JPH01828A - Mobile radio communication system standby control device - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] This bulletin contains application data before electronic filing, so abstract data is not recorded.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [(Already Required)] Two mobile communication service systems are provided for the purpose of improving the possibility of receiving and obtaining services of subscribing systems regarding mobile radio communication systems such as cellular systems. and
A mobile radio device comprising a transmitting/receiving device and a standby control device joins one of the above two service systems,
In a mobile radio communication system in which it is possible to receive the service of a subscribed system, and if the service of the subscribed system is not available, it is possible to receive the service of the other non-subscribed system, the standby control device communicates with the transmitting/receiving device. scanning means for cooperating to scan the control channels of the joining system or non-participating system and capturing the control channel with the strongest electric field; a use determining means for determining whether the capture control channel is usable; and acquisition control. standby means for placing the transmitter/receiver in a standby state when a channel is available;
The scanning means is operated to scan and capture the control channel of the subscribing system in preference to the non-subscribing system within a certain period of time under predetermined conditions, and the non-subscribing system is in a standby state while the subscribing system is in use. and scan control means for canceling the.

[Industrial application field]

The present invention relates to a standby control device for a mobile phone,
In particular, systems where there are two car phone systems in a particular region, allowing two operators to provide service, such as North America's Cellular
r) It relates to a standby control device for a car phone in a system such as a system.

With a car phone, you cannot make calls when the car passes through areas where there is no signal, such as between buildings or in the mountains. The dead area of radio waves is determined by the location of the station and its area, so if the location of the station is changed, the dead area will change.

Therefore, as shown in Fig. 5, the cellular system consists of two systems A, each with different stations and frequencies, for a specific area.
B, and is configured so that it can receive the services of either system. In the figure, the solid line shows the service area of system A, and the broken line shows the service area of system B. In the figure, cA indicates a blind area in system A, and CIl indicates a blind area in system B. Outside these dead zones, you can receive the services of any system. Systems A and B each have a control channel, 21 channels in the illustrated example, and a voice channel, 312 channels in the illustrated example, available as shown in FIG. 6, for example.

A mobile device (telephone) installed in a car subscribes to one of two systems. The subscribed system is called the home system.
A non-subscribing system is called a Roam system.

Generally, it is cheaper to use home system services. Therefore, if both a home system and a roam system are available, the home system is usually used. If the home system is not available, the service is provided by the ROHM system. However, if there is no mutual service agreement between the two operating companies, you may not be able to receive services from a non-subscriber (Roam) system.

When the mobile device wants to put the phone in standby mode, i.e., to receive service, it first scans the control channels of the joining (home) system, acquires the highest field strength, and selects the available control channels. If a channel exists, in other words, if there is a control channel that can receive radio waves and send and receive the necessary data, the standby state will be established on that channel, and the service on the subscriber (home) system side will be activated. I can accept it. On the other hand, if there is no usable control channel on the subscriber system side, the control channel of the non-subscriber (roam) system is scanned, and if a usable control channel exists, the system enters a standby state on that channel. While the non-subscribing system is in the standby state, the subscriber system cannot receive services, and if the telephone receives or makes a call during this time, the non-subscribing system must receive service.

The aforementioned scan for the control channel is performed not only when the mobile device is powered on, but also at regular intervals, for example, every 5 minutes.
In addition, it is set to be performed automatically at the end of a call. As a result, even if the channel with the strongest electric field strength becomes another control channel, it will be updated every 5 minutes.

[Conventional technology]

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing a conventional procedure for a mobile device to acquire a control channel.

First, in step 401, all control channels of the subscriber system are scanned, the electric field strength thereof is measured, and the strongest control channel is captured. Next, in step 402, it is determined whether the acquired control channel is usable or not, and if it is usable (YES), the process proceeds to step 405 and becomes in a standby state on that control channel.

On the other hand, if the control channel captured in step 402 is not usable (NO), the process advances to step 403 to scan all control channels of the non-input system, measure their electric field strengths, and select the strongest control channel. Capture. Step 404: Check whether the acquired control channel is usable.
If it is usable (YES), step 40
Step 5 goes to step 5, where the control channel becomes a standby state, but if it is not usable (No), the process returns to step 401 and all control channels of the joining channel are scanned.

Next, the control procedure of the conventional device in the standby state will be explained.

In the standby state, in step 406, it is always determined whether or not there is a "call" operation, which is an operation of calling another telephone from this mobile device. If it is determined in step 406 that there is a call (YES), a call operation is executed in step 410 to begin the call, and when the call ends, the process returns to step 401 and scans all control channels of the subscribing system again. Execute.

If there is no "outgoing call" in step 6, it is determined in step 407 whether there is an "incoming call" which is an operation that involves a call from another telephone. If it is determined in step 407 that there is an incoming call (YES), the incoming call operation is executed in step 411 to start a call, and if the call ends, step 4
01 and scans all control channels of the joining system again.

If there is no outgoing or incoming call at steps 406 and 407, the process proceeds to step 408, where it is determined whether the currently acquired control channel is still usable. And when the currently captured control channel is no longer available (NO)
returns to step 401 and scans for another control channel of the participating system, but when available (YE
S) proceeds to step 409. In step 409, it is determined whether a predetermined time period, for example, 5 minutes, has elapsed since the currently captured control channel was captured. If the predetermined time period has not elapsed (No), the process returns to step 406. However, when the predetermined time has elapsed (YES), the process returns to step 401 and scans all control channels of the joining system again.

[Problem that the invention seeks to solve]

However, with the conventional car phone that performs the scanning described above, for example, when a car is subscribed to system A, the car passes through an area where the radio waves of subscribed (home) system A cannot reach, as shown by CA in Figure 5. If the mobile device scans the control channel of the joining system A during the roaming process, it cannot prevent the mobile device from acquiring the control channel of the joining system, so it seizes the control channel of the non-participating (roam) system B and scans the control channel of the non-participating (roam) system B. My subscription system goes into standby mode.

Once the vehicle enters the standby state with the non-participating system, even if the car leaves the area CA where the radio waves of the non-participating system A cannot reach, the above-mentioned predetermined period of time will elapse after entering the standby state with the non-participating system B. Until then, scanning of the control channels of the subscribing system is not performed (Figure 4, step 4).
01). Therefore, the standby state in the non-subscriber system continues for a predetermined period of time, and if a call is made or received during this period, the call will have to be made on the non-subscriber system, which has higher usage charges.

The above processing is automatically performed by the standby control device.
It is difficult for car phone users to understand system problems such as continual calls on the non-participating system side, resulting in higher usage charges.
Also, many people complain to car phone operating companies that there are too many areas of confusion, which has become a problem.

Furthermore, in order to deal with such complaints, if we were to scan only subscriber systems, the car would move to a different area from the area where the mobile device is subscribed, and the subscriber system would receive service in that area. In the case where the mobile terminal does not have a mobile terminal and is provided only by the non-participating system side, for example, if the mobile terminal is in the area within the broken line but outside the solid line in FIG. 5, or vice versa, A new problem arises in that the subscribing system is unable to acquire the control channel and cannot make or receive telephone calls.

The present invention has been made in order to solve the problems peculiar to the conventional car telephone system, and has the following features: - Even when passing through an area where the radio waves of the subscriber system cannot reach, the control channel on the side of the non-subscriber system is immediately accessible. It is an object of the present invention to provide a mobile radio device such as a car telephone that can scan subscriber channels with priority over scans of non-subscriber channels without having to scan for subscriber channels.

[Means for Solving the Problems] FIG. 1 is a block diagram of the principle of a mobile radio device applied to the mobile radio system of the present invention.

The mobile radio device of the present invention includes a transmitting/receiving device 10 and a standby control device that cooperates with the transmitting/receiving device. The transmitting/receiving device 10 is capable of communicating via an antenna.

In FIG. 1, the standby control device is composed of the following: Reference numeral 1 denotes a scanning means, which cooperates with the transmitting/receiving device 10, and detects that two car phone systems exist in a specific area.
If the mobile station is subscribed to one of them, it scans the control channel of the subscribed system or the non-subscribed system and acquires the control channel. Reference numeral 2 denotes a use determining means, which determines whether the control channel captured by the scanning means 1 can be used. Reference numeral 3 denotes a standby means, which puts the transmitting/receiving device 10 of the mobile device into a standby state when the acquired control channel is usable. Reference numeral 4 denotes a scan control means, which controls the scan operation of the scan means 1 until still.

[For production]

If there are two communication service systems in a specific area and the mobile wireless device is subscribed to one of them, under certain conditions, when the mobile wireless device is put into a standby state where communication is possible,
The control channel of the subscribing system is scanned with priority over the non-subscribing system, and even if the control channel cannot be captured, the non-subscribing system is not scanned for a certain period of time, and the subscribing system is scanned. After a certain period of time, a scan is performed for non-subscribing systems.

Furthermore, the non-subscribing system is prevented from remaining in a standby state while the subscribing system's control channel is available.

〔Example〕

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

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a standby control device for a car telephone according to an embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, the standby control device is a CPU (
It is realized by a computer (arithmetic control unit) having a central processing unit) 20 and a memory 30. CPU 2
0 includes a scanning section 1a corresponding to the scanning means 1, a use determining section 2a corresponding to the use determining means 2, a standby section 3a corresponding to the standby means 3, and a scan control section 4a corresponding to the scan control means 4. ing. 10 is a transmitting/receiving device.

The transmitter/receiver 10 includes, on the transmitting side, a synthesizer 11 that synthesizes frequencies of channels specified by the CPU 20, a transmitter 12 that modulates and amplifies the power of transmitted signals such as voice and data, and a transmitter 12 that transmits signals from the transmitter 12 from an antenna 14. There is an antenna common unit 13 for transmitting. In this circuit, the CPU
20 switches the control channel (FIG. 6) of the subscriber system or non-subscriber system while sequentially applying frequency-designated channel signals to the synthesizer 11. The transmitting/receiving device 10 also has a receiving side that transmits radio waves received by the antenna 14 on each control channel to the synthesizer 11.
A mixer 15 mixes the signal from the IF and converts it to an intermediate frequency (IF), a detector 16 detects the received electric field level from the intermediate frequency, A/D converts the signal from the detector 16, and sends the received electric field signal to the CPU 20. An A/D converter 18 outputs, a demodulator 17 demodulates audio and data from the intermediate frequency from the mixer 15, and a demodulator 17 extracts data from the demodulated signal and converts it to C.
Data receiving circuit 19 that outputs received data to PU 20
There is.

Then, the CPU 20 acquires the optimum control channel based on the electric field strength output from the A/D converter 18 and the data output from the data receiving circuit 19.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a control procedure performed by the standby control device of FIG. 2 as a first embodiment of the present invention.

In an initial state, such as when the power is turned on, the availability of the participating system is first checked. Therefore, first, the scanning section 1a
At step 301, all control channels of the joining system are sequentially scanned through the transmitting/receiving device 10 under the control of the scan control unit 4a, and the strongest control channel is captured by measuring the electric field strength. Next, the usage determining unit 2a determines whether the acquired control channel can be used in step 302. If available (YES) step 309
Then, the standby unit 3a enters the standby state on the control channel of the subscriber system. In this standby state, you can make a call.

On the other hand, if the acquired control channel is not usable in step 302 (NO), the process proceeds to step 303, where the scan control unit 4a sets a timer.

The cent time of this timer is not as long as the conventional 5 minutes, but is a relatively short value such as 30 seconds or 1 minute, which is the time required to extract the dead area. After the scan control unit 4a sets the timer in step 303, the process proceeds to step 304, where the scan unit 1a cooperates with the transmitting/receiving device 10 to once again scan all control channels of the joining system, measure the electric field strength, and measure the field strength. Capturing strong control channels. Then, in step 305, the usage determination unit 2a determines whether the captured control channel is usable or not. If it is usable (YES), the process proceeds to step 309, where the standby 3a waits on that control channel of the subscribed system. Become in a receiving state.

However, if the captured channel is not usable in step 305 (NO), the process proceeds to step 306, where it is determined whether or not the timer set by the scan control unit 4a in step 303 has elapsed (time-over). The scan control unit 4a makes the determination. Note that the timer is the scan control unit 4.
After you make a cent with a, it will be automatically updated in your computer (for example, it will count down). If the time has not yet expired, the process returns to step 304 and repeats the operation of scanning all control channels of the joining system, measuring their electric field strengths, and capturing the strongest control channel. As a result, the control channel can be scanned by the affiliated system within a certain period of time, without immediately shifting to scanning for non-affiliated systems when the affiliated system is unavailable (steps 402 to 403 in FIG. 7). I do.

On the other hand, in step 306, when the timer set in step 303 has timed out (YES), the process proceeds to step 307, where the scanning unit 1a scans all control channels of non-subscribing systems and measures the electric field strength. to capture the strongest control channel. And step 3
In step 08, the usage determining unit 2a determines whether the acquired control channel of the non-subscribing system can be used, and if it is usable (YES), the process proceeds to step 309, where the standby unit 3a uses the control channel of the non-subscribing system. Goes into standby mode on the control channel. If not (NO), return to step 304 and scan all control channels of the participating system. Step 3
If the control channel of the non-subscribing system is also unusable in step 08, the process returns to step 304 without setting the timer, unlike the timer set in step 303, since the subscribing system is not in use. Thereafter, scanning of participating systems and scanning of non-participating systems are performed alternately (steps 304 to 308).

The control after entering the standby state, that is, the control after [phase] in Figure 3 and the control until returning to [phase] is the same as the conventional control from [phase] to [phase] in Figure 4. This is similar to the control of

As described above, in the mobile phone standby control device of the first embodiment, even if it is found that the control channel of the subscriber system is not available for use, the subscriber system will not be able to use the control channel for a while depending on the timer set in step 303. continues to scan the control channel of the subscribing system, so there is a possibility of catching the control channel of the subscribing system, which is advantageous in receiving service.
In other words, the probability of using the subscribed (home) system increases.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the control procedure of the standby control device of FIG. 2 as a second embodiment of the present invention.

In Figure 4, scanning of control channels for the joining system and acquisition of the control channel with the strongest electric field strength (
Step 301) and determining the availability of the acquisition control channel (step 302) are similar to the first embodiment described with reference to FIG.

In FIG. 4, if the acquisition control channel for the subscribing system is available, the scan controller 4 does not immediately transition to the standby state as in FIG.
After a sets the timer, the standby section 3a enters the standby state (step 309). That is, once an available control channel at the participating system is detected, a timer is set.

The set time of this timer is determined by step 303 in Fig. 3.
Similarly, it is a relatively short value such as 30 seconds or 1 minute. Also, this timer is not automatically updated after the standby state, but is automatically updated while scanning is in progress.

On the other hand, if there is no usable control channel in the subscribing system in step 302 (NO), step 32
At step 2, the scan control section 4a checks whether the timer of the participating system has exceeded. If the timer has not exceeded (No), the process returns to step 301 and scans and captures the control channel of the participating system.
Furthermore, it is determined whether the device can be used (step 302). In other words, once the subscriber system detects an available control channel and enters the standby state, the subscriber system scans the non-subscriber system f for a certain period of time set by the timer.
7) Give priority to scanning. In its substantial processing content, this priority scan is similar to the process of setting a timer in case of unavailability in step 303) of FIG. 3 and scanning the subscriber system until the timer expires (step 306).

In step 322, if the timer has expired, the process shifts to scanning for non-subscribing systems (step 307), and the availability of the acquisition control channel of the non-subscribing system is determined (step 308), which is the same as in FIG. If there is a control channel available for the non-subscribing system, the process moves to step 309 and enters a standby state. If there are no usable control channels for non-subscribing systems (step 308, NO), step 30
Return to step 1 and scan the joining system again. Steps 301, 302 (NO), 322 (YES) in this case
), 307, 308 (No) are repeated in the third
Steps 304 and 305 (No) in the figure.

This is substantially the same as the repeated operations of 306 (YES), 307, and 308 (NO). That is, control channel acquisition for the subscribing system and control channel acquisition for the non-subscribing system are performed alternately. However, as mentioned repeatedly,
Once the subscriber system is in standby mode on an available control channel, the subscriber system will be scanned preferentially after being set by the timer (FIG. 4, step 321) until the timer expires. Once the timer expires, the control channels of the participating and non-subscribing systems are alternately scanned until the next time the participating system's control channel is captured, even after the non-subscribing system becomes idle. In FIG. 3, once any system enters the standby state, the control channel of the participating system is scanned preferentially. In this respect, the control shown in FIG. 3 differs from the control shown in FIG. 4.

In addition, in FIG. 4, at the time of initialization after the power is turned on, step 320 is added and the timer is set by the scan control unit 4a, so that at the time of initialization, the predetermined period of time set by the timer is can be scanned.

Although the standby control of a mobile radio system associated with a cellular system has been described above, the present invention is applicable to similar mobile radio systems.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to prevent a non-participating system from being in a standby state continuously while a participating system is available, and the probability of capturing the control channel of a participating system is reduced. It increases. Therefore, even if the mobile device scans the control channel while the car is passing through an area where the subscriber system's radio waves do not reach, if the car leaves the area where the subscriber system's radio waves do not reach within a certain period of time, It becomes possible to immediately enter a standby state on the subscriber system side, which has the effect of reducing usage charges.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Fig. 1 is a principle block diagram of a car phone standby control device of the present invention, and Fig. 2 is a block diagram of the principle of a car phone standby control device of the present invention. 3 and 4 are flowcharts showing the operation of the standby control device according to the embodiment of the present invention, and FIG.
The figure is an explanatory diagram of a system in which there are two car phone service systems in a specific area and two operating companies can provide services. Figure 6 is a diagram showing an example of the channels used in Figure 5. FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing the control operation of the conventional device. (Explanation of symbols) 1...Scanning means, 2...Use determination means, 3.
...standby means, 4...scan control means, 10
...transmitting/receiving device, 20...cpu. Principle block diagram of the car phone standby flil recommendation device of the present invention Part 1: B System The existence and interrelationship of two service systems in a specific area to which the present invention is applied is shown. example? Figure 6

Claims (1)

[Claims] One or two mobile communication service systems are provided, and a mobile radio device consisting of a transmitting/receiving device and a standby control device joins one of the two service systems, and the joining system In a mobile radio communication system in which a service of a subscribing system is not available, a service of the other non-subscribing system is available, wherein the standby control device is connected to the transmitting/receiving device (10). scanning means (1) that scans the control channels of the subscriber system or the non-subscriber system and captures the control channel with the strongest electric field; and a use determining means that determines whether the captured control channel is usable or not. (2); standby means (3) for placing the transmitting/receiving device in a standby state when an acquisition control channel is available; and the scanning means, under predetermined conditions and within a certain period of time, giving priority to non-subscribing systems. The mobile device is characterized in that it comprises scan control means (4) for operating to scan and capture the control channel of the subscribing system, and for canceling the standby state of the non-subscribing system when the subscribing system is in use. Wireless communication method. 2. The mobile radio communication according to claim 1, wherein the predetermined conditions are a case immediately after the start of scanning and a case once a standby state is established on any control channel. method. 3. The predetermined condition is the case immediately after the start of scanning and the case where the acquisition control channel of the subscribing system is available and the system is once in a standby state on that control channel. Mobile radio communication system according to scope 1. 4. Claim 2, wherein the certain period of time is shorter than the time for the mobile wireless device to pass through a dead zone of the joining system.
The mobile radio communication system according to item 1 or 3.