KR101017464B1 - System and method for providing discrimination information of cell to subscriber - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a method and system for providing cell identification information to a subscriber. The method for providing cell identification information to a mobile terminal in a femto cell base station according to the present invention comprises the steps of: receiving an access request from a mobile terminal; Requesting a connection of the mobile terminal to a core network and receiving network information accordingly; Replacing the network information with a pre-assigned femto cell network name; And transmitting the replaced network information to the mobile terminal. The present invention makes it possible to check whether a femto cell region of a region where a subscriber enters is a subscribed femto cell region.

Femtocell, femto base station, MM information, network name

Description

System and method for providing discrimination information of cell to subscriber}

The present invention relates to a cell identification technology in a mobile communication network, and more particularly, to a method and system for providing a subscriber with decipherable cell identification information.

As the number of subscribers increases, the mobile communication base station must accommodate more subscribers by increasing the frequency. The number of subscribers varies from region to region, so the timing of frequency expansion also varies from region to region. In general, large cities and urban areas increase the number of subscribers because of the rapid increase in the number of subscribers, and smaller cities and rural areas have fewer service frequencies than large cities and downtown areas because of the relatively small number of subscribers per cell.

Recently, femto cell technology for providing mobile communication services to areas much smaller than the existing mobile communication radius has been actively studied. A femto cell is a technology that provides mobile communication services through a femto access point (AP) connected to a general-purpose Internet circuit in an area where shadows of a macro cell are degraded, such as a home or a building.

The femto cell is also used for the purpose of ensuring the quality of mobile communication services, and can also be used as a means of providing low rates through femtozone services. In addition, since femtocells use a universal Internet line for connection to the core network, the installation cost and maintenance cost are low, and the area where the Internet line is installed can be installed anywhere, so it has excellent mobility. have.

As described above, one of the main uses of the femto cell is to provide a rate discount for subscribers who subscribe to the femto cell service. That is, the femto cell provides a communication fee discount to the subscriber when the subscriber subscribed to the femto cell service enters its area. In order to receive such femto cell service, the subscriber checks whether the femto cell is properly subscribed to the femto cell, and if the subscriber enters the femto cell to which the femto cell is not subscribed, the subscriber automatically searches for the femto cell to which it is subscribed. There is a need.

However, in the current WCDMA system, cell division is performed through cell ID. Since the cell ID is not information that the subscriber can actually see, there is a problem that it is impossible to check whether the subscriber is connected to the desired femto cell.

The present invention has been proposed to solve the above problems, and an object thereof is to provide a method and system for transmitting decoded cell identification information to a mobile terminal of a subscriber.

Other objects and advantages of the present invention can be understood by the following description, and will be more clearly understood by the embodiments of the present invention. Also, it will be readily appreciated that the objects and advantages of the present invention may be realized by the means and combinations thereof indicated in the claims.

According to a first aspect of the present invention for achieving the above object, a method for providing cell identification information to a mobile terminal in a femto cell base station comprises the steps of: (a) receiving an access request from a mobile terminal; (b) requesting a connection of the mobile terminal to a core network and receiving network information accordingly; (c) replacing the network information with a pre-assigned femto cell network name; And (d) transmitting the replaced network information to the mobile terminal.

The base station apparatus according to the second aspect of the present invention for achieving the above object comprises a receiving unit for requesting the connection of the mobile terminal to the core network in response to receiving a connection request from the mobile terminal to receive the network information accordingly; A network name replacement unit for replacing the network information with a pre-assigned femto cell network name; And a transmitter for transmitting the replaced network information to the mobile terminal.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, a mobile terminal includes: a display unit; Memory for storing a list of accessible networks; A communication unit for receiving a femtocell network name from an attempted access base station; And a controller for displaying the received femto cell network name on the display unit and maintaining the connection with the base station or searching for another femto cell according to whether the femto cell network name is included in the network list. Characterized in that.

According to the present invention, it is possible to check whether a femto cell region of a region in which a subscriber enters is a region of a femto cell to which the subscriber is subscribed, and also performs a cell search periodically if the femto cell region is not subscribed to the subscriber. Enable access to the femto cell.

The foregoing and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description of the present invention when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which: There will be. In the following description, well-known functions or constructions are not described in detail since they would obscure the invention in unnecessary detail. Hereinafter, a preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

1 is a diagram schematically illustrating a network configuration of a mobile communication system including a femto cell.

Referring to FIG. 1, a mobile communication system includes a femto cell 110, a macro cell 130, and a core network 150.

The mobile terminal 111 stores a femto cell network name to which a subscriber subscribes to a femto zone service, hands over to a femto cell corresponding to the femto cell network name, and receives a communication service. In addition, when the mobile terminal 111 is located in a femto cell area having a network name different from the stored femto cell network name, the mobile terminal 111 periodically searches for another femto cell.

The macro cell 130 is a conventional radio access cell of a mobile communication system and includes a base station (Node-B) for managing radio resources and a base station controller (RNC) for controlling the base station. Provides a mobile communication service by performing a wireless communication with the.

The femto cell 110 is mainly for the purpose of guaranteeing the quality of mobile communication service in the area where the radio wave of the macro cell 130 is degraded, such as a home or a building, or a low cost such as a femtozone service. As a radio access cell utilized for the purpose of doing so, a femto base station 113 (Femto AP) connected with a universal Internet line (IP network) is used.

The femto base station 113 wirelessly connects to the mobile terminal 111-1 entering the femto cell 110 to provide femto cell service through the universal Internet line to the mobile terminal 111-1. In particular, the femto base station 113 is assigned the same public network name as the core network name, or is assigned a different network name than the core network 150 name. Here, the femto base station 113 assigned the public network name provides the femto cell service to all subscribers, and the femto base station 113 assigned the network name different from the core network 150 name is assigned to the mobile service zone. Provides femtocell service only to the subscriber station (111-1). In addition, the assigned network name is information decipherable by the subscriber, and the femto base station 113 transmits the network name to the mobile terminal 111-1 by putting the network name on the MM information.

The core network 150 is a network of a mobile communication system for providing a data service and a voice service. The core network 150 is connected to the macro cell 130 through an exchanger (MSC) or a packet switched node (SGSN), and the femtocell ( 110 is connected through an IP network and a gateway to provide a communication service to the mobile terminal 111 in the macro cell 130 or the femto cell 110.

When the mobile terminal 111-1 is connected through the femto cell 110, the core network 150 identifies identification information of the mobile terminal 111-1 and a cell identifier (eg, cell ID) of the femto cell 110. Check whether the mobile terminal 111-1 is a terminal allowed to access the femtocell 110. In addition, the core network 150 transmits the MM information in which the information of the communication network is recorded to the mobile terminal 111-1 making a connection request through the femto cell 110. At this time, the femto base station 113 is a network name assigned to the femto cell 110 as the network name recorded in the network name (Full name for network or short name for network) field of the MM information received from the core network 150 Subsequently, the data is transmitted to the mobile terminal 111-1.

For example, the femto base station 113 replaces the network name recorded in the network name field of the MM information received from the core network 150 with "Inha Univ Library" and transmits it to the mobile terminal 111-1. Accordingly, the mobile terminal 111-1 displays the network name of the MM information so that the subscriber can know that the area of the femtocell 110 is the Inha University library.

When the femto cell is distinguished through the cell ID as in the related art, it is not only possible to display the cell ID on the subscriber station, but even if the cell ID is displayed, it is difficult for the subscriber to accurately identify the cell ID combined with numbers or letters. However, by transmitting the network name in a form recognized by the subscriber to the mobile terminal 111-1 as described above, the femto cell service can be more stable by identifying the current femto cell region to the subscriber.

2 is a flowchart illustrating a method of transmitting decodable femtocell information to a mobile terminal attempting to access a femtocell in a mobile communication system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 2, the mobile terminal 111-1 proceeds to set up an RRC connection with the femto base station 113 in order to enter the femto cell 110 and try to access it (S201). In detail, the mobile station 111-1 transmits an RRC connection request message to the femto base station 113, and receives an RRC connection setup message in response to allocating a radio resource. Receive. Subsequently, when the radio resource is normally allocated, the mobile station 111-1 transmits an RRC connection setup complete message to the femto base station 113.

As such, the mobile terminal 111-1 receiving the radio resource by setting the RRC connection with the femto base station 113 transmits an access request message (Attach Request) to the femto base station 113 (S203). Then, the femto base station 113 transmits the mobile terminal identifier (ie, mobile terminal ID) and the femto cell identifier (eg, femto cell ID) to the core network 150 (S205). Next, the core network 150 transmits MM information including the network information of the core network to the femto base station 113 (S207).

Table 1 below is an excerpt of the specification of the MM information contained in TS 24.008 issued by the international standards body 3GPP.

IEI Information element Type / Reference Presence Format Length MM Information Message Type M V One 43 Full name for network Network name O TLV 3-? 45 Short name for network Network name O TLV 3-? 46 Local time zone Time zone O TV 2 47 Universal time and
local time zone Time Zone and Time O TV 8

Referring to Table 1, the MSC or SGSN of the core network 150 records its network name in the field "Full name for network" or "Short name for network", which is the network name field of the MM information. 113).

Then, the femto base station 113 replaces the full name for network or short name for network field of the MM information with the network name assigned to the femto cell 110 and transmits it to the mobile terminal 111-1. (S209, S211). For example, if the network name of the allocated femto cell 110 is "Inha Univ Library", the femto base station 113 changes the network name field of the MM information to "Inha Univ Library" and transmits it to the mobile terminal 111-1. . Then, the mobile terminal 111-1 displays the network name field information (ie, Inha Univ Library) of the received MM information, thereby informing the subscriber that the current femto zone is the Inha University library.

Next, the core network 150 determines whether the mobile terminal 111-1 is allowed to access the femto base station 113 based on the identifier of the mobile terminal 111-1 and the femto cell 110 identifier. Perform subscriber authentication to confirm (S213). Subsequently, upon successful authentication of the subscriber (ie, if the mobile terminal is a terminal allowed to access the femto base station), the core network 150 accesses the mobile terminal 111-1 to the mobile terminal 111-1 via the femto base station 113. (Attach accept) is transmitted (S215, S217). On the other hand, if the authentication of the subscriber fails, the core network 150 transmits an attach reject message to the mobile station 111-1 via the femto base station 113 to send the mobile station 111-1 of the mobile station 111-1. Disconnect the connection.

As described above, the femto base station 113 replaces the network name field of the MM information with the network name of the femto cell 110 previously assigned in the core network name, thereby recognizing the femto cell network name to the subscriber.

3 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of a femto base station according to an embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 3, the femto base station 113 according to the preferred embodiment of the present invention includes a transceiver 310, an RRC connection setup unit 330, a network name setup unit 350, and a network name replacement unit 370. ).

The transceiver 310 receives an RRC connection request message from the mobile terminal 111-1 entering the femto cell 110. In addition, the transceiver 310 receives an access request message (Attach Request) from the RRC connection set mobile terminal (111-1) to the core network 150, and transmits the MM information (MM Information) according to the core network ( 150).

When the RRC connection setting unit 330 receives the RRC connection request message from the mobile station 111-1 at the transceiver 310, the RRC connection setting unit 330 sets an RRC connection with the mobile station 111-1 to allocate radio resources.

The network name setting unit 350 provides an interface for assigning and changing a femto cell network name, and stores the femto cell network name from an administrator or a specific server.

When the network name replacement unit 370 receives the MM information from the core network 150 at the transceiver 310, the network name setting unit 350 receives the core network name recorded in the network name field of the MM information. It replaces the femto cell network name and transmits it to the mobile station 111-1 through the transceiver 310. Meanwhile, the network name replacement unit 370 may check whether the core network name recorded in the network name field of the MM information and the femtocell network name allocated by the network name setting unit 350 match. In this case, when the two network names are different, the network name replacement unit 370 changes the core network name of the network name field of the MM information to the femtocell network name and transmits and receives the MM information whose network name field is changed. ) To the mobile terminal 111-1. On the other hand, if the two network names are the same, the network name replacement unit 370 transfers the MM information to the mobile terminal 111-1 through the transceiver 310 without changing the MM information received from the core network 150. send.

4 is a flowchart illustrating a method of transmitting decipherable cell identification information from a femto base station to a mobile terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 4, the transceiver 310 of the femto base station 113 receives an attach request message from the mobile terminal 111-1 having an RRC connection and transmits it to the core network 150. The transceiver 310 receives the MM information from the core network 150 in response (S401). Then, the network name replacement unit 370 checks whether the assigned femto cell network name and the network name of the received MM information match (S403).

Next, if the two network names do not match, the network name replacement unit 370 replaces the network name field of the MM information with the assigned femtocell 110 network name, and then transmits and receives the MM information whose network name field is changed. The mobile station transmits the information to the mobile terminal 111-1 through 310 (S405 and S407). That is, when the femto cell 110 allows only a specific subscriber to access and accordingly is assigned a network name different from the core network name, the femto base station 113 changes the network name field of the MM information to the assigned femto cell network name. do. For example, when the femto base station 113 records "KTF Public Network" in the network name field of the received MM information and the femto cell network name is "Seocho Subway", the femto base station 113 determines the network name field of the MM information. It replaces "KTF Public Network" with "Seocho Subway" and transmits it to the mobile terminal 111-1. Accordingly, the mobile terminal 111-1 displays the network name field (ie, Seocho Subway) of the MM information on the screen to inform the subscriber that the current femtozone is Seocho Station.

On the other hand, if the two network names match, the network name replacement unit 370 transmits the MM information received from the core network to the mobile terminal 111-1 without changing the network name field. That is, when the femto base station 113 is assigned the same public network name as the core network name, it transmits to the subscriber without changing the network name field of the MM information. For example, if the core network name and the femto cell network name are "KTF Public Network", the femto base station 113 transmits to the mobile terminal 111-1 without changing the network name field of the MM information. Accordingly, the subscriber confirms the "KTF Public Network" and confirms that the currently located femtozone is a public femtozone.

Meanwhile, the step S403 of determining whether the allocated femto cell network name matches the network name of the received MM information may be omitted. The reason for this is that when the femto base station 113 replaces the network field name with its own network name regardless of whether the network name of the received MM information matches the femto cell 110 network name, as a result, the mobile terminal 111- This is because the network name field of the femto base station 113 is recorded in the network name field of the MM information transmitted to 1).

5 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of a mobile terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 5, the mobile terminal 111 according to the preferred embodiment of the present invention includes a communication unit 510, a memory 520, an input unit 530, a display unit 540, and a controller 550.

The communication unit 510 wirelessly communicates with the macro base station NodeB or the femto base station 113, and in particular, receives the MM information from the femto base station 113.

The memory 520 stores subscriber data such as an address book and a phone book. In addition, the memory 520 stores a network list of femto cells to which the subscriber subscribes to femto cell service.

The input unit 530 is provided with an input means such as a keypad to transmit a subscriber's operation signal to the control unit 550.

The display unit 540 includes a liquid crystal display device and the like, and displays the information processed by the mobile terminal 111 to the subscriber. In addition, the display unit 540 displays the network name recorded in the network name field of the MM information to inform the subscriber of the femtozone currently located.

The controller 550 controls each component of the mobile terminal 111, and performs a process corresponding to the operation signal of the input unit 530 to display the processing result on the display unit 540. The controller 550 includes a cell search module 551 for selectively searching for another cell based on the MM information received from the communication unit 510.

When the cell search module 551 receives the MM information from the femto base station 113 in the communication unit 510, the cell search module 551 displays the femto cell network name recorded in the network name field of the MM information on the display unit 540. In addition, the cell search module 551 checks whether the femto cell network name exists in the network list stored in the memory 520. If the network name of the MM information does not exist in the network list stored in the memory 520, the cell search module 551 searches for another cell periodically. On the other hand, if the femto cell network name of the MM information exists in the network list of the memory 520, the cell search module 551 maintains a connection with the current femto base station 113 without searching another cell.

6 is a flowchart illustrating a method for selectively searching for another cell based on MM information in a mobile terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 6, the communication unit 510 of the mobile terminal 111-1 receives MM information from the femto base station 113 (S601). Then, the cell search module 551 displays the femto cell network name recorded in the network name field of the MM information on the display unit 540 and determines whether the femto cell network name exists in the network list stored in the memory 520. Check (S603). If the femto cell network name exists in the network list of the memory 520, the cell search module 551 maintains the current connection state with the femto base station 113 without searching for another cell (S605). On the other hand, if the femto cell network name does not exist in the network list of the memory 520, the cell search module 551 determines that the current femtozone is unserviced and searches for another cell (S607).

Meanwhile, the mobile terminal 111-1 may receive the MM information recorded with the public network name from the femto base station 113. In this case, the mobile terminal 111-1 maintains a connection with the femto base station 113 and periodically searches for the femto cell 110 corresponding to the network list of the memory 520. Specifically, the mobile terminal 111-1 stores the femto cell network name and the public femto cell network name subscribed to by the subscriber in the memory 520, but has a higher priority of the cell network name subscribed to by the subscriber than the public femto cell network name. Grant. Further, even when the mobile terminal 111-1 enters the femto cell 110 which is used in common and accesses the femto base station 113 in charge of the area, the mobile terminal 111-1 recognizes that the priority of the public femto cell network name is low. Maintains a connection with the femto base station 113, but searches for another cell having a high priority.

In summary, the mobile terminal 111-1 assigns a priority to the network list stored in the memory 520, and enters a femto cell region having a low priority and the femto base station 113 in charge of the femto cell region. If the other femto cell 110 maintains the connection but has a high priority, it disconnects from the current femto base station 1130 and reconnects to the high priority femto cell 110.

As described above, the present invention allocates a network name that can be easily decoded by a subscriber for each femto cell 110, and transmits the allocated network name to the mobile terminal 111-1 so that the currently located femto cell area is subscribed to the service. Allows the subscriber to check whether or not a femtozone has been established. In addition, when the mobile terminal 111-1 according to the present invention enters the unsubscribed femtocell 110 region, the mobile terminal 111-1 automatically performs the discovery of the femtocell 110 subscribed to by the subscriber, thereby smoothly femtocell. There is an advantage of providing the service to the subscriber.

In addition, the present invention provides a more convenient cell management scheme by dividing the femto cell 110 by the network name instead of the cell ID. Specifically, if the same network name is given to the femto base station 113 installed on each floor of the library of a specific school, each femto cell 110 can be grouped and serviced by each floor of the library in the region from the subscriber's point of view. Are recognized as one unified service zone, not separate. For example, if the Inha University library has eight floors and the femto base station 113 is installed on each floor, physically separated femto cell regions can be grouped by assigning the same network name to the femto base station 113 of the library. In addition, the subscriber can register the Inha University library area integrated in accordance with the present invention to the femtocell service without separating the floors of the Inha University library into the femtocell service. Accordingly, the subscriber receives the same femto cell network name at any level of the library, and recognizes that the subscriber has properly entered the area of the femto cell to which the subscriber belongs.

While this specification contains many features, such features should not be construed as limiting the scope of the invention or the claims. Also, the features described in the individual embodiments herein can be implemented in combination in a single embodiment. Conversely, various features described in a single embodiment herein can be implemented individually in various embodiments or in combination as appropriate.

Although the operations are described in a particular order in the drawings, they should not be understood as being performed in a particular order as shown, or in a sequence of successive orders, or all described actions being performed to obtain a desired result. . In certain circumstances, multitasking and parallel processing may be advantageous. In addition, it should be understood that the division of various system components in the above-described embodiments does not require such division in all embodiments. The above-described program components and systems can generally be implemented as a single software product or as a package in multiple software products.

The method of the present invention as described above may be implemented as a program and stored in a recording medium (CD-ROM, RAM, ROM, floppy disk, hard disk, magneto-optical disk, etc.) in a computer-readable form. Since this process can be easily implemented by those skilled in the art will not be described in more detail.

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 diagram schematically illustrating a network configuration of a mobile communication system including a femto cell.

2 is a flowchart illustrating a method of transmitting decodable femtocell information to a mobile terminal attempting to access a femtocell in a mobile communication system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

3 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of a femto base station according to an embodiment of the present invention.

4 is a flowchart illustrating a method of transmitting decipherable cell identification information from a femto base station to a mobile terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention.

5 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of a mobile terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention.

6 is a flowchart illustrating a method for selectively searching for another cell based on MM information in a mobile terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Claims (11)

A method for providing cell identification information to a mobile terminal in a femto cell base station, (a) receiving an access request from a mobile terminal; (b) requesting a connection of the mobile terminal to a core network and receiving a core network name accordingly; (c) replacing the core network name with a femto cell network name that is pre-assigned by the user; And (d) transmitting the replaced femto cell network name to the mobile terminal and displaying it on the screen of the mobile terminal. delete The method of claim 1, The core network name is recorded in the "Full name for network" or "Short name for network" field of MM information (Mobility Management Information), In step (c), the "Full name for network" or the "Short name for network" field is replaced with the femto cell network name. The method of claim 1, In step (c), And determining whether the received core network name matches the assigned femto cell network name and, if there is a mismatch, replace the core network name with the femto cell network name. A receiving unit which requests a connection of the mobile terminal to a core network and receives a core network name according to the connection request from the mobile terminal; A network name replacement unit for replacing the core network name with a femto cell network name decipherable by a user who has been previously assigned; And And a transmitter to transmit the replaced femto cell network name to the mobile terminal and display the screen on the screen of the mobile terminal. delete The method of claim 5, The core network name is recorded in the "Full name for network" or "Short name for network" field of MM information (Mobility Management Information), And the network name replacement unit replaces the “Full name for network” or the “Short name for network” field with the femto cell network name. The method of claim 5, The network name replacement unit, And determining whether the received core network name matches the assigned femto cell network name and, if there is a mismatch, replace the core network name with the femto cell network name. delete delete delete

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