KR20150026350A - An apparatus and method for controlling inactivity time of mobile terminal connecting with base station - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to an apparatus and to a method for controlling the inactivity time of a mobile terminal to be connected to a base station. According to the present invention, the apparatus for controlling inactivity time of the terminal to be connected to the base station includes: a calculating unit which calculates the number of terminals to be connected to the base station at the same time; and a controlling unit which determines whether the number of the terminals to be calculated from the calculating unit is greater than a critical value and controls the inactive time of the mobile terminal.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an apparatus and a method for adjusting an inactivity time of a terminal connected to a base station,

The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for adjusting an inactivity time of a terminal connected to a base station, and more particularly, to an apparatus and method for adjusting an inactivity time of a terminal connected to a base station, And more particularly, to a terminal access time adjustment apparatus and method for solving the above-mentioned problems.

In a typical mobile communication system, the entire area of the mobile communication service is divided into a plurality of small service areas, each of which is a cell, and each cell is managed by one base station to provide services to the mobile terminal.

When a terminal initially requests a call connection, it establishes a radio resource control (RRC) connection with a base station and connects a channel with a base station. A base station controlling a cell can concurrently conclude an RRC with a terminal and be connected to the terminal.

At this time, in the LTE system, only one RRC is concatenated with a base station in one terminal, and a plurality of calls are not set.

In the conventional WCDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access) system, RRC is set for each of voice and data. However, in the LTE system, only one call is set because HDV is also set to one data call.

On the other hand, since resources required for transmitting and receiving uplink and downlink data between the base station and the terminal are limited, the number of terminals that can be connected to the base station in one cell, that is, the number of concurrent users is limited .

For example, in a current LTE (Long Term Evolution) system, the number of concurrent users can be limited to 600 in a single cell. In this case, a plurality of frequency bands (eg, LTE- For example, 800 MHz, 1.8 GHz) are simultaneously received in a cell, the number of concurrent users in one cell may be limited to 200.

When a terminal connecting to a call reaches a threshold of the number of concurrent users for voice or data transmission / reception, the terminal that is connected afterwards fails to allocate an RRC channel and repeatedly (for example, four times) The call connection eventually fails.

Meanwhile, even after the terminal terminates the call connection with the base station, it maintains the RRC with the base station for a predetermined inactivity time.

Maintaining the RRC during the inactivity time is the same even when a background call such as synchronization data and a message of low capacity is received and only a very small amount of data is communicated. This means that after the call connection is terminated, This is because it is a burden on the system side to repeatedly allocate the RRC to the terminal.

The inactivity time can be set by the EMS (Element Management System) on the LTE network. In the EMS, the inactivity time is set for each cell of the base station. When the base station transmits the set time to the terminal, do.

1 schematically shows a method of allocating inactivity time in a conventional mobile communication system.

As shown in the figure, in the conventional mobile communication system, the inactivity time is kept constant at 10 seconds even if the number of concurrent users in the current cell simultaneously reaches 200, which is the number of terminals capable of maximum access.

In other words, the same inactivity time is maintained without regard to the number of concurrent users. In this case, when the number of simultaneous users in a cell reaches 200, The RRC connection can not but fail.

Considering this point, when the inactivity time is collectively adjusted down to 7 seconds to 5 seconds, the frequency with which the terminal 200 allocates the RRC by attempting call connection increases rapidly, It is burdensome and needs to be improved.

It is an object of the present invention to solve the above-mentioned problems by dynamically adjusting the inactivity time of a terminal connected to a base station according to the number of concurrent accesses in a cell, The present invention provides a terminal access time adjustment apparatus and method of a mobile communication system capable of connecting terminals to try and minimizing the burden on the system side.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an apparatus for adjusting an inactivity time of a terminal connected to a base station, the apparatus comprising: a calculator for calculating a number of terminals simultaneously connected to the base station; And a control unit for determining whether the number of terminals calculated by the calculation unit is equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold value and adjusting the inactivity time of the terminal.

Here, the controller may adjust the inactivity time stepwise according to the number of terminals simultaneously accessing the base station.

Here, the controller may adjust the inactivity time to a predetermined value for a predetermined time when the number of terminals calculated by the calculation unit is equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold, and when the predetermined time has elapsed, can do.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of adjusting an inactivity time of a terminal connected to a base station, the method comprising: calculating a number of terminals simultaneously connected to the base station; And adjusting the inactivity time of the terminal by determining whether the calculated number of terminals is equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold, and adjusting the inactivity time of the terminal.

The step of adjusting the inactivity time may adjust the inactivity time stepwise according to the number of terminals simultaneously accessing the base station.

If the number of terminals simultaneously connected to the base station is equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold, adjusting the inactivity time to a predetermined value for a predetermined time, and restoring or resetting the inactivity time when the predetermined time has elapsed .

As described above, according to the present invention, by dynamically adjusting the inactivity time of a terminal connected to a base station according to the number of concurrent users in a cell, And a terminal access time adjustment apparatus and method for a mobile communication system capable of minimizing the burden on the system side can be provided.

FIG. 1 schematically shows a method of allocating inactivity time of a conventional mobile communication system.
2 schematically shows a mobile communication system according to the present invention.
3 is a block diagram of a terminal connection time adjustment apparatus according to the present invention.
Figures 4 and 5 illustrate an embodiment of adjusting the inactivity time according to the number of concurrent users, in accordance with the present invention.
6 is a flowchart of a terminal access time adjustment method according to the present invention.

It is noted that the technical terms used herein are used only to describe specific embodiments and are not intended to limit the invention. It is also to be understood that the technical terms used herein are to be interpreted in a sense generally understood by a person skilled in the art to which the present invention belongs, Should not be construed to mean, or be interpreted in an excessively reduced sense. Further, when a technical term used herein is an erroneous technical term that does not accurately express the spirit of the present invention, it should be understood that technical terms that can be understood by a person skilled in the art are replaced. In addition, the general terms used in the present invention should be interpreted according to a predefined or prior context, and should not be construed as being excessively reduced.

Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein like reference numerals refer to like or similar elements throughout the several views, and redundant description thereof will be omitted. In the following description, well-known functions or constructions are not described in detail since they would obscure the invention in unnecessary detail. It is to be noted that the accompanying drawings are only for the purpose of facilitating understanding of the present invention, and should not be construed as limiting the scope of the present invention with reference to the accompanying drawings. The spirit of the present invention should be construed as extending to all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives in addition to the appended drawings.

2 schematically illustrates a mobile communication system according to the present invention.

2, the basic structure of a mobile communication system is briefly shown as a terminal 200, a base station 10, and an MME (Mobile Mobility Entity) 30. In this specification, And the detailed operation of the control operation of the base station 10 that controls one cell 15a or 15b, which is a concrete idea of the present invention, Will be described concretely.

A mobile communication system includes a plurality of terminals 200 connected to a base station 10 within a cell 15a or 15b that a base station 10 and a base station 10 are in charge of.

A mobile communication module (not shown) for transmitting / receiving a radio signal to / from the base station 10, an exchange and other terminals on a mobile communication network, Wi-Fi (Wireless LAN), Wimax (World Interoperability for A wireless Internet module (not shown) for wireless Internet access, a user input module (not shown) for receiving a user's key input for operating the terminal 200 based on a high speed downlink packet access (HSDPA) , A display module (not shown), and the like, and the present invention is not limited thereto.

The base station 10 transmits and receives uplink or downlink data to and from the terminal 200. When the terminal 200 attempts to establish an initial call connection, the base station 10 sets the RRC, Is maintained.

A wireless interface protocol between a terminal and an access network based on the 3GPP radio access network standard consists of a physical layer, a data link layer, and a network layer horizontally, and vertically, And a control plane for transmission of the plane and control signals.

A Radio Resource Control (RRC) layer located at the network layer is defined in the control plane and is defined in the transport plane and physical channels associated with the setup, reset and release of radio bearers (RBs) Control and the like, and transmits and controls parameters necessary for using radio resources between the terminal and the access network.

The establishment of the RRC between the terminal 200 and the base station 10 may be performed under the control of a Mobile Mobility Entity (MME).

The MME 30 plays a role as a core control node in an LTE (Long Term Evolution) network. For example, the MME 30 can transmit and receive a control signal from a base station 10 and an S-GW (Serving) on an evolved universal terrestrial radio access network (E- The mobile terminal 200 can control the soft handover of the mobile terminal 200 by determining where to route the incoming data from the mobile terminal 200.

On the other hand, the number of terminals 200 that can be connected to the base station 10 by establishing the RRC in the cell 15a or 15b under the control of one base station 10 due to the limitation of resources required for data transmission, Concurrent users are limited.

3 to 6, the inactivity time of the terminal 200 connected to the base station 10 is dynamically adjusted according to the number of concurrent users in the cell, The detailed configuration of the terminal connection time adjusting apparatus according to the present invention for enabling connection of the terminal 200 attempting connection will be described in detail.

3 is a block diagram of a terminal connection time adjustment apparatus 100 according to the present invention.

As shown in the figure, the terminal connection time adjustment apparatus 100 according to the present invention includes a calculation unit 110 and a control unit 120.

In the present invention, the terminal connection time adjustment apparatus 100 may be implemented as an apparatus built in a server in a mobile communication base station, and some of the functions performed may be controlled according to the control of a MME (Mobile Mobility Entity) .

The terminal access time adjustment apparatus 100 forms an RRC (Radio Resource Control) to maintain a connection with at least one terminal 200 in a cell for a call connection time and an inactivity time.

When the terminal 200 is turned on for the first time, the terminal 200 searches for a connectable cell and then transmits an RRC idle state (RRC idle state) ).

Thereafter, when the MS 200 attempts to establish a call connection, it transmits an RRC connection request message to the BS 200 in order to establish an RRC connection. In response to the RRC connection request message, the MS 200 transmits an RRC connection and the RRC connection setup complete message is transmitted to the terminal 200. Thereby, the RRC connection between the terminal 200 and the base station is completed.

Herein, the call connection time refers to a time period from when the terminal 200 joins the RRC with the base station until the initial call is connected, until the call connection is terminated due to a request of the terminal 200 or a call drop or the like do.

The inactivity time refers to the time required for terminating the RRC between the base station and the mobile station 200 after the call is terminated.

At this time, the inactivity time may be determined to be the same even if only a very small amount of data is communicated by connecting a background call such as synchronization and reception of a low capacity message.

In the case where the inactivity time is set in the base station as described above and the connection with the terminal 200 is maintained even after the end of the call connection, the terminal attempts to reconnect within a short time after completing the call connection. In this case, ) Repeatedly performs RRC, the BS must repeatedly perform a process for allocating resources, which may be a burden.

On the other hand, the setting of the inactivity time can be performed by the Element Management System (EMS) on the LTE network.

EMS (Element Management System) is provided for operation and maintenance of NE (Network Element), which is a network element on LTE network, and can be connected to all nodes on LTE network.

The EMS establishes the inactivity time in units of cells of the base station and the terminal connection time adjustment apparatus 100 transmits the time set by the EMS to the terminal 200. The terminal 200 transmits the time set by the terminal connection time adjustment apparatus 100 You can manage the download inactivity time.

The calculation unit 110 calculates the number of terminals 200 simultaneously connected to the base station, that is, the number of concurrent users.

The calculation of the number of concurrent users can be grasped in real time in the base station, and it is possible to grasp concurrent users in units of TTI (Transmit Time Interval) (for example, 1 ms). Here, the number of concurrent users is the number of the terminals 200 connected to the current connection unit 110 by the RRC connection. The number of the concurrent users is the number of the terminals 200 connected to the present connection and performing voice or data communication, And the terminal 200 in which the RRC connection is maintained.

Accordingly, when the inactivity time is set high, the number of concurrent users decreases, and when the inactivity times are set low, the number of concurrent users can increase.

The control unit 120 determines whether the number of simultaneously connected terminals 200 is equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold as a result of calculation by the calculation unit 110. [

Here, the threshold value can be determined by comparing the burden on the system due to the RRC attempt that increases with the decrease in inactivity time and the possibility that the number of concurrent users may increase as the inactivity time decreases, for example, When the number of users is 200, the threshold can be set to 150 and 100 persons.

The control unit 120 adjusts the inactivity time when the number of simultaneously connected terminals 200 is equal to or larger than the threshold value.

Accordingly, the number of terminals 200 currently connectable to the connection unit 110 at the same time can be increased or decreased.

Also, the controller 120 can adjust the inactivity time step by step as the number of the terminals 200 simultaneously connected to the base station increases.

Specifically, the threshold set by the control unit 120 can be set to various values, and the inactivity time can be adjusted step by step as each threshold is exceeded.

In addition, the controller 120 adjusts the inactivity time to a predetermined value for a predetermined time, and if the predetermined time has elapsed, the inactivity time can be recovered or reset again.

This is because it is common that the number of concurrent users increases over a certain period of time. Therefore, it is possible to maintain many terminals 200 and RRC by decreasing the inactivity time at the corresponding time, recover the inactivity time again after a certain period of time, It is to maintain.

Hereinafter, the inactivity time control of the controller 120 will be described in more detail with reference to FIGS. 4 and 5. FIG.

FIG. 4 shows an embodiment in which the inactivity time is stepwise adjusted according to the operation of the control unit 120 of the present invention.

As shown, in this embodiment, when the number of concurrent users in a cell reaches a threshold of 100, the controller 120 may adjust the inactivity time to 7 seconds.

If the inactivity time is adjusted from 10 seconds to 7 seconds, the RRC connection with the terminal 200 is terminated within a shorter time after the call connection is terminated, so that the number of concurrent users can be increased.

In addition, when the number of concurrent users continuously increases to 150, the control unit 120 can adjust the inactivity time to 3 seconds.

That is, the control unit 120 sets the threshold value to 100 and 150, and when the number of concurrent users exceeds the set threshold value, the inactivity time can be adjusted step by step.

In the above, only the embodiment of adjusting the inactivity time stepwise is explained, but it is also possible to adjust the inactivity time according to the calculated number of concurrent users.

For example, if the inactivity time is adjusted from 10 seconds to 7 seconds and the number of concurrent users decreases to 100 or less, the controller 120 may increase the inactivity time from 7 seconds to 10 seconds.

Fig. 5 illustrates the adjustment of the inactivity time according to the present invention in the course of time.

As shown, it is assumed that the number of concurrent users in the initial cell gradually increases at 100 or less, and the initial inactivity time is 10 seconds.

Thereafter, when the number of concurrent users reaches 100 at time t1, the controller 120 adjusts the inactivity time from 10 seconds to 7 seconds as described in Fig. 3B.

Thereafter, when the number of concurrent connections continuously increases and reaches 150 at time t2, the control unit 120 can further lower the inactivity time from 7 seconds to 3 seconds.

When the inactivity time is reduced from t2 to t3 for a predetermined time, for example, 1 hour, to t3, the controller 120 can recover the inactivity time from 3 seconds to 10 seconds again.

At this time, the result of calculating the number of concurrent users of the calculating unit 110 at the time t3 is checked again. If the threshold is 100 to 150, the inactivity time can be adjusted from 3 seconds to 7 seconds. Or more, the inactivity time may be maintained at 3 seconds.

As described above, maintaining the inactivity time for a predetermined period of time causes a problem that the inactivity time is adjusted too often when fluctuations occur largely around the threshold because the variation is very large even when the number of concurrent users is checked in units of one second It is because.

In addition, since it is common that a large number of terminal users are gathered at a specific time of day, the inactivity time is adjusted downward and then maintained for about one hour so that a large number of terminals 200 can be simultaneously accessed. And restoring the inactivity time again to maintain system stabilization.

The terminal connection time adjustment apparatus 100 according to the present invention dynamically adjusts the inactivity time of the terminal 200 connected to the base station according to the number of simultaneous users in the cell, It is possible to connect the terminal 200 that is trying to establish a new call in the situation and to reduce the burden on the system side due to excessive RRC connection.

6 is a flowchart illustrating a method of adjusting a terminal connection time of a mobile communication system according to the present invention.

The mobile communication system according to the present invention includes at least one terminal and a terminal connection time adjustment device (100).

When the terminal attempts to establish a call connection, it forms an RRC (Radio Resource Control) with the terminal connection time adjustment unit 100 and maintains the connection during the call connection time and the inactivity time.

Herein, the call connection time refers to the time required for the terminal to terminate the call connection due to the request of the terminal or the call drop, from the time when the terminal joins the RRC to connect the initial call, and the inactivity time ) Means the time taken to complete the RRC between the base station and the mobile station after the call is terminated.

The terminal connection time adjustment apparatus 100 calculates the number of terminals simultaneously connected in one cell (S110).

Next, it is determined whether the number of simultaneously connected terminals is equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold (S120).

Here, the threshold value can be determined by comparing the burden on the system due to the RRC attempt, which increases with the decrease of the inactivity time, and the possibility that the number of concurrent users may increase as the inactivity time decreases.

If it is determined that the number of simultaneously connected terminals is equal to or greater than the threshold, the terminal connection time adjustment apparatus 100 adjusts the inactivity time (S130).

4, when the initial inactivity time is set to 10 seconds and the threshold value is set to 100, when the number of simultaneously connected terminals reaches 100, the inactivity time is changed from 10 seconds to 7 seconds Can be adjusted.

Thus, the number of simultaneously connectable terminals can be increased.

In addition, the terminal connection time adjustment apparatus 100 according to the present invention can adjust the inactivity time step by step as the number of terminals connected at the same time increases.

Specifically, the threshold value can be set to various values, and the inactivity time can be adjusted step by step as each threshold value is exceeded.

As illustrated in FIG. 4, if the number of simultaneously connected terminals increases to 150 after the inactivity time is adjusted to 7 seconds, the inactivity time can be adjusted from 7 seconds to 3 seconds again.

In addition, if the inactivity time is adjusted from 10 seconds to 7 seconds and the number of concurrent users decreases to 100 or less, the terminal connection time adjusting apparatus 100 may increase the inactivity time from 7 seconds to 10 seconds.

The terminal connection time adjusting apparatus 100 may restore or reset the inactivity time after a predetermined time has elapsed (S140) after adjusting the inactivity time (S150).

5, when the inactivity time reaches t3 for a predetermined time, for example, one hour, at t2, which is adjusted down to 3 seconds, the terminal connection time adjustment apparatus 100 changes the inactivity time from 3 seconds to 3 seconds It can recover to its original state in 10 seconds.

At this time, the result of the concurrent user count calculation is checked again at time t3, and if the threshold is 100 to 150, the inactivity time can be adjusted from 3 seconds to 7 seconds. If the calculation result is maintained at 150 or more, The inactivity time may be maintained at 3 seconds.

As described above, maintaining the inactivity time for a predetermined period of time causes a problem that the inactivity time is adjusted too often when fluctuations occur largely around the threshold because the variation is very large even when the number of concurrent users is checked in units of one second It is because.

In addition, since it is common that a large number of terminal users are gathered at a specific time of day, the inactivity time is adjusted to be lowered for 1 hour so that many terminals can be simultaneously accessed. Then, So as to maintain system stability.

The method of adjusting a terminal access time of a mobile communication system according to the present invention is a method of adjusting the inactivity time of a terminal connected to a base station according to the number of concurrent accesses in a cell, It is possible to connect a terminal newly attempting a call connection and reduce the load on the system side due to excessive RRC connection.

While the present invention has been described in connection with what is presently considered to be practical exemplary embodiments, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the disclosed embodiments, but, on the contrary, . Therefore, it should be understood that the above-described embodiments are illustrative in all aspects and not restrictive. The scope of the present invention is defined by the appended claims rather than the detailed description and all changes or modifications derived from the meaning and scope of the claims and their equivalents are to be construed as being included within the scope of the present invention do.

100: Terminal connection time adjustment device 110:
120: control unit 200:

Claims (6)

An apparatus for adjusting an inactivity time of a terminal connected to a base station,
A calculation unit for calculating the number of terminals simultaneously connected to the base station; And
And a control unit for determining whether the number of terminals calculated by the calculation unit is equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold value and adjusting the inactivity time of the terminal.
The method according to claim 1,
Wherein,
And adjusts the inactivity time step by step according to the number of terminals simultaneously accessing the base station.
The method according to claim 1,
Wherein,
A terminal connection time adjustment unit for adjusting the inactivity time to a predetermined value for a predetermined time when the number of terminals calculated by the calculation unit is equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold value and restoring or restoring the inactivity time when the predetermined time has elapsed, .
A method for adjusting an inactivity time of a terminal connected to a base station,
Calculating a number of terminals simultaneously accessing the base station; And
Determining whether the calculated number of terminals is equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold, and adjusting the inactivity time of the terminal.
5. The method of claim 4,
Wherein adjusting the inactivity time comprises:
And adjusting the inactivity time stepwise according to the number of terminals simultaneously accessing the base station.
5. The method of claim 4,
Adjusting the inactivity time to a predetermined value for a predetermined time when the number of terminals simultaneously accessing the base station is equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold and recovering or re-adjusting the inactivity time when the predetermined time has elapsed A terminal access time adjustment method of the mobile communication system.

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