WO2010081383A1

WO2010081383A1 - Method and apparatus for generating an update indication signaling of a multimedia broadcast multicast service control signaling

Info

Publication number: WO2010081383A1
Application number: PCT/CN2009/076291
Authority: WO
Inventors: 苟伟
Original assignee: 中共通珮股份有限公司
Priority date: 2009-01-13
Filing date: 2009-12-30
Publication date: 2010-07-22
Also published as: CN101778340A

Abstract

The present invention provides a method and apparatus for generating an update indication signaling of a Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service (MBMS) control signaling. The method includes that in a Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service (MBMS) area, a control plane logical entity of MBMS generates an update indication signaling for indicating whether the MBMS control signaling has been updated. The apparatus includes a determination module, a generation module, a storage module and a transmission module. The present invention can reduce unnecessary transmission times of the MBMS control signaling. A combination of the invention and the current Long Term Evolution (LTE) standards makes the generation of the MBMS control signaling more reasonable.

Description

Method and device for generating update indication signaling of MBMS control signaling

Technical field

The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for generating update indication signaling of Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service (MBMS) control signaling.

Background technique

With the rapid development of the Internet and the popularity of large-screen multi-function mobile phones, a large number of mobile data multimedia services and various high-bandwidth multimedia services have emerged, such as video conferencing, television broadcasting, video on demand, advertising, online education, interactive games, and the like. This aspect meets the rising business needs of mobile users and brings new business growth points to mobile operators. These mobile data multimedia services require multiple users to receive the same data at the same time, and have the characteristics of large data volume, long duration, and delay sensitivity compared with general data services.

In order to effectively utilize mobile network resources, the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) proposes MBMS, which is a technology for transmitting data from one data source to multiple targets, and realizes the network. The sharing of resources (including the core network and the access network) improves the utilization of network resources (especially air interface resources). MBMS defined by 3GPP can not only realize plain text low-rate message class multicast and broadcast, but also realize high-speed multimedia service broadcast and multicast, providing a variety of rich video, audio and multimedia services, which undoubtedly conforms to future mobile The trend of data development provides a better business prospect for the development of 3G.

In the Long Term Evolution (LTE) system, MBMS is determined to be semi-static according to the characteristics of MBMS, mainly because the MBMS service volume is basically fixed, and the resource location and size allocated to the MBMS are basically the same. The MBMS area remains basically unchanged, and the number of MBMS services in the area is basically unchanged. The scheduling information of the MBMS on the Broadcast Control Channel (BCCH) is changed slowly, and the MBMS control signaling is The update is slower. These are all determined by the characteristics of MBMS itself. In LTE, the design of the Multicast Control Channel (MCCH) is divided into a Primary Multicast Control Channel (Primary MCCH, P-MCCH for short) and a Secondary Multicast Control Channel (Secondary MCCH, S-referred to as S-. MCCH), the signaling on these control channels includes scheduling configuration signaling and P-MCCH signaling of P-MCCH transmitted in multi-cell mode, scheduling configuration signaling of P-MCCH transmitted in multi-cell mode, and S-MCCH Signaling, S-MCCH signaling includes MBMS control signaling of MBMS service data packets.

At present, the terminal has to receive the MBMS data of its own interest, and must receive a series of MBMS control signaling to know the resource location of the MBMS data. The change of these MBMS control signaling is slow, that is, the data packet sent this time and the last transmitted data packet use the same MBMS control signaling, so that the MBMS control signaling may not undergo any update for a long time. If the terminal receives the MBMS control signaling every time, frequent reception wastes the power of the terminal.

Summary of the invention

The technical problem to be solved by the present invention is to provide a method and a device for generating update indication signaling of MBMS control signaling, which can reduce unnecessary transmission times of MBMS control signaling, and can further generate MBMS control signaling by combining current LTE standards. Reasonable.

According to the above analysis, it is not necessary for the terminal to receive the MBMS control signaling every time, and only needs to update the MBMS control signaling when the MBMS control signaling is updated. Therefore, the update indication signaling of the MBMS control signaling can be introduced to indicate to the terminal whether the MBMS control signaling is updated. The present invention uses the Multi-cell/Multicast Coordination Entity (MCE) in LTE or an equivalent entity in other systems to generate the update indication signaling to reduce MBMS control signaling. The number of transmissions necessary.

In order to solve the above problem, the present invention provides a method for generating an update indication signaling of multimedia broadcast and multicast service control signaling, including:

In a multicast broadcast and multicast service MBMS area, an update indication signaling for indicating whether MBMS control signaling is updated is generated by a control plane logical entity of the MBMS.

Further, the foregoing update indication signaling generating method may further include the following steps: Determining, by the logic entity, whether the MBMS control signaling needs to be updated, if an update is required, generating update indication signaling indicating that the MBMS control signaling is updated, and new MBMS control signaling; if not, generating only the indication The update indication signaling of the MBMS control signaling does not occur.

Further, the step of the control plane logic entity determining whether the MBMS control signaling needs to be updated includes:

The logic entity determines that the parameter on which the MBMS control signaling is generated has changed and the change will cause the MBMS control signaling content to change, and determines that the MBMS control signaling needs to be updated, otherwise the MBMS control signaling does not need to be updated.

Further, the parameters according to the MBMS control signaling are generated by one or more of a service quality QoS of the service, a current data packet size to be transmitted, and a scheduling period.

If the update indication signaling for indicating that the MBMS control signaling is updated only indicates the update of the MBMS control signaling caused by the MBMS service session start factor, the control plane logic entity determines the MBMS control only according to the MBMS session start request. Whether signaling needs to be updated.

Further, the foregoing update indication signaling generating method may further have the following features.

The multicast broadcast and multicast service area is a multicast broadcast single frequency network area in a long term evolution system, and the control plane logical entity is a multi-cell broadcast multicast coordination entity; or

The multicast broadcast and multicast service area is a multicast broadcast single-slot network area in a time division synchronous code division multiple access system, and the control plane logic entity is a radio network controller.

In order to solve the above problem, the present invention further provides a multi-cell broadcast multicast coordination apparatus in a long-term evolution system, the apparatus comprising a determination module, a generation module, a storage module, and a transmission module, wherein

The storage module is configured to store parameters for generating one or more multimedia broadcast and multicast service MBMS control signaling;

The determining module is configured to determine whether the MBMS control signaling needs to be updated, and transmit the determination result to the generating module; The generating module is configured to: when receiving the determination result that the MBMS control signaling is not required to be updated, generate only update indication signaling indicating that the MBMS control signaling does not occur and transmit the update indication signaling to the sending module; And when the indication of the MBMS control signaling is updated, generating the new MBMS control signaling and update indication signaling indicating that the MBMS control signaling is updated, and transmitting the update indication signaling to the sending module;

The sending module is configured to send, by the generating module, update indication signaling that indicates that the MBMS control signaling is not updated, or update indication signaling that is generated by the generating module and that is updated by the MBMS control signaling, and New MBMS control signaling is sent to the base station.

Further, the multi-cell broadcast multicast coordination device may further have the following features.

The determining module is configured to determine whether the MBMS control signaling needs to be updated by:

When it is determined that the parameter according to the MBMS control signaling has changed and the change will cause the MBMS control signaling content to change, it is determined that the MBMS control signaling needs to be updated, otherwise it is determined that the MBMS control signaling is not required to be updated.

The parameters on which the MBMS control signaling is generated include one or more of a service quality QoS of the service, a current data packet size to be transmitted, and a scheduling period.

Further, the determining module is further configured to determine whether the MBMS control signaling needs to be updated by:

If the update indication signaling used to indicate that the MBMS control signaling is updated is only indicated by

When the MBMS control signaling is updated by the MBMS service start factor, the control plane logical entity determines whether the MBMS control signaling needs to be updated only according to the MBMS session start request.

The invention generates update indication signaling of the MBMS control signaling according to whether the MBMS control signaling changes, and through detailed comparative analysis, gives a node that generates the update indication signaling to the system with the greatest benefit, thereby reducing the MBMS. Controlling the unnecessary number of transmissions of signaling, combined with the current LTE standard, can make the generation of MBMS control signaling more reasonable.

BRIEF abstract

1 is a schematic diagram of a location of an MCE node in a prior art LTE; 2 is a flowchart of a complete application of an update indication signaling of MBMS control signaling in a system according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a flowchart of generating update indication signaling of MBMS control signaling according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Preferred embodiment of the invention

This embodiment provides a method for generating update indication signaling of MBMS control signaling in a multicast broadcast and multicast service area. A further problem to be solved is that the update of the MBMS control signaling indicates at which node the signaling is generated? There are multiple related nodes in the system. Which node generates this MBMS control channel signaling update indication signaling will bring greater benefits to the system?

In LTE, the multicast broadcast and multicast service area is called a multicast broadcast single frequency network (Multicast).

Broadcast Single Frequency Network (MBSFN) area, through analysis, the node that is considered to generate the update indication signaling of the MBMS control signaling may be a multi-cell/multicast coordination entity (MCE), a base station, After the MBMS gateway and other newly added nodes, the MBMS gateway and other new nodes can be excluded after preliminary comparison. The reasons are as follows:

The MBMS gateway can generate the update indication signaling of the MBMS control signaling, but it belongs to the core network side. In order to make the network structure simple and easy to manage, the core network side preferably does not participate in the generation of the resource scheduling configuration signaling on the wireless side, so Will not participate in generating its update indication signaling, so the MBMS gateway is not suitable for generating update indication signaling for MBMS control signaling;

Of course, the system can also add a new node to generate update indication signaling for MBMS control signaling, but this method will encounter great resistance in the standard advancement process, because when the system has equivalent functions, When an existing node can perform this function well, other similar new nodes are generally not introduced.

The update indication signaling for MBMS control signaling is generated by each base station and analyzed by the MCE as follows:

First introduce the location of the MCE in the system and the current functions. Referring to the existing LTE network architecture shown in Figure 1, the MCE belongs to the logical entity of the MBMS control plane and takes up the MBMS control signaling of the core network sent by the MBMS gateway. , down and participate in MBMS within the MBSFN area All base stations sent are connected. The actual function is to coordinate the cooperation of multiple base stations in a certain area in the MBSFN mode, and to uniformly generate the scheduling configuration information of the MBMS for the relevant base stations in the MBSFN area. The signaling flow of the current MBMS control plane in LTE is shown by the thick line in FIG.

If the update indication signaling of the MBMS control signaling is generated by the relevant base station in the MBSFN area, the MCE is only responsible for generating the MBMS control signaling, regardless of whether the control signaling generated this time and the control signaling generated last time are consistent, thus, For MBMS control signaling, the MCE generates a large amount of repeated MBMS control signaling and sends it to the relevant base station. After receiving and parsing the MBMS control signaling, each base station passes the last MBMS control stored locally with the base station. After the signaling is compared, the update indication signaling of the MBMS control signaling is generated and sent to the terminal. Since the MCE manages a large number of base stations in a large range, the original load is relatively large, and the MBMS control signaling is generated by the relevant base station. The advantage of the update indication signaling is that the MCE function is simple, and the load of the MCE is reduced. If the update indication signaling of the MBMS control signaling is generated by the MCE in the MBSFN area, it is determined whether new MBMS control signaling needs to be generated. If it does not need to be generated (MBMS control signaling does not need to regenerate new MBMS control signaling most of the time), then M The CE only generates the update indication signaling of the MBMS control signaling (the update indication signaling of the MBMS control signaling is relatively small), and sends the information to the relevant base station, and the base station determines, according to the update indication signaling, whether it needs to receive the new sent by the MCE. The MBMS control signaling, if the update indication signaling indicates that no update has occurred, the base station invokes the last stored MBMS control signaling locally, otherwise, receives the new MBMS control signaling sent by the MCE.

Therefore, if the update indication signaling of the MBMS control signaling is generated by the MCE, the MCE can be prevented from generating the MBMS control signaling that is not updated again, thereby reducing the transmission of the MBMS control signaling, and since the MCE is uniformly processed in each area than the respective base stations The reliability of the separate processing is high, and the reliability of the signaling processing can also be improved. Therefore, in this embodiment, the MCE is used to generate the update indication signaling.

In this embodiment, the MCE determines the scheduling period of each MBMS according to the media type of all MBMSs in the MBSFN area, the average data rate, and the physical resources of the multimedia broadcast multicast allocated by the system. The media types include text, audio, video, graphics, and binary data, etc., because the same media type also has a large difference in average data rates (such as normal audio, high quality sound) Frequency, stereo), so the configuration period and the number and location of transmissions on physical resources within an MBMS modification period are further determined based on the average data rate of the service.

The MCE further combines the quality of service (QoS) of the service with the size of the data packet to be transmitted to uniformly configure MBMS control signaling for each data packet of each MBMS, and the MBMS control signaling includes at least each base station sending Time-frequency resource information (transmission time and transmission frequency) used by each MBMS data packet, modulation information of each data packet, and coding rate information of each data packet. The MCE uniformly configures the MBMS control signaling to ensure that in the MBMS area, the physical signals transmitted by each MBMS packet on the antenna of each base station are exactly the same every moment, so that each base station is always present. The transmitted electromagnetic wave signals used to carry the same MBMS data can be naturally superimposed in the air to increase the signal power.

It is assumed that base stations in one MBSFN area participate in the transmission of MBMS in the multi-cell mode in the MBSFN area. The update process of MBMS control signaling indicates the complete application process of signaling in the system as shown in Figure 2:

Step 110: The MCE determines whether it is the first time to configure the MBMS control signaling for the MBMS data packet, if yes, go to step 120, if no, go to step 130;

Step 120: The MCE configures MBMS control signaling for the current to-be-transmitted data packet of the MBMS in the area;

Step 130: The MCE determines whether the MBMS control signaling needs to be updated, if yes, go to step 140, if no, go to step 150;

In this embodiment, the MCE determines whether the parameter according to the MBMS control signaling configured by the data packet changes and the change will cause the MBMS control signaling content to change. If yes, it is determined that the MBMS control signaling needs to be updated, otherwise There is no need to update the MBMS control signaling. These parameters include one or more of the QoS of the service, the size of the data packet to be transmitted, and the scheduling period. Further, there are: MBMS SESSION START REQUEST (MBMS Session Start Request), MBMS SESSION STOP REQUEST (MBMS Session Stop Request) , MBMS SCHEDULING INFORMATION, M2 SETUP RESPONSE. For the function and specific content of these messages, refer to the description in LTE's 36.443 protocol. When the update indication signaling of the MBMS control signaling indicates the update of the MBMS control signaling caused by any factor, if any of the above factors is updated, it is determined as The MBMS control signaling needs to be updated; if the update indication signaling of the MBMS control signaling only indicates the update caused by the start of the MBMS service session, then the update indication signaling determines the MBMS control signal only according to whether the MBMS SESSION START REQUEST needs to be updated. Whether the update is needed and the corresponding update indication signaling is generated. If the MCE determines that the MBMS control signaling needs to be updated by whether the above factors occur, the new MBMS control signaling is generated, and the update indication signaling indicating that the MBMS control signaling is updated, otherwise the generated MBMS control signaling is not updated. The update indicates signaling and uses the last MBMS control signaling.

In another embodiment of the invention, please refer to FIG. After determining the scheduling period in the same manner, the MCE combines the QoS of the MBMS with the size of the data packet to be transmitted in the MCE to become the MBMS control signaling of the MBMS packet configuration, and then the MBMS control signaling generated this time is The MBMS control signaling configured for the MBMS data packet is compared to determine whether the MBMS control signaling is updated. If an update occurs, an update indication signal is generated for the control signaling update of the MBMS data packet to be sent. Otherwise, an update indication signaling indicating that the MBMS control signaling has not been updated is generated.

Step 140: The MCE generates a new MBMS control signaling for the current to-be-transmitted data packet of the MBMS, and generates update indication signaling indicating that the MBMS control signaling is updated, and sends the two to the related base station.

Of course, if it is the first time to configure MBMS control signaling for the MBMS packet, since the MBMS control signaling has been generated in step 120, there is no need to regenerate at this step.

Step 150: After receiving the new MBMS control signaling and the update indication signaling, the base station parses, and reassembles the signaling according to the format agreed by the terminal, and performs step 170;

Step 160: For the current to-be-transmitted data packet of the MBMS, the MCE does not generate new MBMS control signaling, only generates update indication signaling indicating that the MBMS control signaling does not occur, and sends the update indication signaling to the relevant base station. ;

Step 170: After receiving the update indication signaling, the base station performs parsing, and reassembles the last received MBMS control signaling and the current update indication signaling according to a format agreed by the terminal;

Step 180: The base station sends the reassembly signaling to the terminal to complete the application.

The base station receives the MCE configured for each MBMS data packet to be sent this time. After the MBMS control signaling and/or the update indication indication of the MBMS control signaling is parsed, the MBMS data packet to be transmitted is reorganized into MBMS control signaling and/or the MBMS according to a format recognizable by the terminal. The update signaling of the control signaling indicates signaling. Specifically, the method includes: parsing the updated MBMS control signaling sent by the MCE, and reassembling the data format that can be recognized by the terminal; when the update indication signaling of the MBMS control signaling sent by the MCE indicates that no update occurs, the application can be directly used. The MBMS control signaling of the last transmitted data packet; and the update indication signaling of the MBMS control signaling that the corresponding terminal can listen to, according to the format and requirements of the update indication signaling of the MBMS control signaling monitored by the terminal .

After receiving the MBMS control signaling configured by the MCE for each MBMS data packet to be sent and/or the update indication signaling of the MBMS control signaling, the base station may parse the control signaling format terminal formed by the MCE ( That is to say, the MCE and the terminal have the same protocol stack, and then the base station directly forwards and receives the signaling to the terminal, which can save the process of parsing and reorganizing the base station.

The update indication signaling of the MBMS control signaling monitored by the terminal refers to, firstly, a data format that the terminal can recognize, and secondly, a signaling that is sent on the resource that the system monitors the update indication signaling of the MBMS control signaling.

The base station transmits the MBMS control signaling of the MBMS data packet to be transmitted, which is finally formed, on the specified resource, and transmits the update indication signaling of the MBMS control signaling of the MBMS data packet to be transmitted on the specified resource.

The above operation processing is performed on each data packet of the MBMS to be transmitted this time.

Corresponding to the above method, the embodiment further provides an entity for generating update indication signaling of the MBMS control signaling, where the entity is a logical entity of the MBMS control plane, and upwardly supports the MBMS gateway, and connects all the base stations participating in the MBMS transmission downward. In this embodiment, the entity is an MCE, and the entity includes a determining module, a generating module, a sending module, and a storage module.

The judging module is configured to determine whether it is necessary to update the MBMS control signaling configured for the MBMS data packet, and determine the result to the generating module. Specifically, it may be determined whether the parameter according to the MBMS control signaling is changed, and the change will cause the MBMS control signaling content to change. If yes, it is determined that the MBMS control signaling needs to be updated, otherwise the MBMS does not need to be updated. Control signaling. The generating module is configured to, when receiving an indication that the MBMS control signaling is not required to be updated, generate update indication signaling indicating that the MBMS control signaling has not been updated and transmit the same to the transmitting module; when receiving an indication that the MBMS control signaling needs to be updated And generating new MBMS control signaling configured for the data packet and update indication signaling indicating that the MBMS control signaling is updated and transmitting to the sending module.

The sending module is configured to send the generated update indication signaling, or the update indication signaling, and the MBMS control signaling configured for the MBMS data packet to the relevant base station;

The storage module is configured to store the parameters according to the MBMS control signaling configured for the data packet, including the QoS of the service, the data packet size to be transmitted, and the scheduling period.

The invention has the advantages of realizing unified processing of the MCE, reducing the amount of data transmitted by the MCE to the terminal, avoiding the respective processing of the relevant base stations, and reducing the possibility of error in signaling transmission and processing.

In other embodiments of the present invention, the MCE may perform one or more of other control signaling, such as scheduling configuration signaling of the P-MCCH sent in the multi-cell mode and P-MCCH signaling sent by the multi-cell mode. The scheduling configuration signaling of the S-MCCH transmitted in the multi-cell mode may also be processed in the same manner as the control signaling configured for the data packet, that is, it is first determined whether the control signaling needs to be updated, and if necessary, the MCE Corresponding control signaling and update indication signaling indicating that the control signaling is updated are generated. If not, the MCE only generates update indication signaling indicating that the control signaling has not been updated. The MCE then sends the generated update indication signaling, or the generated update indication signaling and control signaling, to the relevant base station. The update indication signaling of the control signaling is generated on the MCE, and the effect is the same as the MBMS control signaling configured to be configured as MBMS data on the MCE, and details are not described herein again.

The above is only a preferred embodiment of the present invention, but the scope of the present invention is not limited thereto, and any person skilled in the art can easily think of changes or within the technical scope disclosed by the present invention. Alternatives are intended to be covered by the scope of the present invention. Therefore, the scope of the invention should be determined by the scope of the claims.

Industrial applicability

Compared with the prior art, the present invention generates update indication signaling of MBMS control signaling according to whether the MBMS control signaling changes, and gives a detailed indication and analysis to generate the update indication signal that can maximize the benefit to the system. The nodes of the order reduce the unnecessary number of transmissions of the MBMS control signaling, and the generation of the MBMS control signaling can be made more reasonable in combination with the current LTE standard.

Claims

Claim

A method for generating an update indication signaling for multimedia broadcast and multicast service control signaling, comprising: generating, in a MBMS area of a multicast broadcast and multicast service, a control plane logical entity of the MBMS for indicating an MBMS control signal Lets update update indication signaling occur.

2. The method of generating an update indication signaling according to claim 1, further comprising:

The control plane logic entity determines whether the MBMS control signaling needs to be updated, and if necessary, generates update indication signaling indicating that the MBMS control signaling is updated, and new MBMS control signaling; if not, only generates a representation The updated indication signaling of the MBMS control signaling does not occur.

3. The update indication signaling generating method according to claim 2, wherein

The step of the control plane logic entity determining whether the MBMS control signaling needs to be updated includes:

If the control plane logic entity determines that the parameter according to the MBMS control signaling is changed and the change causes the content of the MBMS control signaling to change, it is determined that the MBMS control signaling needs to be updated, otherwise the judgment is not The MBMS control signaling needs to be updated.

4. The update indication signaling generating method according to claim 3, wherein

The parameter according to the MBMS control signaling is one or more of a service quality QoS, a current data packet size to be transmitted, and a scheduling period.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein

The update indication signaling generating method according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the multicast broadcast and multicast service area is a multicast broadcast single frequency network area in a long term evolution system, The control plane logical entity is a multi-cell broadcast multicast coordination entity.

A multi-cell broadcast multicast coordination apparatus in a long-term evolution system, the apparatus comprising a determination module, a generation module, a storage module, and a transmission module, where

The storage module is configured to store parameters according to MBMS control signaling for generating multimedia broadcast and multicast services;

The determining module is configured to determine whether the MBMS control signaling needs to be updated, and transmit the determination result to the generating module;

The generating module is configured to: when receiving the determination result that the MBMS control signaling is not required to be updated, generate only update indication signaling indicating that the MBMS control signaling has not been updated and transmit the update indication signaling to the sending module; When the indication of the control signaling is generated, new MBMS control signaling and update indication signaling indicating that the MBMS control signaling is updated are generated and transmitted to the sending module;

8. The multi-cell broadcast multicast coordination apparatus according to claim 7, wherein

If it is determined that the parameter according to the generation of the MBMS control signaling has changed and the change will cause the content of the MBMS control signaling to change, it is determined that the MBMS control signaling needs to be updated, otherwise it is determined that the MBMS control does not need to be updated. Signaling.

9. The multi-cell broadcast multicast coordination apparatus according to claim 8, wherein

10. The multi-cell broadcast multicast coordination apparatus according to claim 7, wherein

The determining module is further configured to determine whether the MBMS control signaling needs to be updated by: