WO2012159384A1

WO2012159384A1 - Method and system for counting multimedia broadcast and multicast services

Info

Publication number: WO2012159384A1
Application number: PCT/CN2011/078744
Authority: WO
Inventors: 马子江; 杜晓; 许辉; 王斌; 苟伟
Original assignee: 中兴通讯股份有限公司
Priority date: 2011-05-26
Filing date: 2011-08-23
Publication date: 2012-11-29
Also published as: CN102802123B; CN102802123A

Abstract

Disclosed are a method and a system for counting multimedia broadcast and multicast services. The method includes: when an MCE begins to count the MBMSs, the corresponding counting result waiting unit can be started up; and if the MCE does not receive the counting result reported by a base station when the counting result waiting unit has timed out, then ending the current counting process. The method and system in the present invention can define the counting process of the MBMS service and ensure the MCE is able to complete the counting process within a certain time, thus ensuring that the MCE will not enter a long time wait process nor affect the subsequent counting process on the basis of ensuring smooth execution of the MBMS counting process, thereby reducing the time delay of the system and improving user experience.

Description

Method and system for realizing multimedia broadcast multicast service counting

The present invention relates to the field of communications, and in particular, to a method and system for implementing multimedia broadcast multicast service counting. Background technique

In order to effectively utilize mobile network resources, the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) proposes Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service (MBMS), which involves moving from one data source to multiple targets. The technology of transmitting data by the terminal realizes the sharing of network resources (including the core network and the access network), and improves the utilization of network resources (especially air interface resources). The MBMS service 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, and provide a variety of rich video, audio and multimedia services, which undoubtedly conforms to the future. The trend of mobile data development provides a better business prospect for the development of 3G.

Currently, MBMS technology has been introduced in R (Release) 9 Long Time Evolution (LTE) and has been enhanced in the R10 version. The MBMS system architecture introduced by R9 is shown in Figure 1. It is broadcast-multicast service center (BM-SC), MBMS-GW (MBMS-GW, MBMS GateWay), and mobile management entity (MME, Mobility Management). Entity ), Multi-cell/Multicast Coordination Entity (MCE) and evolved Node B (eNB). For convenience of description, the following are referred to as base stations, whether they are evolved base stations or ordinary base stations.

In R9, the control signaling of the MBMS service is transmitted separately from the user data, which are called Control Plane (CP) and User Plane (UP, User Plane). MBMS control signaling The BM-SC sends the MME to the MME. The MME sends the MME to the MME through the Sm interface. The MME sends the MCE to the MCE through the M3 interface. The MCE sends the message to the eNB through the M2 interface. UE, User Equipment). The MBMS user data is directly sent to the base station through the M1 interface on the BM-SC, and then transmitted by the base station to the UE through the air interface Uu. MCE is mainly responsible for access control and resource allocation for MBMS services, and is an entity specifically used to control MBMS services.

In the R10 MBMS system, the MBMS counting mechanism is introduced. The principle of the MBMS counting mechanism is shown in Figure 2. It includes the MBMS counting request process and counting process on the M2 interface, and the MBMS counting process on the air interface. The specific principles are as follows:

The MBMS counting request process on the M2 interface: The MCE initiates the MBMS service counting request process on the M2 interface, and triggers the base station in the MBSF over a Single Frequency Network (MBSFN) to initiate the MBMS counting in the air interface. Request process. Specifically, the MCE sends an MBMS Service Counting Request message to the base station in the control area through the M2 interface, and the base station sends an MBMS Service Counting Response (MBMS Service Counting Response) or the MBMS service count failure (MBMS) to the MCE through the M2 interface. Service Counting Failure ) message.

MBMS counting process on the air interface: The base station sends an MBMS Counting Request message to the UE on the air interface Uu, and the message is carried on the Multicast Control Channel (MCCH), which contains the temporary mobile group identifier of the MBMS service to be counted. (TMGI, Temporary Mobile Group Identity). The connected state of the MBMS service that is receiving or interested in receiving the count request sends a MBMS Counting Response message to the base station, and reports the MBMS service being received or interested in receiving.

The MBMS count result reporting process on the M2 interface: The base station sends an MBMS Counting Results Report message to the MCE, and reports the result to the MCE. The main purpose of the MBMS import counting mechanism in RIO is to enable operators to count the number of users of certain MBMS services, activate/deactivate corresponding services according to the number of users, and improve the utilization of wireless resources.

Currently, the reception status of 16 MBMS services is counted at most once during each counting process. If more than 16 services need to be counted, multiple counting processes are required; and when the current counting process is not completed, the next counting process cannot be started, that is, only the MCE receives the current counting process of the base station (the current counting process means that the MCE is After the counting result of the counting process performed, the next counting process is started.

It should be noted that a complete counting process includes a counting request process on the M2 interface, a counting process on the air interface Uu, and a flow of the counting result reporting process on the final M2 interface, such as the MBMS counting request process shown in FIG. 1 . The MBMS counting process 1 on the air interface and the flow of the MBMS counting result reporting process 1 are the counting process 1. In FIG. 3, after the MCE initiates the MBMS count request process 1 and receives the count result reported by the base station's MBMS count result reporting process 1, the MCE may continue to initiate a subsequent MBMS count process, such as MBMS count process 2. However, when the abnormality of the counting process 1 occurs for some reason, the MBMS counting result reporting process 1 of the base station fails, according to the current mechanism, the MCE will continue to wait for the MBMS counting result reporting process 1 of the base station to report the counting result. Since the base station reports the result of counting to the MCE using the type 2 (class2) message without the acknowledgment message, the base station does not know whether the MCE receives the counting result, thereby causing the counting process to fall into an abnormal state, and the MCE cannot start the next counting process.

In addition, since one MBSFN area contains many base stations, some base stations may report the counting result failure, or some base stations may take a long time to report the counting result due to the distance from the MCE, as shown in FIG. 4 . At this time, the MCE will not be able to receive the counting result reported by these base stations, or it takes a long time to receive the counting result reported by some base stations. This will cause the MCE to wait for a long time, which makes the MBMS counting process take a long time. Causes large delays that affect system performance and user experience. Summary of the invention

In view of the above, the main purpose of the present invention is to provide a method and a system for implementing a multimedia broadcast multicast service, so that when the MCE does not receive the counting result reported by the base station within a certain period of time, the current counting process can be ended in time. Ensure that the MBMS service counting mechanism works normally.

In order to achieve the above object, the technical solution of the present invention is achieved as follows:

A method for implementing multimedia broadcast multicast service counting includes:

When the multi-cell/multicast cooperative entity MCE starts the MBMS counting process of the multimedia broadcast multicast service, the corresponding counting result waiting unit is started;

If the MCE still does not receive the counting result reported by the base station when the counting result waiting unit times out, the current counting process is ended.

The counting result waiting unit is a timer or a counter;

The counting result waiting unit has the same timing time for all of the MBMS counting processes, or for some of the MBMS counting processes therein;

The timing is set according to system requirements, or in units of multicast control channel modification period MCCH MP.

The base station is a base station in the MBSFN area of the multimedia broadcast multicast single frequency network where the MBMS service is located, or a part of base stations in which the MBMS service is sent.

The MCE starts the MBMS counting process, including:

The MCE sends an MBMS service count request message to the base station through the M2 interface.

and / or,

The MCE receives the MBMS service count response message sent by the base station.

After the current counting process is ended, the method further includes: the MCE starts the next counting process. A system for implementing a multimedia broadcast multicast service count, comprising a counting result waiting unit and a counting process decision unit; wherein

The counting result waiting unit is configured to start timing when the MCE starts the MBMS counting process, and notify the counting process decision unit when the timeout occurs;

The counting process decision unit is configured to, when receiving the timeout notification of the counting result waiting unit, if the counting result reported by the base station has not been received, the current counting process is ended.

The counting result waiting unit is a timer or a counter;

The timing is set according to system requirements, or in units of MCCH MP.

The base station is a base station in the MBSFN area where the MBMS service is located, or a part of base stations in which the MBMS service is sent.

Wherein, the MCE is used to:

When the MBMS service count request message is sent to the base station through the M2 interface, it is confirmed that the MBMS counting process is started;

and / or,

Upon receiving the MBMS Service Count Response message sent by the base station, it is confirmed that the MBMS counting process is started.

After the current counting process is ended, the counting process decision unit is further configured to: start the next counting process.

The method and system of the present invention can limit the counting process of the MBMS service, ensuring that the MCE can complete the counting process within a certain time, thereby ensuring that the MCE does not enter a long wait on the basis of ensuring the smooth execution of the MBMS counting process. The process, and does not affect the progress of the subsequent counting process, thus reducing the system delay and improving the user experience. DRAWINGS

1 is a schematic structural view of an existing MBMS system;

Figure 2 is a schematic diagram of the principle of the MBMS counting mechanism;

Figure 3 is a schematic diagram of the MBMS counting process in an abnormal situation;

Figure 4 is a schematic diagram showing the counting process of the failure of the count result on some base stations;

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of a counting process of setting a counter or a timer according to an embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 6 is a flowchart of implementing multimedia broadcast multicast service counting according to an embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram of implementing multimedia broadcasting according to an embodiment of the present invention; A flow diagram of a broadcast service count; FIG. 8 is a system diagram of implementing a multimedia broadcast multicast service count according to an embodiment of the present invention. detailed description

In practical applications, when the MCE initiates the MBMS counting process, a timer or counter corresponding to the counting process can be set.

Specifically, the MCE initiates the MBMS service counting process, and the MCE sends an MBMS Service Counting Request message to the base station through the M2 interface, or the MCE receives the MBMS Service Counting Response message sent by the base station.

The base station refers to all base stations in the MBSFN area where the MBMS service is located to send the MBMS service. The timer or counter refers to a timing device corresponding to the counting process that is set when the MCE initiates the counting process, and the purpose thereof is to calculate the time of the counting process, and the timing of the timing device may be according to an actual application scenario. Set the system requirements, etc., or refer to other communication parameters, such as: In the multicast control channel modification period (MCCH MP, MCCH Modification Period).

In addition, when the timing time of the timer or the counter reaches the set value, if the MCE has not received the counting result reported by the base station, the MCE may end the current counting process and start the next counting process. Also, different timers or counters can be set for the MBMS counting process in different MBSFN areas. It can be seen that when the MCE starts counting process, a timer or a counter can be set to calculate the time of the counting process. After the timing of the timer or the counter reaches the set value, if the MCE has not received the counting result reported by the base station, the MCE may start the next counting process without waiting for the base station to report the counting result. The time from the MCE to the base station to initiate the counting process to the time when the base station reports the counting result to the MCE may be calculated in units of MCCH MP, for example, may be set to 1, 2, 3 or more MCCH MPs. This can be solved by setting a timer or counter when the MBMS counting process initiated by the MCE falls into an abnormality. Moreover, by setting different values for the timer or counter timing time, the MBMS counting process can be defined to be completed within a certain period of time, reducing the delay of the system.

Specifically, as shown in FIG. 5, the MCE sets a corresponding timer or counter (in units of MCCH MP) at the same time as the MBMS counting request process 1 is initiated, and starts calculating the time of the current counting process. The specific time setting can be 1, 2, 3 or more MCCH MP. When an abnormality occurs, the reporting result of the counting result sent by the base station to the MCE is faulty, and the MCE cannot receive the counting result reported by the base station. At this point, the MCE will continue to wait for the base station to report the result. When the timer or counter timing time reaches the set value, the MCE may not continue to wait for the base station to report the count result, but re-perform the counting process or start the MBMS counting process 2. The above operations may be directed to some base stations or all base stations.

When the system configures multiple carriers, or simultaneously counts MBMS services in multiple MBSFN areas, different timers or counters can be set for the counting process of different areas to limit the time of different counting processes respectively, thereby ensuring counting. The process proceeds normally.

The present invention will be further described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Embodiment 1

The network needs to count some MBMS services sent in a certain MBSFN area to count the number of users receiving or interested in receiving these services. When the MCE initiates the MBMS count During the process, a timer or counter is set to time the counting process. When the timer time set by the timer or the counter arrives, or when the MCE receives the counting result reported by all the base stations in the MBSFN area that send the MBMS service, the MCE considers that the counting process ends and starts the subsequent counting process. Specifically, the steps included in the embodiment are described with reference to FIG. 6:

Step 101, the MCE sends an MBMS count request to the base station, and sets a timer T or a counter C;

Specifically, the base station refers to all base stations in the MBSFN area of the MBMS service that need to count to transmit the service. The timing of the timer T or the counter C may be 1 , 2, 3... MCCH MP time. Specifically, when the MCCH MP is 5.12 s, the timing of the timer T may be 5.12 s, 10.24 s, 15.36 s, etc.; when the MCCH MP is 10.24 s, the corresponding timer T The timing can be a multiple of 10.24s. The timer can be timed, that is, the timing time starts from 0 and continues to increase until the set time value is reached, such as 10.24s, etc. It can also be counted down from the initial set time value, such as 10.24s. Decrement until the time is 0. Similarly, the counter C can adopt a similar sequential counting manner, that is, an incremental manner, counting from 0 to a set MCCH MP value, such as 2 MCCH MPs; or counting by a reciprocal counting method, that is, decreasing manner , starting from the set MCCH MP, up to 0 MCCH MP. The counter C is counted in MCCH MP and can be 1, 2, 3... MCCH MP.

Step 102: The MCE determines whether the timer T or the counter C reaches the set time, or whether the MCE has received the counting result reported by the base station. If the result of the determination is yes, the process proceeds to step 104; If the result of the determination is no, proceed to step 103;

Specifically, whether the timer T reaches the set time means that the time counted by the timer when the timer is used in the sequential time mode reaches the set time value, or the time counted by the countdown mode is zero. Similarly, whether the counter C reaches the set time means that the counter is in the order The counting time in the counting mode reaches the set MCCH MP value, or the counting time when the countdown method is used reaches 0 MCCH MP. The base station refers to all the base stations in the MBSFN area that the MCE sends the MBMS counting request to send the MBMS service; the counting result refers to the UE's access to a certain service obtained by the base station through the MBMS counting process on the air interface Uu. Receive status (including statistics that are receiving the service and interested in receiving the service). The counting result reported by the base station is that all the base stations report the null to the MCE through the signaling on the M2 interface. The MCE continues the current counting process, and receives the counting result reported by the base station. After performing step 103, the monitoring needs to be continued. Whether the device T or the counter C reaches the set time value, or whether the MCE has received the counting result reported by the base station, that is, the step 102 needs to be continued.

The MCE does not receive the counting result reported by the base station, and there are two possible scenarios: One situation is that the base station has sent the counting result to the MCE, but an abnormality occurs in the transmission, and the MCE does not receive; another situation is due to The base station delays reporting the counting result because the base station is far away or the load on the M2 interface is heavy.

Step 104: The MCE ends the current counting process; if there is a subsequent counting process, the subsequent counting process is started.

With this embodiment, the counting process of the MBMS service can be limited to ensure that the MCE can complete the counting process within a certain time. In fact, the time of the counting process depends on the timer T and the smaller value of the time when the base station reports the counting result (when the counter C is used, it depends on the counter C and collecting the base station) 4) The smaller of the time of the counting result), so as to ensure the smooth execution of the MBMS counting process, it is ensured that the MCE does not enter the long waiting process and does not affect the subsequent counting process. The longer the timer T is, the more time the MCE collects the counting result reported by the base station, and the counting result is more accurate; but correspondingly, the delay of the counting process is also increased. Therefore, for the meter The length of time of the timer T needs to be considered comprehensively.

Embodiment 2

When the network simultaneously counts the MBMS services of multiple MBSFN areas, since the MPs of the MCCH have different lengths, such as 5.12s or 10.24s, different timers or counters need to be set to limit the length of different counting processes. In addition, the larger the MBSFN area (that is, the greater the number of base stations constituting the MBSFN area), the correspondingly, the longer counting process is required to ensure that the counting results of all the base stations receiving the MBMS service in the area are reported, thereby correspondingly It takes a longer timer time setting.

Specifically, different counting timers or counters may be set for each MBSFN area counting process, and the counting process is separately defined to ensure smooth counting process. The timer or counter may correspond to the MBSFN area, or may be flexibly set as needed.

For example, there are two MBSFN areas, where the MBSFN area 1 is larger, taking a 10.24s MCCH MP; while the MBSFN area 2 is relatively small, taking a 5.12s MCCH MP. When the MCE needs to count the MBMS services in the two MBSFN areas, for the MBSFN area 1, set the timer T1 or the counter C1, and the timing length is twice the MCCH MP of the MBSFN area 1, that is, 20.48s or two. MCCH MP; For a relatively small MBSFN area 2, a timer T2 or a counter C2 is set, and the timing length is twice that of the area MCCH MP, that is, 10.24 s or two MCCH MPs. When the timer T1 or the counter C1 reaches the set time value, or the MCE has received the counting result reported by the base station transmitting the MBMS service in the MBSFN area 1, the current counting process is ended, and the subsequent counting process is started; When the T1 or the counter C1 does not reach the set time value, and the MCE does not receive the count result reported by all the base stations transmitting the MBMS service in the MBSFN area 1, the current counting process is continued. Similarly, for the counting process on the MBSFN area 2, the processing method is similar, and will not be described here.

It can be seen that the second embodiment sets different timers or counters for different MBSFN areas. It is a good solution to the problem that the MCE does not receive the result of the reporting by the base station because the MCE does not receive the counting result reported by the base station, so that the subsequent counting process cannot be started. In addition, some base stations cannot report the counting result in time. The counting process delay problem is limited by a timer or a counter. When the time set by the timer or the counter arrives, some base stations have not reported the counting result, then the MCE can end the current counting process and start the subsequent counting process, thereby Limiting the MBMS counting process to a certain period of time reduces the processing delay of the system and improves the performance and user experience of the system.

It should be noted that the purpose of both the timer and the counter is to wait for the counting result for a period of time, so that a device similar to the above timer and counter can be referred to as a counting result waiting unit. In addition, the counting result waiting unit can reach the set time value or the time counting, which is called the counting result waiting unit timeout.

As shown in the above description, the operation of the present invention for implementing the multicast broadcast multicast service counting may represent the process shown in FIG. 7, and the process includes the following steps:

Step 710: When the MCE starts the MBMS counting process, the corresponding counting result waiting unit is started.

Step 720: If the MCE still does not receive the counting result reported by the base station when the counting result waiting unit times out, the current counting process ends.

In order to ensure that the above technical description and operation ideas can be smoothly implemented, the settings shown in Figure 8 can be performed. Referring to FIG. 8, FIG. 8 is a system diagram for implementing counting of multimedia broadcast multicast services according to an embodiment of the present invention, where the system includes a connected counting result waiting unit and a counting process decision unit.

In actual application, the counting result waiting unit may be a timer, a counter, or the like, for starting the timing according to the trigger of its own logic or MCE, etc. when the MCE starts the MBMS counting process, and notifying the counting process decision unit when the timeout occurs. . When the timeout notification of the counting result waiting unit is received, if the counting process decision unit has not received the counting result reported by the base station, the current counting process is ended. In summary, the method for realizing the counting of the multimedia broadcast multicast service in the present invention can limit the counting process of the MBMS service to ensure that the MCE can complete the counting process within a certain time, thereby ensuring the MBMS. On the basis of the smooth execution of the counting process, it is ensured that the MCE does not enter the long waiting process and does not affect the subsequent counting process, thereby reducing the delay of the system and improving the user experience.

The above is only the preferred embodiment of the present invention and is not intended to limit the scope of the present invention.

Claims

Claim

A method for implementing a multimedia broadcast multicast service count, comprising:

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein

The counting result waiting unit is a timer or a counter;

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the base station is a base station in the MBSFN area of the multimedia broadcast multicast single frequency network where the MBMS service is located, or a part of base stations in the MBMS service.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the MCE starts the MBMS counting process, including:

and / or,

The method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein, after ending the current counting process, the method further comprises: the MCE starting the next counting process.

6. A system for implementing a multimedia broadcast multicast service count, comprising a counting result waiting unit and a counting process decision unit; wherein

The counting result waiting unit is used to start counting when the MCE starts the MBMS counting process And notifying the counting process decision unit when the timeout occurs;

7. The system according to claim 6, wherein

The counting result waiting unit is a timer or a counter;

The timing is set according to system requirements, or in units of MCCH MP.

The system according to claim 6, wherein the base station is a base station in the MBSFN area where the MBMS service is located, or a part of the base station in which the MBMS service is sent.

9. The system of claim 6, wherein the MCE is for:

and / or,

The system according to any one of claims 6 to 9, wherein, after ending the current counting process, the counting process decision unit is further configured to: start the next counting process.