JP6156843B2 - Wireless communication method, system thereof, and wireless base station - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a technology that enables communication by integrating a plurality of wireless communication networks, particularly mobile communication and a wireless LAN in a wireless communication layer, and adding or deleting a wireless LAN band to or from a mobile communication band.

  As represented by mobile phones, mobile communication devices called 3G and LTE (Long Term Evolution) standardized by 3GPP (Third Generation Partnership Project) are widely used. In 3GPP, in order to expand the specifications of mobile communication, technical discussions targeting LTE-Advanced and later are actively conducted. In the discussion of future mobile communication specifications in 3GPP, the concept of HetNet (Heterogeneous Network) is discussed with regard to the configuration of a radio base station (hereinafter simply “base station”) and its serving area cell. .

  HetNet is a concept of superimposing a macro cell that covers a large area and a small cell (also called a pico cell) that has a high speed but a small cover area. As one of elemental technologies for HetNet, Carrier Aggregation (see Non-Patent Document 1) is defined in LTE and LTE-Advanced. This technology increases the communication speed by using a plurality of divided frequency bands together. In the HetNet environment, the band can be increased by using both macro cell and small cell frequencies simultaneously. A method of increasing is defined. In other words, this is a technology that enables utilization in the form of adding a small cell band to a macro cell frequency band.

  On the other hand, many terminals used in mobile communication have a wireless LAN interface in addition to a 3G or LTE interface, and in the wireless LAN area, a wireless LAN capable of high-speed and low-cost communication is selected. It is common to switch the communication interface. In this case, by using any one of the communication interfaces according to the radio wave environment, the user can use better communication means. In the HetNet environment, the area of the wireless LAN also exists in a macro cell area, and together with the small cell, the wireless LAN can be used as part of the HetNet environment to effectively use the bandwidth and experience the user. It is important for improvement.

  Considering such a future utilization method of wireless LAN in a HetNet environment, the communication speed and communication capacity of the terminal can be reduced by adding not only mobile communication bands but also wireless LAN bands and using them together. Increasing it is also considered an effective means. It is technically possible to add on the band between the small cell and macro cell of mobile communication using the above-mentioned Carrier Aggregation technology, but at present, only the wireless LAN is switched exclusively, and both of them can be used simultaneously. It is effective to use technology development that enables the use of band add-ons.

  Several implementation methods have already been proposed as link aggregation techniques that use a mobile communication band and a wireless LAN band together. As an example, there is MPTCP (Multi Path TCP) (see Non-Patent Document 2) as a method realized in the transport layer (layer 4) of the OSI reference model. By extending TCP, links from a plurality of routes can be obtained. Can be integrated and used. Further, as a method realized in the IP layer (layer 3), there is DSMIPv6 (see Non-Patent Document 3). In this method, link aggregation is realized by extending a method used for IP address movement management and linking IP addresses of a plurality of routes to one home IP.

  As in Carrier Aggregation shown in Non-Patent Document 1, it is desirable that the addition or deletion of a band can be performed flexibly and at high speed even for a wireless LAN band. However, between different types of wireless communication networks such as mobile communication and wireless LAN. Carrier Aggregation in the wireless communication layer has not been realized so far.

  Although the technologies described in Non-Patent Document 2 and Non-Patent Document 3 that are link aggregation technologies in the upper layer have the advantage that a wide range of networks can be applied, (1) it is necessary to deal with the upper network side, (2 ) There are two problems that it takes time to add or delete a band because it is controlled by an upper protocol.

  For example, in the technique described in Non-Patent Document 2, it is necessary to support the MPTCP function for each server on the network side, and the use is limited to a service that uses a server corresponding to the MPTCP function. In addition, since the addition or deletion of a band is negotiated and formed for each communication server between the terminal and the server, connection formation is complicated.

  In the technique described in Non-Patent Document 3, the terminal supports DSMIPv6, and HA (Home Address) is managed on the network side, and an apparatus that becomes an anchor point is required to be installed. The addition or deletion of a band by signaling between the device and the terminal has a large delay depending on the route, and high-speed processing cannot be performed. In addition, the concentration of bandwidth in the device itself also increases the load on the network side.

In the present invention, in order to solve the above problem,
A wireless communication method for enabling communication by adding or deleting a wireless LAN band to or from a mobile communication band,
Using a base station including a base station function unit for mobile communication and a base station function unit for wireless LAN, and a terminal including a terminal function unit for mobile communication and a terminal function unit for wireless LAN,
The base station generates an RLC PDU frame that is a transmission unit for each mobile communication terminal from the RLC SDU transferred from the upper level of the base station, and the generated RLC PDU frame is used for mobile communication and wireless LAN communication status. Depending on the route of the route,
A step in which a base station converts an RLC PDU frame to be transmitted via a wireless LAN to a terminal by converting an RLC PDU frame to be transmitted via a wireless LAN into an Ethernet frame;
The terminal converts the RLC PDU frame received via mobile communication as it is, the Ethernet frame received via the wireless LAN into an RLC PDU frame, and receives from the base station;
The terminal collects RLC PDU frames received from the base station, arranges them in the order of transmission, and forwards them to a higher level of the terminal , and
The base station acquires the communication speed of the wireless LAN and the communication speed of the mobile communication, and sets the size of the RLC PDU frame generated in the RLC PDU frame generation step to the wireless LAN and the mobile communication according to the communication speed. It is characterized in that it includes a step for determining individually .

In the present invention, in order to solve the above-mentioned problem,
A wireless communication method for enabling communication by adding or deleting a wireless LAN band to or from a mobile communication band,
Using a base station including a base station function unit for mobile communication and a base station function unit for wireless LAN, and a terminal including a terminal function unit for mobile communication and a terminal function unit for wireless LAN,
The terminal generates an RLC PDU frame, which is a transmission unit for each mobile communication terminal, from the RLC SDU transferred from the upper level of the terminal , and the generated RLC PDU frame corresponds to the communication status of the mobile communication and the wireless LAN. Step to sort the route,
A step in which an RLC PDU frame transmitted by a terminal via mobile communication is directly converted into an Ethernet frame and an RLC PDU frame transmitted via a wireless LAN is transmitted to a base station;
An RLC PDU frame received by a base station via mobile communication as it is, an Ethernet frame received via a wireless LAN is converted into an RLC PDU frame and received from a terminal;
A base station that collects RLC PDU frames received from a terminal, arranges the RLC PDU frames in order of transmission, and forwards them to a higher level of the base station , and
The base station acquires the communication speed of the wireless LAN and the communication speed of the mobile communication, and sets the size of the RLC PDU frame generated in the RLC PDU frame generation step to the wireless LAN and the mobile communication according to the communication speed. It is characterized in that it includes a step for determining individually .

  According to the present invention, mobile communication packets can be transmitted and received transparently via a wireless LAN, and can be distributed between the wireless LAN and mobile communication in units of RLC PDU frames. Even in a wireless LAN that is not stable, a use route can be selected at a high speed according to the situation.

The block diagram which shows the outline | summary of the radio | wireless communications system of this invention The block diagram which shows an example of embodiment of the base station in the radio | wireless communications system of this invention The block diagram which shows an example of embodiment of the terminal in the radio | wireless communications system of this invention Explanatory drawing which shows the processing contents in Ethernet / RLC PDU conversion part Explanatory drawing which shows the negotiation function of the communication destination address in the Ethernet / RLC PDU conversion unit Configuration diagram showing details of RLC PDU splitting or combining and routing control unit

<Outline of the present invention>
In order to solve the above-described problems, the present invention is a technique for realizing addition or deletion of a wireless LAN band to a mobile communication band in a wireless communication layer. That is, carrier aggregation between the wireless LAN and the mobile communication is realized.

  FIG. 1 shows an outline of the wireless communication system of the present invention. In mobile communication, transmission data for each terminal is handled in units of RLC PDU (Packet Data Unit) frames in RLC (Radio Link Control) functional blocks, but Ethernet capable of transmitting and receiving RLC PDU frames over a wireless LAN. By converting into frames, it is possible to transmit directly over the wireless LAN, and RLC PDU frames transmitted through the wireless LAN and mobile communication paths are assembled on the receiving side and arranged in the order of transmission. .

<Basic configuration of the present invention>
FIG. 2 shows an example of an embodiment of a base station in the wireless communication system of the present invention. The base station of the present invention includes a base station function unit (hereinafter referred to as “mobile communication unit”) 10 for mobile communication. The wireless LAN base station function unit (hereinafter referred to as “wireless LAN communication unit”) 20 is assumed to be connected with the Ethernet network function. Although the two communication units 10 and 20 are separated as hardware, they may be mounted integrally, or may be mounted as separate housings and connected via a network. Is done.

  The mobile communication unit 10 includes an IP communication control unit 11, a PDCP unit 12, an RLC unit 13, a MAC unit 14, a PHY unit 15, and an Ethernet / RLC PDU conversion unit 16, and the RLC unit 13 further includes: An RLC PDU division or combination and path control unit 17 is provided. The wireless LAN communication unit 20 includes an Ethernet unit 21, a WLAN MAC unit 22, and a PHY unit 23.

  In this base station, the mobile communication unit 10 manages packets to be transmitted (usually IP packets). When a packet to be transmitted arrives from an upper layer via the IP communication control unit 11, in a normal configuration defined by 3GPP, a function block called a PDCP (Packet Data Convergence Protocol) unit 12 performs header compression and encryption processing. And a frame with a PDCP header added. This frame is passed to the RLC unit 13 and handled in units of RLC SDU (Service Data Unit). The processes in the PDCP unit 12 and the RLC unit 13 are performed independently for each terminal (more precisely, for each radio bearer).

  The RLC unit 13 divides or combines RLC SDUs, adds an RLC header, and forms a frame called RLC PDU. This is a unit to be handled by the next MAC (Medium Access Control) unit 14, and the wireless transmission slot is controlled by the MAC scheduler.

  In the present invention, the RLC unit 13 enables the RLC PDU frame to be transmitted via a wireless LAN (wireless LAN), which is an Ethernet-based communication device, so that mobile communication packets can be transmitted transparently via the wireless LAN. Enable transmission.

  As a specific feature, the mobile communication unit 10 includes “(1) Ethernet / RLC PDU conversion unit 16” and “(2) RLC PDU division or combination and path control unit 17”. Function is the point of novelty.

  "(1) Ethernet / RLC PDU conversion unit 16" converts RLC PDU frames transmitted via wireless LAN into Ethernet frames that can be transmitted via wireless LAN, and converts Ethernet frames received via wireless LAN into RLC PDU frames. Specifically, it has a function of adding an Ethernet header or footer to the RLC PDU frame received from the host and encapsulating it in the Ethernet frame, and deleting the Ethernet header or footer from the Ethernet frame and decapsulating it into the RLC PDU frame.

  “(2) RLC PDU division or combination and path control unit 17” has a function of allocating the path of a frame to a wireless LAN or mobile communication according to the communication status of mobile communication and wireless LAN, and the wireless LAN or mobile body. It has a function of collecting RLC PDU frames received from a communication path and arranging them in the order of transmission.

  FIG. 3 shows an example of an embodiment of a terminal in the wireless communication system of the present invention. The terminal 30 includes an IP communication control unit 31, a PDCP unit 32, an RLC unit 33, a MAC unit 34, and a PHY unit. 35, an Ethernet / RLC PDU conversion unit 36, a MAC unit 37, and a PHY unit 38, and the RLC unit 33 further includes an RLC PDU division or combination and path control unit 39.

  Here, the Ethernet / RLC PDU conversion unit 36 is basically the same as the Ethernet / RLC PDU conversion unit 16, and the RLC PDU division / combination and path control unit 39 is also the RLC PDU division / combination and path. This is basically the same as the control unit 17.

  The RLC unit 33, the MAC unit 34, and the PHY unit 35 constitute a mobile communication terminal function unit ("mobile communication unit"), and the Ethernet / RLC PDU conversion unit 36, the MAC unit 37, and the PHY unit 38 are wireless. Although the LAN terminal function unit (“wireless LAN communication unit”) is configured, in the case of a terminal, since the mobile communication unit and the wireless LAN communication unit are usually integrated, the Ethernet unit in the case of the base station is Ethernet / The RLC PDU conversion unit is also used. At this time, the mobile communication unit appears to be the subject from the OS also on the terminal side, and the addition or deletion of the WiFi band is controlled by the RLC unit 33.

  In the above configuration, communication from the base station to the terminal is performed by the mobile communication terminal in which the RLC PDU division or combination of the mobile communication unit 10 of the base station and the path control unit 17 are transferred from the upper level of the base station. RLC PDU frames, which are each transmission unit, are routed according to the communication status of mobile communication and wireless LAN, and RLC PDU frames transmitted via mobile communication are passed through the MAC unit 14 and the PHY unit 15 as they are. The RLC PDU frame transmitted to the terminal 30 and transmitted via the wireless LAN is converted into an Ethernet frame by the Ethernet / RLC PDU conversion unit 16, sent to the wireless LAN communication unit 20, and transmitted to the terminal 30.

  In the terminal 30, the RLC PDU frame received via mobile communication is used as it is, the Ethernet frame received via the wireless LAN is converted into an RLC PDU frame by the Ethernet / RLC PDU conversion unit 36, and all the received RLC PDU frames are RLC. The PDUs are divided or combined and routed by the route control unit 39, arranged in the order of transmission, and transferred to the upper level of the terminal 30.

  In addition, the communication from the terminal to the base station is performed by the RLC PDU frame, which is a transmission unit for each terminal of the mobile communication, which is transferred from the upper level of the terminal by the division or combination of the RLC PDU of the terminal 30 and the path control unit 39. The RLC PDU frame to be transmitted via mobile communication is distributed to the base station via the MAC unit 34 and the PHY unit 35 as is, and routed according to the communication status of the mobile communication and the wireless LAN. The RLC PDU frame to be transmitted is converted into an Ethernet frame by the Ethernet / RLC PDU conversion unit 36 and transmitted to the base station via the MAC unit 37 and the PHY unit 38.

  In the base station, the RLC PDU frame received via the mobile communication is used as it is, the Ethernet frame received via the wireless LAN is converted into an RLC PDU frame by the Ethernet / RLC PDU conversion unit 16, and all the received RLC PDU frames are RLC. The PDUs are divided or combined and combined by the path control unit 17 and arranged in the order of transmission and transferred to the upper level of the base station.

  In this way, the integration of the wireless LAN and the mobile communication can be realized by the wireless communication system using the base station and the terminal having the above-described characteristics.

  FIG. 4 shows the processing contents in “(1) Ethernet / RLC PDU conversion unit 16, 36”. Mutual conversion is performed by adding or removing a preamble, header, and FCS for Ethernet transmission to or from an RLC PDU that is a frame unit in the RLC unit of mobile communication. Further, as shown in FIG. 5, it also has a function of negotiating a communication destination address. This is a function for associating the MAC address of the terminal with the Ethernet between the terminal and the base station so that the source and destination MAC addresses can be appropriately set when the RLC PDU is transmitted.

  FIG. 6 shows a detailed functional configuration of “(2) RLC PDU division or combination and path control unit 17, 39” of the RLC units 13 and 33.

  The “RLC PDU transmission route selection function / reception PDU alignment function 41” is a function of distributing RLC PDU frames to two routes of the wireless LAN communication unit and the mobile communication unit, and RLC PDU frames received from the two routes. The functions are gathered, arranged in accordance with the sequence number described in the header, and transferred to an upper layer function such as ARQ of the RLC unit.

  The “transmission path determination function 42” determines whether the RLC PDU frame should be transmitted by the wireless LAN communication unit or the mobile communication unit in the case of transmission. There are many possible implementations of this, but as an example, there is a method of distributing according to the ratio of the physical transmission speed of each communication unit. Alternatively, there is a method in which the effective speed of the wireless LAN communication unit is acquired and distributed to the wireless LAN communication unit as much as possible. There is also a method of distributing control signals between RLC entities only to the mobile communication unit.

  Furthermore, as a function of the “transmission path discrimination function 42”, there is a case where a function for acquiring the communication speed of the wireless LAN communication unit and instructing an appropriate RLC PDU frame size for the RLC SDU / PDU conversion function may be implemented. is there. As a result, when the wireless LAN is slow or the error is large, it is possible to perform control such as reducing the RLC PDU frame transmitted by the wireless LAN, and to specify a more efficient packet size.

10: Mobile communication unit, 11: IP communication control unit, 12: PDCP unit, 13: RLC unit, 14: MAC unit, 15: PHY unit, 16: Ethernet / RLC PDU conversion unit, 17: RLC PDU division or Coupling and routing,
20: Wireless LAN communication unit, 21: Ethernet unit, 22: WLAN MAC unit, 23: PHY unit,
30: terminal, 31: IP communication control unit, 32: PDCP unit, 33: RLC unit, 34: MAC unit, 35: PHY unit, 36: Ethernet / RLC PDU conversion unit, 37: MAC unit, 38: PHY unit, 39: RLC PDU splitting or combining and routing unit,
41: RLC PDU transmission route selection function / reception PDU alignment function, 42: transmission route discrimination function.

3GPP, Carrier Aggregation explained [online], [searched on November 1, 2013], Internet <URL: http://www.3gpp.org/Carrier-Aggregation-explained> IETF draft, RFC6182, "Architectural Guidelines for Multipath TCP Development" [online], [searched November 1, 2013], Internet <URL: http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6182> IETF draft, RFC5555, "Mobile IPv6 Support for Dual Stack Hosts and Routers" [online], [searched on November 1, 2013], Internet <URL: http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc5555>

Claims (7)

A wireless communication method for enabling communication by adding or deleting a wireless LAN band to or from a mobile communication band,
Using a base station including a base station function unit for mobile communication and a base station function unit for wireless LAN, and a terminal including a terminal function unit for mobile communication and a terminal function unit for wireless LAN,
The base station generates an RLC PDU frame that is a transmission unit for each mobile communication terminal from the RLC SDU transferred from the upper level of the base station, and the generated RLC PDU frame is used for mobile communication and wireless LAN communication status. Depending on the route of the route,
A step in which a base station converts an RLC PDU frame to be transmitted via a wireless LAN to a terminal by converting an RLC PDU frame to be transmitted via a wireless LAN into an Ethernet frame;
The terminal converts the RLC PDU frame received via mobile communication as it is, the Ethernet frame received via the wireless LAN into an RLC PDU frame, and receives from the base station;
The terminal collects RLC PDU frames received from the base station, arranges them in the order of transmission, and forwards them to a higher level of the terminal , and
The base station acquires the communication speed of the wireless LAN and the communication speed of the mobile communication, and sets the size of the RLC PDU frame generated in the RLC PDU frame generation step to the wireless LAN and the mobile communication according to the communication speed. A wireless communication method comprising the step of individually determining the wireless communication method. A wireless communication method for enabling communication by adding or deleting a wireless LAN band to or from a mobile communication band,
Using a base station including a base station function unit for mobile communication and a base station function unit for wireless LAN, and a terminal including a terminal function unit for mobile communication and a terminal function unit for wireless LAN,
The terminal generates an RLC PDU frame, which is a transmission unit for each mobile communication terminal, from the RLC SDU transferred from the upper level of the terminal , and the generated RLC PDU frame corresponds to the communication status of the mobile communication and the wireless LAN. Step to sort the route,
A step in which an RLC PDU frame transmitted by a terminal via mobile communication is directly converted into an Ethernet frame and an RLC PDU frame transmitted via a wireless LAN is transmitted to a base station;
An RLC PDU frame received by a base station via mobile communication as it is, an Ethernet frame received via a wireless LAN is converted into an RLC PDU frame and received from a terminal;
A base station that collects RLC PDU frames received from a terminal, arranges the RLC PDU frames in order of transmission, and forwards them to a higher level of the base station , and
The base station acquires the communication speed of the wireless LAN and the communication speed of the mobile communication, and sets the size of the RLC PDU frame generated in the RLC PDU frame generation step to the wireless LAN and the mobile communication according to the communication speed. A wireless communication method comprising the step of individually determining the wireless communication method. A wireless communication system that enables communication by adding or deleting a wireless LAN band to or from a mobile communication band,
A base station including a mobile communication base station function unit and a wireless LAN base station function unit, and a terminal including a mobile communication terminal function unit and a wireless LAN terminal function unit,
The base station and the terminal are each
RLC PDU frames, which are transmission units for each mobile communication terminal transferred from the host, are routed according to the communication status of the mobile communication and wireless LAN, and received via the mobile communication or wireless LAN route. RLC PDU segmentation or combination and routing unit that collects RLC PDU frames, arranges them in transmission order, and forwards them to the upper layer;
An Ethernet / RLC PDU conversion unit that converts an RLC PDU frame transmitted via a wireless LAN into an Ethernet frame that can be transmitted via the wireless LAN, and converts an Ethernet frame received via the wireless LAN into an RLC PDU frame ;
The RLC PDU division or combination and path control unit further obtains the communication speed of the wireless LAN and the communication speed of mobile communication, and sets the size of the RLC PDU frame generated from the RLC SDU according to the communication speed to the wireless A wireless communication system having a function of individually determining a LAN and mobile communication. RLC PDU splitting or combining and routing is further
Get the communication speed and the communication speed of the mobile communication wireless LAN, and claim 3, characterized in that it has a function of distributing the RLC PDU frame into either a wireless LAN or a mobile communication according to the ratio of the communication speed the wireless communication system according to. RLC PDU splitting or combining and routing is further
The wireless communication system according to claim 3 or 4 , further comprising a function of distributing control signals between RLC entities to mobile communication. A radio base station in the radio communication system according to any one of claims 3 to 5 ,
A radio base station characterized in that a base station function unit for mobile communication and a base station function unit for a wireless LAN are separated as hardware, but are integrated. A radio base station in the radio communication system according to any one of claims 3 to 5 ,
A radio base station, wherein a base station function unit for mobile communication and a base station function unit for a wireless LAN are mounted as separate housings and connected via a network.

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