KR20060064720A - Apparatus and method for controlling transmission power in mobile communication terminal - Google Patents

Abstract

In the mobile communication terminal, the transmission output power is determined at a power control level determined according to a received signal strength indicator (RSSI). The present invention stores and uses a data table in the memory of the mobile communication terminal, which includes up to an allowable error range (± 3 dB to ± 5 dB for each power level) specified by the specification. It includes a method of using the transmission output power to the minimum value within the tolerance range specified by the specification.

GSM terminal, transmission power control

Description

Apparatus and method for transmission power control in mobile communication terminal {APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR CONTROLLING TRANSMISSION POWER IN MOBILE COMMUNICATION TERMINAL}             

1 is a view showing the configuration of a mobile communication terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention;

2 is a diagram illustrating a procedure for controlling transmission output power in a mobile communication terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention;

3 is a table for a GSM (Global System for mobile commuication) specification showing the transmission power for each power control level according to the received signal strength, and

FIG. 4 is a table for a digital selective calling (DSC) specification showing transmit power for each power control level according to received signal strength. FIG.

The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for controlling a transmission power of a mobile communication terminal, and more particularly, to an apparatus and method for transmitting by lowering the transmission power by a tolerance according to a battery capacity in a mobile communication terminal.                         

The mobile communication terminal includes an IS95 terminal, a PCS, a UMTS terminal, an IMT-2000 terminal, a GSM terminal, and the like.

The mobile communication terminal controls the transmission power according to the environment and distance between the mobile station and the base station. If the call quality is good, the required transmission power is reduced, and if the transmission power is reduced, battery consumption is reduced and battery life is increased. do.

The GSM terminal controls the transmission power according to the strength of the signal received from the base station in order to maintain the transmission power level required by the base station. According to the prior art, although the standard specification defines the transmission output power tolerance (± 3dB to ± 5dB for each power level) according to the received signal strength, it cannot be used. It is true.

If the transmission power of the signal can be lowered by the specified tolerance, it can be a way to reduce the current consumption (battery consumption).

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus and method for controlling transmission power for efficient battery use of a mobile communication terminal.

Another object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus and method for transmitting power by lowering a signal power by a tolerance (± 3 dB to ± 5 dB for each power level) according to battery capacity in a mobile communication terminal.

According to the present invention for achieving the above object, the conventional memory is used by the data table that does not include the tolerance range prescribed by the specification, characterized in that for storing the data table including the entire tolerance range stored in the memory do.

Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. In describing the present invention, when it is determined that a detailed description of a related known function or configuration may unnecessarily obscure the subject matter of the present invention, the detailed description thereof will be omitted.

3 and 4 are tables indicating power control levels, nominal output power, and tolerance for conditions according to received signal strength used in a GSM terminal.

1 illustrates a configuration of a mobile communication terminal according to the present invention. In the following description, the mobile communication terminal is a cellular phone, a personal communication system (PCS), a personal data assistant (PDA), IMT-2000 (International Mobile communication-2000), GSM (GSM: Global System for Mobile communication) It is meant to include all the terminals, the following description will be described by taking a GSM terminal as an example.

Referring to FIG. 1, the memory 125 stores microcodes and various reference data of a program for processing and controlling the control unit 113. In particular, according to the present invention, the memory 125 includes TxDAC (Tx Digital) for the transmit output power including the nominal output power and the tolerance for conditions according to the received signal strength and the transmit output power. -to-Analog). The Tx Digital-to-Analog Converting (TxDAC) is a power amplifier (PA) control data, and means a digital value for adjusting the transmission output power of the power amplifier (PA). As shown in FIG. 3, a standard output power according to a power control level determined according to a received signal strength is stored, and a tolerance for conditions is normal. Save for and Extreme status. For example, when the power control level according to the received signal strength is '5', the nominal output power is 33 dBm, and the tolerance for conditions is normal. In the state of), it is 30 ~ 36㏈m and in the case of extreme state, it is 29 ~ 37㏈m.

The controller 113 controls the overall operation of the mobile terminal. In particular, the present invention compares the battery capacity with a set reference value and processes the function for lowering the transmission power by the tolerance when the battery capacity is smaller than the reference value. In addition, the control unit 113 reads the Tx Digital-to-Converting (TxDAC) from the memory 125 and provides it to the Digital-to-Analog Converting (DAC) 109.

An RF modulator (Radio Frequency unit) 107 is provided to the baseband processor 111 by lowering the radio frequency signal provided through the Low Noise Amplifier (LNA) 105 to the baseband processor 111, from the baseband processor 111 The baseband signal of the signal is raised to provide a power amplifier (PA) 103. On the other hand, the RF modulation and demodulation unit 107 is provided with a reception strength measurement unit (eg, Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI)) as shown. The RSSI measures the received signal strength and provides it to the controller 113.

The power amplifier (PA) 103 controls the radio frequency signal provided from the RF modulator 107 to a far distance according to the control voltage provided from the digital-to-analog converting (DAC) 109. Amplifies the output level according to the voltage, and provides the amplified radio frequency signal to the antenna 100. In particular, according to the present invention, the controller 113 obtains a TxDAC value from the memory 125 and provides it to a digital-analog converter (DAC) 109 to control the power amplifier (PA) 103.

The low noise amplifier (LNA) 105 removes the weak radio frequency signal received from the antenna 100 and amplifies only the original signal and provides the RF signal to the RF demodulation unit 109.

The duplexer 101 protects the receiver from a transmission output when transmitting one antenna of the mobile communication terminal for joint use in transmission and reception, and when received, the duplexer 101 receives the received signal into the low noise amplifier (LNA). Provided at 105.

A digital-to-analog converter (DAC) 109 converts a discrete digital signal into a continuous analog signal. In general, when used as a control signal, it is used to convert the output data of the computer into an analog shape such as voltage or current. In particular, when the control unit 113 provides a TxDAC to the digital analog converter (DAC) 109 to control the power amplifier (PA) 103 in accordance with the present invention, the digital-to-analog converter (DAC) 109 converts a TxDAC into an analog signal and provides it to the PA (Power Amplifier) 103.

The antenna 100 is a device for transmitting or receiving electromagnetic energy mainly for space transmission and reception. When transmitting, electrical energy provided from the PA (Power Amplifier) 103 is converted into electromagnetic energy, and when received, the electromagnetic energy is converted into electrical energy and provided to a low noise amplifier (LNA).

The baseband processor 111 processes a baseband signal transmitted and received between the RF demodulator 107 and the controller 113. For example, in the case of transmission, channel coding and spreading of data to be transmitted are performed, and in the case of reception, despreading and channel decoding of a received signal are performed. .

The battery capacity checker 115 measures the available remaining capacity of the battery and provides the measured remaining capacity to the controller 113. The controller 113 displays the remaining battery capacity on the display. In addition, according to the present invention, the control unit 113 has the battery remaining capacity to approach the memory 125 to determine the power control level (Power Control Level) according to the received signal strength to obtain the required transmit power value to the The PA (Power Amplifier) 103 is controlled. For example, referring to FIG. 3, when the battery remaining capacity is greater than the reference value, the controller 113 may set the nominal output power at the power control level according to the received signal strength to the memory 125. If small, the smallest transmission output power of the tolerance for condition is obtained at the corresponding power control level.

Key pad 121 is a numeric key buttons of 0-9, menu button (menu), cancel button (clear), confirmation button, call button (TALK), end button (END), Internet access button, A plurality of function keys such as navigation key buttons (▲ / ▼ / ◀ / ▶) are provided, and key input data corresponding to a key pressed by a user is provided to the controller 113.

The codec (Coder-Decoder) 123 connected to the control unit 113, the speaker 129 and the microphone 127 connected to the codec 123 are voice input / output blocks used for phone calls and voice recording. . The codec 123 converts the PCM data provided from the controller 113 into an analog voice signal, transmits the same through the speaker 129, and converts the voice signal received through the microphone 127 into PCM data. It is provided to the control unit 113.

2 illustrates a procedure for controlling transmission power in a GSM terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 2, first, the control unit 113 receives the received signal strength from the reception strength measuring unit RSSI in step 201. The controller 113 receives battery remaining capacity information from the battery capacity checker 115 in step 203. In operation 205, the controller 113 compares the remaining battery capacity with the set reference value. If the remaining battery capacity is smaller than the set reference value, the controller 113 proceeds to step 207 to determine a power control level according to the received received signal strength and determines the power control level. Access the memory to obtain the control data (TxDAC) of the power amplifier (PA) corresponding to the minimum power of the tolerance range of the transmission output power. If the remaining battery capacity is greater than the set reference value, the control unit 113 proceeds to step 209 to determine a power control level according to the received signal strength, and accesses the memory 125 to specify the standard output power (Nominal). TxDAC for Output Power). Here, the standard output power is power corresponding to the center of the tolerance range, as shown in FIG. 3.

 Referring to FIG. 3, when it is assumed that a power control level according to the received signal strength is '5' level, when the battery remaining capacity is larger than a set reference value, the control unit 113 returns a standard output power ( Nominal Output Power) is obtained from the memory 125 for 'TxDAC1' for 33dBm. If the battery residual capacity is low voltage (when there is little battery remaining capacity), the controller 113 obtains 'TxDAC2' from the memory 125 for a minimum value of 30 dBm within a corresponding tolerance range.

In step 211, the controller 113 provides the TxDAC obtained from the memory 125 to the digital-to-analog converter (DAC) 109. The digital-to-analog converter (DAC) 109 then converts the TxDAC into an analog signal to control amplification of the transmission output power of the power amplifier (PA) 103.

In the above-described embodiment of the present invention, an output power value for each power control level according to a received signal strength is stored and used in the memory 125 to an allowable error range. Therefore, even if the same power control level (Power Control Level) according to the remaining capacity of the battery transmit output power to the minimum value within the tolerance range to reduce the battery consumption to increase the terminal usage time.

In another embodiment, a transmission output power may be flexibly selected within the tolerance range by adding a user setting function to select a power saving mode or a call quality improvement mode. For example, when the user selects the call quality improvement mode, the maximum value of the allowable error range is determined as the transmission output power.

Meanwhile, in the detailed description of the present invention, specific embodiments have been described, but various modifications are possible without departing from the scope of the present invention. Therefore, the scope of the present invention should not be limited to the described embodiments, but should be determined not only by the scope of the following claims, but also by the equivalents of the claims.

As described above, the present invention allows the mobile communication terminal to store the transmission output power for each power control level according to the received signal strength in the memory up to the tolerance range specified by the specification, so that the mobile communication terminal can talk with the minimum transmission output power. Efficient and flexible battery use has the advantage of increasing the use time of the mobile communication terminal.

Claims (4)

In the method for controlling the transmission power in the mobile communication terminal, Measuring the remaining battery capacity, Comparing the remaining battery capacity with a preset reference value; And transmitting the signal at a transmit output power smaller than the standard transmit output power specified by the specification when the remaining battery capacity is smaller than the set reference value. The method of claim 1, And transmitting a signal to a standard transmission output defined by the specification when the battery remaining capacity is larger than a set reference value. The method of claim 1, And when the call quality improvement mode is set, transmitting a signal at a transmission output power that is larger by a given tolerance than a standard transmission output defined in the specification. An apparatus for controlling transmission power in a mobile communication terminal, A memory for storing the transmission output power for each power control level according to the received signal strength up to an allowable error range; When the remaining battery capacity is obtained and the remaining battery capacity is smaller than a preset reference value, a power amplifier (PA) control data (TxDAC) corresponding to a minimum transmission output power among the allowable error ranges is obtained and output from the memory. With the control unit, A digital-to-analog converter (DAC) for converting the PA control data (TxDAC) into an analog voltage signal and providing the PA control data to the PA; And a power amplifier (PA) for amplifying a signal to a corresponding level according to a control voltage provided from the DAC.

Images