiment of this invention. It is a sequence diagram in case the base station apparatus 10 and the terminal device 20 which concern on one Embodiment of this invention perform SA communication. It is a sequence diagram in case the base station apparatus 10 and the terminal device 20 which concern on one Embodiment of this invention perform MIMO communication. It is a sequence diagram in case the base station apparatus 10 and the terminal device 20 which concern on one Embodiment of this invention communicate. It is a sequence diagram in case the base station apparatus 10 and the terminal device 20 which concern on one Embodiment of this invention communicate. It is a sequence diagram in case the base station apparatus 10 and the terminal device 20 which concern on one Embodiment of this invention communicate. It is a figure which shows the display form of the display part of the terminal device 20 which concerns on one Embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the example of a display example of the display part of the terminal device 20 which concerns on one Embodiment of this invention. It is a sequence diagram in case the base station apparatus 10 and the terminal device 20 which concern on one Embodiment of this invention communicate. It is a sequence diagram in case the base station apparatus 10 and the terminal device 20 which concern on one Embodiment of this invention communicate. It is a sequence diagram in case the base station apparatus 10 and the terminal device 20 which concern on one Embodiment of this invention communicate. It is a figure which shows the example of a display example of the display part of the terminal device 20 which concerns on one Embodiment of this invention.

  Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 is a system configuration diagram of a wireless communication system including a base station device 10, a terminal device 20, and a higher-level communication network 30 according to an embodiment.

  The base station apparatus 10 communicates with a plurality of terminal apparatuses 20 by a wireless communication method, and provides a communication service desired by the user (for example, an application such as data communication or voice communication) to the user of the terminal apparatus 20.

  As a wireless communication method, a method employing a technique such as SA or MIMO that performs signal processing according to a radio wave propagation path by using a plurality of antenna elements can be used.

  The terminal device has a “service operation state” that provides a communication service desired by the user and a “standby operation” that waits in a state in which the service operation can be started quickly although the service operation is not performed.

  In any state, the terminal device provides information related to communication quality to the user.

  FIG. 2 is a configuration block diagram of the base station apparatus 10 according to the embodiment of the present invention.

  The antenna 102 has a plurality of antenna elements (in the figure, a configuration with two elements 102-1 and 102-2), and transmits or receives a radio signal using SA or MIMO technology.

  A radio signal received by the antenna element 102 is sent to the RF unit 104 and converted from the frequency of the radio signal to a frequency for processing in the baseband.

  In addition, when the base station apparatus 10 transmits a radio signal, the RF unit 104 converts the baseband signal into a frequency of the radio signal and supplies it to the antenna element 102.

  The RF unit 104 includes a radio field intensity measurement unit 106 that measures radio field intensity (received power, electric field intensity, etc.) of a received signal, and obtains information on the radio field intensity.

  The baseband signal output from the RF unit 106 is input to the communication control unit 108.

  The communication control unit 108 includes a PHY unit 110 that performs signal processing necessary for performing communication control.

  The PHY unit 110 includes an SA and MIMO processing unit 112 that performs processing based on SA technology and processing based on MIMO technology on a baseband signal. The SA / MIMO processing unit 112 uses a known signal included in a received signal (here, input as a baseband signal) and learns so that reception or subsequent transmission can be performed optimally. Works to adapt to.

  The communication control unit 108 includes a MAC unit 114 in addition to the PHY unit 110, and performs communication control in accordance with a communication method protocol used by the communication system 100.

  The base station device 10 uses the communication control unit 108 to communicate with the terminal device using a protocol, and also connects to a network (for example, the Internet network or ISDN network) necessary for providing the terminal device with a communication service. There is a network I / F unit 122 that is an interface for performing communication, and an information control unit 118 that controls a communication bridge between the communication control unit 108 and the network unit 122. In addition, in order for the information control unit to control the exchange with the network I / F unit 122, the radio field intensity measurement information obtained from the radio field intensity measurement unit 106 can also be used.

  FIG. 3 is a configuration block diagram of the terminal device 20 according to the embodiment of the present invention.

  The description of the part that overlaps with the description of the base station apparatus 10 is omitted.

  The communication control unit 214 performs protocol control in the terminal device, and the MAC unit 214 performs MAC control in the terminal device.

  Although not shown in the figure, the communication control unit 208 may include a processing unit for implementing the SA technology and the MIMO technology in addition to the above.

  The application unit 218 is a part that performs processing related to applications such as data communication and voice communication that the terminal device provides to the user of the terminal device using service communication.

  The application unit 218 provides investigation information input from the operation unit 224 and information related to the display output from the display unit 222.

  Further, based on the information obtained from the radio field intensity measuring unit 206, information related to out-of-service / in-service display, information related to electric field pictogram display, information related to SA technology implementation, information related to MIMO technology implementation, and the like can be provided to the display unit 222. I can do it.

  FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing an operation when the terminal device 20 according to the embodiment of the present invention is in a standby operation.

  FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating an operation when the terminal device 20 according to an embodiment of the present invention performs a service operation.

For S112 in FIG. 4, one or more of the following methods are used.
a. The base station apparatus periodically sends SA and MIMO compatible information.
b. The base station device senses that it is communicating with other terminal devices by SA or MIMO, and uses this information. (Wi-MAX UL-MAP MIMO UL basic IE, MIMO UL enhanced IE information, DL-MAP MIMO DL basic IE and MIMO DL enhanced IE information)
c. If SA or MIMO communication is performed with the base station apparatus in the current area even once, this is stored and this information is used.
d. A request signal is sent from the terminal device to the base station device for inquiring whether it is compatible with SA or MIMO. The base station apparatus reads this request information and transmits the response status to the terminal apparatus (in this case, if the signal from the base station apparatus does not reach even after a certain period of time, the base station apparatus is not compatible with SA and MIMO. recognize).

  FIG. 6 is a sequence diagram when the base station apparatus 10 and the terminal apparatus 20 according to an embodiment of the present invention perform SA communication.

  An example of a method of performing SA communication with the base station apparatus of S118, S126, S232, and S238 described in FIGS. 4 and 5 is performed according to the procedure of FIG.

  FIG. 7 is a sequence diagram when base station apparatus 10 and terminal apparatus 20 according to an embodiment of the present invention perform MIMO communication.

  An example of a method of performing MIMO communication with the base station apparatus in S122, S130, S226, and S244 described in FIGS. 4 and 5 is performed in the procedure of FIG.

  FIG. 8 is a sequence diagram when the base station apparatus 10 and the terminal apparatus 20 communicate with each other according to the embodiment of the present invention.

  D. In the operation of S112 in FIG. The operation may include the following operations.

  When a request signal that is not compatible with SA is sent to the base station device, the current base station device does not have the function of receiving this request signal, and the adjacent base station device has the function. The procedure is taken. If the adjacent base station apparatus is set to reject this request, this procedure is not performed thereafter (see FIG. 8).

  FIG. 9 is a sequence diagram when the base station device 10 and the terminal device 20 according to an embodiment of the present invention communicate.

The operations of S118, S126, S232, and S238 described in FIGS. 4 and 5 may include the following operations.
When a request signal for SA display is sent to the base station apparatus, if the current base station apparatus does not have the function of receiving this request signal and the adjacent base station apparatus has the function, the following procedure is performed. Is taken. The following procedure is performed. If the adjacent base station apparatus is set to reject this request, this procedure is not performed thereafter (see FIG. 9).

  FIG. 10 is a sequence diagram when the base station device 10 and the terminal device 20 according to an embodiment of the present invention communicate.

  The operations of S122, S130, S226, and S244 described in FIGS. 4 and 5 may include the following operations.

  When a request signal for MIMO display is sent to the base station apparatus, if the current base station apparatus does not have the function of receiving this request signal and the adjacent base station apparatus has the function, the following procedure is performed. Is taken. If the adjacent base station apparatus is set to reject this request, this procedure is not performed thereafter (see FIG. 10).

  4, FIG. 5, S120, S128, S132, S124, S228, S234, S240, S246, S216, and S214 regarding the measurement of the electric field strength, during communication, the base station apparatus performs this communication method type (SA, MIMO, (Normal) is transmitted to the terminal device, and the terminal device determines the communication method based on this signal (such as putting data indicating that in the communication payload. In WiMAX, it can be determined by the information in the DL-MAP) ).

  As for the measurement method, the method used when the terminal device measures the radio wave intensity of normal communication is adopted so that there is no unfairness.

  FIG. 11 is a diagram showing a display form of the display unit of the terminal device 20 according to an embodiment of the present invention.

  FIG. 12 is a diagram showing a display example pattern of the display unit of the terminal device 20 according to an embodiment of the present invention.

  4 and 5, the user can select whether or not to display SA and MIMO radio field strengths in advance, and based on this, a request to the base station apparatus or The screen display type setting is determined. It is even better if the display location, display size, etc. can be selected. When nothing is selected, some initial setting values are valid. Regarding the display method, not only the screen but also LEDs may be used. If the base station device does not support SA or MIMO, it may be displayed. In the case of an adjacent base station apparatus, it may be displayed (see FIGS. 11 and 12).

  FIG. 13 is a sequence diagram when the base station apparatus 10 and the terminal apparatus 20 communicate according to an embodiment of the present invention.

  FIG. 14 is a sequence diagram in the case where the base station apparatus 10 and the terminal apparatus 20 communicate according to an embodiment of the present invention.

  FIG. 15 is a sequence diagram in the case where the base station apparatus 10 and the terminal apparatus 20 communicate according to an embodiment of the present invention.

With respect to the selection method of the communication method described in S140 and S252 of FIGS. 4 and 5, when waiting, communication can be started by the communication method during the next communication for a certain time after selection. However, when the radio wave environment changes during communication and the communication method is automatically changed by the base station apparatus, the change is followed. When the communication is in progress, the procedure is as follows. Also in this case, when the radio wave environment changes during communication and the communication method is automatically changed by the base station apparatus, the change is followed.

  When changing to SA communication, see FIG.

  When changing to MIMO communication, see FIG.

  To change to normal communication, see FIG. In addition, when the connection destination is the adjacent base station apparatus by these operations, the handover is performed before the transmission of the switching request.

  FIG. 16 is a diagram showing a display example pattern of the display unit of the terminal device 20 according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Regarding the method of displaying that the current communication is in progress by the operation of S218 in FIG. 5, the electric field described in S120, S128, S132, S124, S228, S234, S240, S246, S216, and S214 in FIG. Similar to the strength measurement, the determination is made using information (SA, MIMO, normal) relating to the type of communication method transmitted from the base station apparatus. The fact that communication is in progress is displayed on the display portion corresponding to the communication method during communication as in the following example. It is possible to select whether to display the book. Further, even if it is selected not to display, it may be possible to select to display it during communication.
In the case of an adjacent base station device, it may be displayed (see FIG. 16).

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 100 ... Communication system 10 ... Base station apparatus 20-1, 20-2 ... Terminal device 30 ... High-order communication network 102-1, 102-2 ... Antenna element 104 ... RF part 106 ... Radio wave intensity measuring part 108 ... Communication control part 110 PHY unit 112 SA, MIMO processing unit 114 MAC unit 118 Information control unit 122 Network I / F unit 202-1, 202-2 Antenna element 204 RF unit 206 Radio wave intensity measurement unit 208 Communication control Unit 214... MAC unit 218... According to application control unit.
When the communication is in progress, the procedure is as follows. Also in this case, when the radio wave environment changes during communication and the communication method is automatically changed by the base station apparatus, the change is followed.

Claims (4)

A terminal device having a plurality of antenna elements, wherein the plurality of antenna elements form a radio wave propagation path with a plurality of antennas of a base station, and can use a plurality of communication technologies . A receiving unit for receiving a signal from a base station corresponding to each communication technology ;
A display unit which displays together in the receiving section based on the signal received, a waiting state radio intensity before Symbol plurality of communication technologies,
A terminal device , comprising: a selection unit capable of selecting at least one communication technology by a user operation based on radio field strengths of the plurality of communication technologies displayed on the display unit. The terminal device according to claim 1, further comprising a sending unit that sends a signal asking which one of the plurality of communication technologies the base station supports. The terminal apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the communication technique is a MIMO technique. The terminal device according to claim 1, wherein the communication technology is a smart antenna technology.

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