JP6957382B2 - Processing equipment, base station equipment, control methods and programs for locating terminal equipment - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a technique for locating a terminal device in a wireless communication system.

In the 3rd generation partnership project (3GPP), the 5th generation (NR, New Radio) communication system is being studied (see Non-Patent Document 1). NR is being considered for use, for example, in applications such as touchless entry and exit of a specific facility by constructing a spot area, and in such a system, a terminal passes through, for example, a specific area. By accurately determining whether or not it has been done, it becomes possible to accurately manage entry and exit to and from the facility. The position measurement of the terminal can be performed, for example, by specifying the base station device to which the terminal is connected. That is, the range of cells formed by the base station device to which the terminal is connected can be specified as the positioning result. In NR, it is assumed that beamforming is used for communication in a high frequency band, and it is assumed that the beam width is set narrow to ensure communication quality. For this reason, the range of the area corresponding to the beam formed with a narrow beam width is relatively narrow, so that the base station specifies the position of the terminal with high accuracy according to which beam the terminal is connected to. There is expected.

3GPP, RP-171485

However, in an environment where a beam with a narrow beam width is used, the reflected wave of the radio wave transmitted by the beam corresponding to the area where the terminal does not exist is better than the radio wave transmitted by the beam corresponding to the area where the terminal exists. , It is assumed that the received power at the terminal becomes stronger. In this case, it is assumed that the base station misidentifies that the terminal is in the area of the beam from which the reflected wave is transmitted, and therefore the base station may not be able to accurately locate the terminal.

The present invention has been made in view of such a problem, and an object of the present invention is to make it possible to accurately identify an area in which a terminal stays in an area formed by a beam formed by a base station.

The processing apparatus according to one aspect of the present invention has, for each of the one or more beams formed by the one or more base station apparatus, predetermined information including the identification information of the beam, the arrival time, and the received power. Is obtained from the terminal device, and the sum of the calculation result by the first function, which has a higher score as the arrival time is shorter, and the calculation result by the second function, which has a higher score as the received power is higher. , having a specifying means for identify the beam corresponding to the area where the terminal device to stay.

According to the present invention, it is possible to accurately identify the area where the terminal stays in the area formed by the beam formed by the base station.

The figure which shows the configuration example of a wireless communication system. The figure which shows the hardware configuration example of a device. The block diagram which shows the functional configuration example of a base station apparatus. A block diagram showing an example of a functional configuration of a terminal device. A sequence diagram showing an example of a processing flow executed in a wireless communication system.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

(System configuration)
FIG. 1 shows a configuration example of a wireless communication system according to the present embodiment. The wireless communication system includes, for example, a base station device 101 and a terminal device 102. The base station apparatus 101 forms a plurality of beams 111 to 113, and the terminal apparatus 102 can be connected to the base station apparatus 101 through, for example, one of these beams. For example, the terminal device 102 can establish a connection with the base station device 101 through the beam 112 corresponding to the area where the own device is staying. Further, the base station device 101 can specify the position of the terminal device 102, for example, depending on which beam the terminal device 102 strongly receives the radio wave from. Note that FIG. 1 shows an example in which one base station device 101 forms a plurality of beams 111 to 113, but the present invention is not limited to this. For example, the following discussion can be applied when multiple beams are formed by one or more base station devices.

As described above, in a system that performs wireless communication in a high frequency band such as NR, the beam width can be set narrow in order to ensure communication quality. At this time, for example, as shown in FIG. 1, when the terminal device 102 exists at a position close to the end of the area formed by the beam 112, the gain of the beam 112 is transmitted in a relatively low direction. It is possible to receive the radio wave 121 of 1. On the other hand, the terminal device 102 can receive the second radio wave 122 reflected by the obstacle 123 with strong power, for example, the gain of the beam 111 corresponding to the area where the own device does not stay is transmitted in the substantially maximum direction. .. In this case, it can be assumed that the terminal device 102 receives the second radio wave 122 with stronger power than the first radio wave 121. In this case, when the base station device 101 estimates the stay area of the terminal device 102 based on the intensity of the radio wave received by the terminal device 102, it erroneously determines that the terminal device 102 is staying in the area formed by the beam 111. Resulting in.

In the present embodiment, in order to prevent such erroneous determination of the stay area of the terminal device 102, the terminal device receives radio waves transmitted from each of the one or more beams formed by the one or more base station devices. Not only the electric power but also the arrival time is measured. For example, the radio signal transmitted by each beam includes information on the transmission time, and the terminal device 102 measures the difference between the transmission time and the reception time as the arrival time. Then, for each beam, the terminal device 102 provides information on the identification information of the beam (for example, the beam ID stored in the radio signal transmitted by each beam), the arrival time of the radio wave transmitted by the beam, and the received power. Predetermined information including the above is transmitted to the base station apparatus 101. The terminal device 102 can notify the base station device 101 of, for example, the received power for the radio wave having the minimum arrival time and the information on the arrival time for one beam. Then, when the base station apparatus 101 acquires the predetermined information, the base station apparatus 101 identifies the beam corresponding to the area in which the terminal apparatus stays, based on the arrival time and received power information included in the predetermined information. For example, in the case of FIG. 1, since the arrival time of the second radio wave 122 is longer than that of the first radio wave 121, the base station device 101 is a terminal device within the range formed by the beam 112 corresponding to the first radio wave 121. It can be determined that 102 will stay. That is, the base station apparatus 101 is formed not by the beam 111 corresponding to the second radio wave 122 having a high received power, but by the beam 112 corresponding to the first radio wave 121 having a relatively low received power but a short arrival time. It is determined that the terminal device 102 stays in the above range. As a result, it is possible to improve the accuracy of specifying the area where the terminal device 102 stays, as compared with the case where it is based only on the received power, for example.

The base station device 101 can specify, for example, a beam corresponding to an area in which the terminal device 102 stays from among beams having an arrival time of a predetermined time or less and a received power of a predetermined power or more. Further, the base station apparatus 101 uses a first function having a higher score as the arrival time is shorter and a second function having a higher score as the received power is higher, and is calculated by the first function and the second function. Based on the sum of the results of, the beam corresponding to the area where the terminal device 102 stays may be specified. That is, the base station apparatus 101 corresponds to the area where the terminal apparatus 102 stays the beam having the maximum sum, or one beam selected according to a predetermined rule from the beams having the sum of the predetermined value or more. It can be specified as a beam to be used. Selection according to a predetermined rule is, for example, selection of a beam having a sum of a predetermined value or more and a value indicating beam identification information, a selection with a minimum arrival time, a selection with a maximum received power, or a random selection. And so on. By these methods, the beam of the transmission source is specified for the radio wave having high received power, the arrival time (propagation path of the radio wave) is short, and the probability of being a reflected wave is low, and the terminal device 102 stays. It is possible to identify the beam corresponding to the area to be used with high accuracy.

The base station device 101 may notify the terminal device 102 of information indicating the specified beam, if necessary. As a result, the terminal device 102 can be connected to the base station device 101 by an appropriate beam corresponding to the position where the own device is staying.

The terminal device 102 sends a request signal from the base station device 101 requesting predetermined information including information on the arrival time and received power of the radio waves transmitted from each beam and information on the combination of the beam identification information. Predetermined information can be transmitted depending on the reception. Further, the terminal device 102 may measure the arrival time and the received power according to the reception of the request signal, or measure the arrival time and the received power periodically, for example, before receiving the request signal. It may be executed and predetermined information including the measurement result may be transmitted in response to the reception of the request signal. The base station apparatus 101 can transmit this request signal by a broadcast signal. For example, a 1-bit field in a predetermined broadcast signal such as SIB (System Information Block) is defined to indicate whether or not to request transmission of the predetermined signal, and the base station apparatus 101 appropriately sets this field. By setting, the request signal can be broadcast-transmitted. The base station device 101 may transmit this request signal for each terminal device during connection processing with the terminal device 102 or the like. Thereby, for example, only a specific base station device 101 in a specific facility for touchless entry / exit of a specific facility can transmit the request signal as described above. According to this, the received power and arrival time information is transmitted and received only when it is necessary to specify the position of the terminal device 102, and the received power and arrival time information is unnecessarily transmitted and received, so that the radio resource is obtained. It is possible to prevent wasteful waste and increase in power consumption.

Further, the base station apparatus 101 may transmit condition information regarding the information to be reported by an information element in the request signal or a signal separate from the request signal. The information of this condition may be transmitted instead of the request signal. That is, for example, the terminal device 102 may determine that the request signal has been received in response to the reception of the condition information. For example, the condition includes that the measured arrival time is within a predetermined time and that the received power is equal to or more than a predetermined value. When this condition is received, the terminal device 102 reports only the measurement result satisfying the condition to the base station device 101, and does not report the measurement result not satisfying the condition. As a result, information is unnecessarily transmitted / received regarding the measurement result that is clearly a radio wave from a beam other than the beam corresponding to the area where the terminal device 102 stays, for example, when the arrival time is longer than a predetermined time. Can be prevented.

As described above, the identification of the beam corresponding to the area where the terminal device 102 stays may be executed by the processing device 131 inside or outside the base station device 101. In this case, the processing device 131 acquires information on the combination of the measurement result information of the arrival time and the received power and the beam identification information from the terminal device 102 via the base station device 101, and uses the acquired information as the information. Based on this, the beam corresponding to the area where the terminal device 102 stays can be specified. Further, the processing device 131 can also notify the terminal device 102 of the specified beam information through the base station device 101. The above-mentioned request signals and conditions may be transmitted by the base station apparatus 101 according to the instruction of the processing apparatus 131 or independently of the processing apparatus 131.

Hereinafter, the configurations of the base station device 101 and the terminal device 102 as described above and the flow of processing executed by these devices will be described. Although the processing device 131 will be described below as being inside the base station device 101, the processing device 131 is described below by being present outside the base station device 101 and communicating with and cooperating with the base station device 101. The function of the base station apparatus 101 described in the above may be realized.

(Hardware configuration)
FIG. 2 shows a hardware configuration example of the base station device 101 and the terminal device 102. In one example, the base station device 101 and the terminal device 102 have a hardware configuration as shown in FIG. 2, and include, for example, a CPU 201, a ROM 202, a RAM 203, an external storage device 204, and a communication circuit 205. In the base station device 101 and the terminal device 102, for example, a program recorded in any of the ROM 202, the RAM 203, and the external storage device 204 that realizes each function of the base station device 101 and the terminal device 102 as described above is executed by the CPU 201. Will be done.

Then, the base station device 101 and the terminal device 102 control the communication circuit 205 by, for example, the CPU 201 to communicate with other devices. The communication circuit 205 of the base station device 101 can communicate with another base station device or another network node (for example, an external processing device 131) through, for example, a wired line. Further, the communication circuit 205 of the base station device 101 may form one or more (plural) beams and wirelessly communicate with the terminal device 102. Further, in this case, the communication circuit 205 of the terminal device 102 is configured to be connectable to at least one of the beams formed by the communication circuit 205 of the base station device 101, and these beams are used with the base station device 101. It is configured to enable wireless communication. In the configuration of FIG. 2, the base station device 101 and the terminal device 102 show a schematic diagram in which one communication circuit 205 is provided, but the present invention is not limited to this, and a plurality of communication circuits may be provided. .. For example, the base station device 101 may have a first communication circuit for wired communication with another base station device 101 and a second communication circuit for wireless communication with the terminal device 102. Further, the terminal device 102 may have, for example, a first communication circuit for LTE (Long Term Evolution) and a second communication circuit for NR. Further, the terminal device 102 may have a wireless communication circuit related to a standard other than cellular, such as a wireless LAN, or may further have a wired communication circuit used for a wired connection such as a USB connection.

The base station device 101 and the terminal device 102 may be provided with dedicated hardware for executing each function, or a part of the base station device 101 and the terminal device 102 may be executed by the hardware and the other parts may be executed by the computer running the program. May be good. Also, all functions may be performed by a computer and a program.

(Functional configuration)
FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a functional configuration example of the base station device 101 according to the present embodiment. The base station device 101 has, for example, a communication unit 301, an information acquisition unit 302, a beam identification unit 303, a notification unit 304, and a request unit 305 as its functional configuration. It should be noted that this configuration schematically shows the functions necessary for the description in the present embodiment, and the base station device 101 further has the functions of other general base station devices.

The communication unit 301 is, for example, a functional unit that forms one or more beams and executes various processes for executing wireless communication. The communication unit 301 performs wireless communication with the terminal device 102 by using, for example, any one or more of the formed beams. The communication unit 301 may transmit and receive signals using the omni-antenna. The communication unit 301 may communicate with other network nodes such as other base station devices by wire or wirelessly.

The information acquisition unit 302 transmits predetermined information of the combination of the received power and arrival time information for each of the one or more beams measured by the terminal device 102 and the beam identification information to the terminal device via the communication unit 301. Obtained from 102. The acquired information is input to the beam specifying unit 303. The information acquisition unit 302 acquires not only information about one or more beams formed by the base station device 101 but also information about a beam formed by an arbitrary base station device that can be measured by the terminal device 102. sell. That is, the information acquisition unit 302 may acquire information about the beam formed by another base station device from the terminal device 102.

The beam specifying unit 303 is, for example, a beam corresponding to an area in which the terminal device 102 stays a beam of a radio wave source whose arrival time is a predetermined time or less and whose received power is a predetermined power or more. To identify. Further, the beam specifying unit 303 is determined by, for example, the sum of the calculation result by the first function, which has a higher score as the arrival time is shorter, and the calculation result by the second function, which has a higher score as the received power is higher. The beam corresponding to the area in which the device 102 stays may be specified. The beam specifying unit 303 selects a beam having the maximum sum, or a beam selected according to a predetermined rule from among beams having a sum of a predetermined value or more (for example, a beam having the shortest arrival time or the maximum received power). It can be specified as a beam corresponding to the area where the terminal device 102 stays. The beam specified by the beam specifying unit 303 is not limited to the beam formed by the base station device 101, and may be a beam formed by another base station device.

The notification unit 304 notifies the terminal device 102 of the beam information specified by the beam identification unit 303. In this case, the terminal device 102 may be connected to the base station device 101 by, for example, the notified beam. The request unit 305 transmits a request signal requesting the transmission of the above-mentioned predetermined information to the terminal device 102 via the communication unit 301. The requesting unit 305 may transmit, for example, a condition for limiting the information to be notified to the terminal device 102 by including it in the requesting signal, separately from the requesting signal, or in place of the requesting signal. .. The request signal may be transmitted by, for example, an omni-antenna, or may be transmitted by a part or all of one or more beams formed by the communication unit 301.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a functional configuration example of the terminal device 102 according to the present embodiment. The terminal device 102 has, for example, a communication unit 401, a measurement unit 402, an information transmission unit 403, and a condition determination unit 404 as its functional configuration. It should be noted that this configuration schematically shows the functions necessary for the description in the present embodiment, and the terminal device 102 further has the functions of other general terminal devices.

The communication unit 401 is, for example, a functional unit that connects to the base station device 101 via one of one or more beams formed by the base station device 101 and executes various processes for executing wireless communication. be.

The measuring unit 402 measures the received power and the arrival time for each of the beams formed by one or more base station devices around the base station device 101 and the like. For example, the measuring unit 402 receives the radio signal transmitted by each beam and measures the received power. Although it has been explained that the received power is measured here, the radio quality other than the received power (signal-to-noise power ratio (SNR), signal-to-noise and interference power ratio (SINR), reference signal received power (RSRP), reference signal Reception quality (RSRQ), etc.) may be measured. Further, the measuring unit 402 measures the arrival time by demodulating the radio signal transmitted by each beam, acquiring information on the transmission timing of the radio signal, and calculating the difference from the reception timing of the radio signal. However, the arrival time of each beam may be measured by other methods. The measuring unit 402 inputs the measured arrival time and received power information to the information transmitting unit 403.

The information transmitting unit 403 includes information on a combination of the received power and arrival time information measured by the measuring unit 402 and the identification information of the beam used for transmitting the radio wave measured when obtaining the information. Predetermined information is transmitted to the base station apparatus 101 via the communication unit 401. The destination of the predetermined information may be, for example, a base station device that transmits a radio wave having the highest received power, or a base station device that requests the transmission of the predetermined information.

The condition determination unit 404 determines, for example, whether or not the request signal has been received from the base station apparatus 101 via the communication unit 401. When the request signal is received, the condition determination unit 404 can give a trigger for executing the measurement by the measurement unit 402 and the transmission of information by the information transmission unit 403. Further, when the condition determination unit 404 receives the condition information regarding the notification target information from the base station apparatus 101, the condition determination unit 404 may limit the predetermined information transmitted by the information transmission unit 403 depending on the conditions. The condition determination unit 404 implicitly determines that the request signal has been received in response to the reception of the condition information, and causes the measurement unit 402 to perform the measurement and the information transmission unit 403 to transmit the information. May be good. If the condition determination unit 404 does not receive the condition, the information transmission unit 403 can transmit predetermined information for all the information measured by the measurement unit 402. Even if the condition determination unit 404 does not receive the condition, the information transmission unit 403 transmits the predetermined information including the received power, for example, when the received power is lower than the predetermined threshold value. You may not do it. The condition may be determined by the measuring unit 402. That is, the measuring unit 402 may immediately discard the measured value that does not satisfy the conditions, and the information transmitting unit 403 may prevent the measured value from being transmitted.

(Processing flow)
Subsequently, an example of the flow of processing executed in the wireless communication system according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. It should be noted that this processing example is an example, and a part or all of the processing may be replaced or omitted as long as the technical concept described in the present embodiment is not exceeded.

In this process, first, the base station device 101 requests the terminal device 102 to report the information on the measurement result of the radio wave transmitted from each beam (S501). Note that this process may be omitted, and the terminal device 102 periodically obtains information on the measurement result of radio waves transmitted from each beam, for example, without the request of the base station device 101 (or the base station device 101 (or). Other base station devices in the vicinity may be notified. Further, the base station apparatus 101 may notify the condition regarding the information to be notified in addition to or in place of the request signal. The terminal device 102 measures radio waves from each of one or more beams formed by the base station device 101 and other surrounding base station devices, and acquires information on the received power and arrival time of the radio waves (S502). .. Here, when the terminal device 102 has received the condition regarding the information to be notified in S501, the terminal device 102 limits the reporting of the measurement result based on the condition (S503). For example, when the condition is that the arrival time is equal to or less than the first threshold value and the received power is equal to or greater than the second threshold value, the terminal device 102 measures the measurement result in which the arrival time exceeds the first threshold value. Alternatively, those whose received power is below the second threshold are excluded from the report. If the conditions are not notified, the terminal device 102 may notify the base station device 101 of all the measurement result information without limiting the notification target.

After that, the terminal device 102 received information on the arrival time and received power of the radio waves transmitted from each beam, which was obtained by the measurement of S502 (in some cases, further limited by S503), and the identification information (beam) of the beam. The information of the combination with the ID) is notified to the base station apparatus 101 (S504). The base station apparatus 101 identifies the beam corresponding to the area in which the terminal apparatus 102 stays based on the notified information (S505). For example, the base station device 101 specifies one of the beams corresponding to the arrival time of the predetermined time or less and the received power of the predetermined power or more as the beam corresponding to the area where the terminal device 102 stays. For example, the base station device 101 has a beam having an arrival time of a predetermined time or less and a maximum reception power, or a beam having a reception power of a predetermined power or more and a minimum arrival time, corresponding to an area in which the terminal device 102 stays. May be specified as. Further, the base station device 101 selects one beam from the beams corresponding to the arrival time of the predetermined time or less and the received power of the predetermined power or more according to a predetermined rule, and the terminal device 102 selects the selected beam. It may be specified as a beam corresponding to the area of stay. Further, the base station apparatus 101 has the highest sum value of the result of the calculation by the first function, which has a higher score as the arrival time is shorter, and the result of the calculation by the second function, which has a higher score as the received power is higher. Alternatively, any of the beams having a predetermined value or more can be specified as the beam corresponding to the area where the terminal device 102 stays. After that, the base station device 101 notifies the terminal device 102 of the information of the specified beam (S506). Note that this notification may not be given when the terminal device 102 does not need to establish a connection with the base station device 101. That is, in the process of FIG. 5, it is sufficient if the position of the terminal device 102 can be specified on the network side, and the identification result does not necessarily have to be notified to the terminal device 102.

As described above, the beam corresponding to the area where the terminal device 102 is staying can be accurately specified. Therefore, it is possible to perform processing such as touchless entry / exit of a specific facility, which is realized based on the position of the terminal device 102, with high accuracy.

Claims (9)

For each of the one or more beams formed by the one or more base station apparatus, the terminal receives predetermined information including the identification information of the beam and the arrival time and received power information of the radio wave transmitted by the beam. Acquisition means acquired from the device and
The area where the terminal device stays is supported by the sum of the calculation result by the first function, which has a higher score as the arrival time is shorter, and the calculation result by the second function, which has a higher score as the received power is higher. specifying means for identify the beams,
A processing device characterized by having. The specific means identifies a beam corresponding to an area in which the terminal device stays from among beams having an arrival time of a predetermined time or less and a received power of a predetermined power or more.
The processing apparatus according to claim 1. A base station apparatus including the processing apparatus according to claim 1 or 2. Further comprising a transmission means for transmitting a request signal requesting transmission of the predetermined information to the terminal device,
The base station apparatus according to claim 3. The transmitting means broadcasts the request signal.
The base station apparatus according to claim 4. The transmission means further transmits information on conditions relating to the arrival time to the terminal device .
The predetermined information acquired by the acquisition means is limited by the conditions.
The base station apparatus according to claim 4 or 5. Further comprising a notification unit configured to notify the beams said specifying means has specified the terminal device,
The base station apparatus according to any one of claims 3 to 6 , wherein the base station apparatus is characterized by the above. A control method performed by a processing device
For each of one or more beams formed by the one or more base station apparatus, the terminal the beam identification information and the beam predetermined information including an arrival time and the reception power information of the radio waves sent by the The acquisition process acquired from the device and
Results of calculation by the incoming high time score shorter first function, the sum of the results of calculation by the more score higher the received power is high second function, in an area before SL terminal device stays a specifying step of identify the corresponding beam,
A control method characterized by having. To the computer installed in the processing device
For each of the one or more beams formed by the one or more base station apparatus, the terminal receives predetermined information including the identification information of the beam and the arrival time and received power information of the radio wave transmitted by the beam. Get it from the device
The area where the terminal device stays is supported by the sum of the calculation result by the first function, which has a higher score as the arrival time is shorter, and the calculation result by the second function, which has a higher score as the received power is higher. the beam is specific,
Program for.

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