KR100965084B1 - Apparatus and method for measuring voice quality or mean opinion score - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to measurement of voice quality of a base station, and to measure voice quality of data generated for each base station in a section between the base station controller and the switching center. To this end, the present invention is to collect data from the interval between the base station controller connected to the base station and the switching center, detecting the call processing message and voice traffic from the data, and recording the voice quality for each base station using the call processing message and voice traffic Generating a step.

Voice Quality, Base Station, IuCS, Mean Opinion Score (MOS), ATM Cell

Description

Apparatus and method for measuring voice quality of base station {APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR MEASURING VOICE QUALITY OR MEAN OPINION SCORE}

The present invention relates to a voice quality measurement of a base station, and more particularly, to an apparatus and method for measuring the voice quality of each base station from the interval between the base station controller and the switching center.

In a mobile communication network, a user receives a call service through a base station. Since the voice quality of the call service is an important factor for both the operator and the user, the operator performs various methods to maintain the voice quality. One of them is a method of measuring and monitoring voice quality for each base station providing a call service.

Conventionally, in order to measure the voice quality of a base station, a method using a test terminal within the coverage of the base station is used. According to this method, the voice quality measurer must move to the coverage of the base station to be measured, attempt a call to the test terminal, and measure the voice quality through a voice quality measuring device connected to the test terminal. Since the wireless environment may be different according to the location even within the coverage of the base station, in order to obtain an appropriate level of voice quality data, it is cumbersome for a measurer to move to various locations even within the coverage of the same base station. In addition, there is a problem in that time and manpower is wasted because the measurer must go directly to the field, the operator can only obtain the data for the measurement time, there is a problem that can not efficiently manage the voice quality of the base station.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus and method for measuring the voice quality of data generated for each base station in the interval between the base station controller and the switching center.

In addition, the present invention provides an apparatus and method for measuring the voice quality of the data generated from a plurality of base stations, to provide a device and method that can be monitored in real time or continuously monitoring the voice quality for each base station for another object. do.

The objects of the present invention are not limited to the above-mentioned objects, and other objects and advantages of the present invention which are not mentioned above can be understood by the following description, and will be more clearly understood by the embodiments of the present invention. It will also be appreciated that the objects and advantages of the present invention may be realized by the means and combinations thereof indicated in the claims.

In order to achieve the object as described above, the present invention provides a method for measuring voice quality of a base station, the method comprising: collecting data from an interval between a base station controller and an exchange station, detecting a call processing message and voice traffic from the data; And generating a voice quality record for each base station using the call processing message and the voice traffic, wherein the base station controller is connected to the base station.

In addition, the present invention provides a device for measuring the voice quality of the base station, the data collection unit for collecting data from the interval between the base station controller and the switching center, a data analysis unit for detecting call processing messages and voice traffic from the data, and And a voice quality recorder for generating a voice quality record for each base station using a call processing message and the voice traffic, wherein the base station controller is connected to the base station.

According to the present invention as described above, the voice quality of data generated for each base station can be measured in the interval between the base station controller and the switching center. In particular, by measuring the voice quality of data generated from a plurality of base stations, it is possible to monitor or continuously monitor the voice quality of each base station in real time.

The above objects, features, and advantages will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings, whereby those skilled in the art to which the present invention pertains may easily implement the technical idea of the present invention. In describing the present invention, when it is determined that the detailed description of the known technology related to the present invention may unnecessarily obscure the gist of the present invention, the detailed description will be omitted. Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

1 is a view for explaining a voice quality measurement method of a base station according to the prior art.

In the related art, the voice quality measurer connects the test terminal 122 and the voice quality measurement apparatus 124 to measure the voice quality of the base station 100. In addition, the mobile station 130 moves to the cell 110 covered by the base station 100 to measure voice quality and attempts to make a call using the test terminal 122. When the call of the test terminal 122 is connected through the base station 100, the voice quality measurer measures the voice quality of the call through the voice quality measuring device 124. Since the wireless environment varies depending on the location within the same cell 110, the voice quality measurer measures the voice quality several times while moving in the cell 110 to measure the voice quality of the base station more accurately.

According to this method, there is a problem that the voice quality measurer has to measure while moving the measuring point one by one, and a large amount of time and manpower are wasted because the comparative analysis is possible only by separately collecting the measured results. In addition, since only the voice quality record for the measurement time point is left, continuous monitoring of the voice quality of the base station is impossible, and real-time monitoring of voice quality for calls made by general call service subscribers is impossible.

2 is a block diagram of a communication system to which the voice quality measuring apparatus 200 according to the present invention is connected. A base station controller (RNC) 210 is connected to a base station 230 to be controlled by a base station controller, and is connected to a mobile switching center (MSC) 220. The voice quality measuring apparatus 200 according to the present invention is connected between the base station controller 210 and the switching center 220 through the distributor 202.

Each base station 230 provides a call service to subscribers. At this time, data generated at each base station is transmitted to the switching center 220 via the base station controller 210. The distributor 202 is an optical call separation device and is connected to a section (hereinafter referred to as an IuCS section) between the base station controller 210 and the switching center 220. The distributor 202 branches the data transmitted from the base station controller 210 to the switching center 220 and transmits the data to the voice quality measuring apparatus 200. The distributor 202 may be configured via a device such as an optical splitter. The voice quality measuring apparatus 200 collects data received from the distributor 202 to measure voice quality, and classifies and records the measured voice quality for each base station.

Since the operator may record the voice quality for each base station through the voice quality measuring apparatus 200, the operator may measure the voice quality without moving the coverage of each base station 230 and performing the voice quality measurement. In addition, since the voice quality measuring apparatus 200 may measure voice traffic for general call traffic generated by each base station 230, the operator analyzes the voice quality of each base station through the voice quality measuring apparatus 200. And there is an advantage that can compare the voice quality with other base stations in real time or continuously.

3 is a block diagram of the voice quality measurement apparatus 200 according to the present invention. As illustrated in FIG. 3, the voice quality measuring apparatus 200 includes a data collector 310, a data analyzer 320, a voice quality recorder 330, a voice quality determiner 340, and an output unit ( 350).

The data collector 310 receives data generated from the base station. The data received by the data collector 310 includes call processing messages and voice traffic. The data may be configured in various forms, one example of which may be an ATM cell. In a communication system using an asynchronous transfer mode (ATM), information is transmitted by a continuous flow of packets having a certain size. The fixed size packet is called an AT cell. Since the AT cell is advantageous for statistical multiplexing, it is suitable for the voice quality measuring apparatus 200 that synthesizes and analyzes voice quality results for a plurality of base stations.

The data received by the data collector 310 is transferred to the data analyzer 320, and the data analyzer 320 separates and detects a call processing message and voice traffic from the data. The data analyzer 320 extracts call processing messages and voice traffic by analyzing data through the IuCS protocol stack.

The voice quality recorder 330 receives a call processing message and voice traffic from the data analyzer 320. The voice quality recording unit 330 detects base station information from the call processing message, measures voice quality from voice traffic, and records the measured voice quality for each base station. The voice quality determination unit 340 determines whether the voice quality recorded by the voice quality recording unit 330 satisfies a predetermined reference condition. For example, when the voice quality is measured by a Mean Opinion Score (MOS) value, it may be a determination for voice quality management of the base station, such as determining whether the measured MOS value is 3.0 or less. The output unit 350 outputs the voice quality for each base station recorded by the voice quality recording unit 330, or outputs the determination result of the voice quality determination unit 340.

4 is a detailed block diagram of the data collector 310 shown in FIG. 3. As illustrated in FIG. 4, the data collector 310 may include a data receiver 410 and a data converter 420.

The data receiver 410 receives data transmitted to the voice quality measuring apparatus 200 through the distributor 202. When the data received by the data receiver 410 needs to be converted into a form suitable for quality measurement and analysis, the data converter 420 receives the data received by the data receiver 410 and receives the quality. Convert to measurement data. The quality measurement data may be configured in various forms, and one type thereof may be an AT cell. When the data for quality measurement is configured in the form of ATM cell, the data converter 420 monitors ATM to convert the data received by the data receiver 410 into quality measurement data in the form of ATM cell. Card or the like. In this way, the data collector 310 collects the received data in the form of quality measurement data through the data receiver 410 and the data converter 420.

5 is a detailed configuration diagram of the voice quality recording unit 330 shown in FIG. 3. As illustrated in FIG. 5, the voice quality recorder 330 includes a base station information detector 510, a voice quality measurer 520, and a base station information associate 530.

The voice quality recorder 330 receives a call processing message and voice traffic from the data analyzer 320. The base station information detector 510 decodes a message including the base station information from the call processing message and detects the base station information.

The voice quality measuring unit 520 measures voice quality from voice traffic. Voice quality may be measured as MOS values through voice quality measurement algorithm software approved by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) or the Telecommunications Technology Association (TTA).

MOS is a voice quality measurement method recommended by the International Telecommunication Union-Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-T), which conducts research on telecommunication standards, and is a method of dividing voice quality into 5 grades of 1 to 5. The MOS rating is divided into 5 (Excellent), 4 (Good), 3 (Fair), 2 (Poor), and 1 (Bad). If the value is 3.0 or more, it is evaluated as good voice quality.

The base station information association unit 530 associates the base station information detected by the base station information detector 510 with the voice quality measured by the voice quality measurement unit 520 and records voice quality for each base station.

6 is a flowchart of a call processing message between the base station controller 210 and the switching center 220 according to an embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 6, the Initial-UE-Message 600 is forwarded from the RANAP 630 of the base station controller to the SCCP 660. The initial-UE-message 600 delivered as described above is transferred from the base station controller to the switching center 220. The voice quality measuring apparatus 200 may detect base station information from the initial-UE-message 600. The Initial-UE-Message 600 includes a Service Area Identifier (SAI) as its parameter.

7 is a structural diagram of a service area identifier 700 according to an embodiment of the present invention. The service area identifier 700 includes a mobile country code (MCC) 702, a mobile network code (MNC) 704, a location area code (LAC) 706, a service area Code (Service Area Code: SAC) 708.

The mobile country code 702 is a two octet code representing the country of the Wideband Code Division Multiplex Access (WCDMA), and the mobile country code of the Republic of Korea is 450. The mobile network code 704 is a one octet code indicating a carrier of WCDMA. The mobile network code of KTF is 08 and the mobile network code of SKT is 05. Mobile country code 702 and mobile network code 704 constitute a Public Land Mobile Network (PLMN). The location area code 706 is a two octet base station controller identification code and is managed by each operator. The service area code 708 is a 2-octet base station identification code, which is managed by each provider.

The voice quality measuring apparatus 200 analyzes the service area identifier 700 included in the Initial-UE-Message 600. The voice quality measurement apparatus 200 may detect from which base station each data originates from the location area code 706 and the service area code 708.

8 is a flowchart illustrating a voice quality measuring method according to the present invention. The voice quality measurement method according to the present invention will be described below with reference to FIG. 2.

First, the voice quality measuring apparatus 200 receives data generated from the base station and collects data therefrom (810). The voice quality measuring apparatus 200 separates and detects 820 the call processing message and the voice traffic from the data. The voice quality measuring apparatus 200 generates a voice quality record for each base station by using the detected call processing message and voice traffic (830). The voice quality measuring apparatus 200 may compare 840 the voice quality record for each base station with a predetermined threshold value, and output the compared result 850.

Voice quality measurement results for a plurality of calls generated by each base station in the voice quality record generation step 830 may be recorded as statistical data, and the voice quality compared to a predetermined threshold in the voice quality comparison step 840 is It may be an average of voice quality statistical data for each base station. In this case, the operator may separately configure information 850 for the base station whose voice quality is equal to or less than a predetermined threshold as a result of the voice quality comparison 840, so that voice quality management of the base station can be efficiently performed.

9 is a flowchart describing the data collection step 810 shown in FIG. The data collection step 810 is described below with reference to FIG. 2.

The voice quality measuring apparatus 200 receives 910 data branched between the base station controller 210 and the switching center 220. When it is necessary to convert the shape of the received data, the voice quality measuring apparatus 200 converts the received data into quality measurement data (920). The conversion of the data format is to allow the voice quality measuring apparatus 200 to efficiently measure and analyze the voice quality by organizing the voice quality measurement results into statistical data.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart for describing a voice quality record generation step 830 for each base station shown in FIG. 8.

The voice quality measuring apparatus 200 detects 1010 base station information from the call processing message and the call processing message separated and detected in the voice traffic detection step 820. The base station information detecting step 1010 may use the location area code and the service area code included in the service area identifier in the Initial-UE-Message of each protocol.

The voice quality measuring apparatus 200 measures 1020 voice quality of voice traffic separated and detected. The voice quality measurement 1020 extracts channel information on an Access Link Control Application Part (ALCAP) protocol, and is performed from data stored for a predetermined time for voice traffic flowing through ATM Adaption Layer 2 (AAL2). Can be. The voice quality measurement apparatus 200 records the voice quality for each base station in association with the detected base station information 1030.

The apparatus and system described above may be implemented in hardware, software, or a combination thereof. In a hardware implementation, the modules used for voice quality measurement may include one or more application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), digital signal processors (DSPs), digital signal processing units (DSPDs), programmable logic units (PLDs), field programmable gates. Array (FPGA), processor, controller, micro-controller, microprocessor, other electronic unit designed to perform the functions described herein, or a combination thereof. The software may be implemented through a module that performs the functions described herein. Software code may be stored in memory units and executed by a processor. The memory unit may be implemented inside or outside the processor, in which case the memory may be coupled to the processor via various known means.

On the other hand, the method of the present invention as described above can be written in a computer program. And the code and code segments constituting the program can be easily inferred by a computer programmer in the art. In addition, the written program is stored in a computer-readable recording medium (information storage medium), and read and executed by a computer to implement the method of the present invention. And the recording medium includes all types of recording media (intangible medium such as a carrier wave as well as tangible media such as CD and DVD) readable by a computer.

The present invention described above is capable of various substitutions, modifications, and changes without departing from the technical spirit of the present invention for those skilled in the art to which the present invention pertains. It is not limited by the drawings.

1 is a view for explaining a voice quality measurement method of a base station according to the prior art.

2 is a block diagram of a communication system to which the voice quality measuring apparatus 200 according to the present invention is connected.

3 is a block diagram of the voice quality measurement apparatus 200 according to the present invention.

4 is a detailed block diagram of the data collector 310 shown in FIG. 3.

5 is a detailed configuration diagram of the voice quality recording unit 330 shown in FIG. 3.

6 is a flowchart of a call processing message between the base station controller 210 and the switching center 220 according to an embodiment of the present invention.

7 is a structural diagram of a service area identifier 700 according to an embodiment of the present invention.

8 is a flowchart illustrating a voice quality measuring method according to the present invention.

9 is a flowchart describing the data collection step 810 shown in FIG.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart for describing a voice quality record generation step 830 for each base station shown in FIG. 8.

Claims (16)

In the method for measuring the voice quality of the base station, Collecting data from the interval between the base station controller and the switching center; Detecting call processing messages and voice traffic from the data; Generating a voice quality record for each base station using the call processing message and the voice traffic; The base station controller is characterized in that connected to the base station How to measure voice quality. The method of claim 1, The data collection step Receiving data branched from a section between the base station controller and the switching center; Converting the data into quality measurement data. How to measure voice quality. The method according to claim 1 or 2, The voice quality record generation step for each base station Detecting base station information from the call processing message; Measuring voice quality of the voice traffic; Associating the voice quality with the base station information; How to measure voice quality. The method of claim 3, wherein The base station information detection step Detecting the base station information using a location area code (LAC) and a service area code (SAC) included in a service area identifier (SAI) in the call processing message; By How to measure voice quality. The method according to claim 1 or 2, Comparing the voice quality record for each base station with a specific threshold value; Outputting the comparison result; How to measure voice quality. The method of claim 1, The data is characterized in that the ATM cell (ATM cell) How to measure voice quality. The method of claim 2, The quality measurement data is characterized in that the AT cell How to measure voice quality. The method according to claim 1 or 2, The voice quality is characterized in that the MOS (Mean Opinion Score) value How to measure voice quality. In the device for measuring the voice quality of the base station, A data collector for collecting data from a section between the base station controller and the switching center; A data analyzer for detecting a call processing message and voice traffic from the data; A voice quality recorder for generating a voice quality record for each base station using the call processing message and the voice traffic; The base station controller is characterized in that connected to the base station Voice quality measuring device. The method of claim 9, The data collection unit A data receiver for receiving data branched from the interval between the base station controller and the switching center; And a data converting unit converting the data into quality measurement data. Voice quality measuring device. 11. The method according to claim 9 or 10, The voice quality recording unit A base station information detector for detecting base station information from the call processing message; A voice quality measuring unit for measuring voice quality of the voice traffic; And a base station information association unit for associating the base station information with the voice quality. Voice quality measuring device. The method of claim 11, The base station information detector Detecting the base station information using a location area code (LAC) and a service area code (SAC) included in a service area identifier (SAI) in the call processing message; By Voice quality measuring device. 11. The method according to claim 9 or 10, A voice quality determination unit for comparing the voice quality record for each base station with a specific threshold value; The apparatus may further include an output unit configured to output a comparison result of the voice quality determination unit. Voice quality measuring device. The method of claim 9, The data is characterized in that the ATM cell (ATM cell) Voice quality measuring device. The method of claim 10, The quality measurement data is characterized in that the AT cell Voice quality measuring device. 11. The method according to claim 9 or 10, The voice quality is characterized in that the MOS (Mean Opinion Score) value Voice quality measuring device.

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