WO2013107379A1

WO2013107379A1 - Method, base station, terminal and system for cooperative work between wlan and cellular network

Info

Publication number: WO2013107379A1
Application number: PCT/CN2013/070670
Authority: WO
Inventors: 谢芳; 胡南; 胡臻平
Original assignee: 中国移动通信集团公司
Priority date: 2012-01-18
Filing date: 2013-01-18
Publication date: 2013-07-25
Also published as: CN103220786B; CN103220786A

Abstract

Provided in an embodiment of the present invention are a method, base station, terminal and system for cooperative work between a WLAN and a cellular network, comprising: when a base station determines that a terminal should access a WLAN, that is, when the WLAN is determined to be necessary for splitting cellular network service, determining WLAN deployment information; using a WLAN working frequency point as a sub-carrier; in a carrier aggregation manner, utilizing the PDCCH of the cellular network to conduct cross-carrier scheduling for the WLAN; and the terminal accesses the WLAN according to the WLAN scheduling information transmitted by the base station via the PDCCH, thus avoiding the problems of long access time and waste of system resources in the prior art when the terminal is determined to access the WLAN, and improving the speed of the terminal accessing the WLAN.

Description

Method for cooperating WLAN and cellular network, base station, terminal and system The present application claims to be submitted to the Chinese Patent Office on January 18, 2012, the application number is 201210015604.4, and the invention name is "a method for cooperative work of WLAN and cellular network" The priority of the Chinese patent application, the base station, the terminal and the system, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference. Technical field

The present invention relates to the field of wireless communication technologies, and in particular, to a method, a base station, a terminal, and a system for a wireless local area network and a cellular network to work together. Background technique

Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) has been considered as an important means of offloading cellular network services due to its operation in the 2.4GHz free band, low cost, easy deployment, and high data rate. The use of WLAN networks to offload cellular network services, especially low-value services such as streaming web browsing and instant messaging (such as QQ and MSN), can effectively reduce the burden on the cellular network, improve indoor coverage, and provide high-speed access, thereby enhancing the user experience.

Currently, the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) has defined a terminal network selection architecture based on operator strategy. The architecture is shown in Figure 1.

The Access Network Discovery and Selection Function (ANDSF) is a network element defined by the 3GPP for accessing network discovery, and provides a network selection policy (including related information for access network discovery and selection) for the terminal. The network selection policy may include network information such as available WLAN, Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (Wimax), the type of network that is preferentially accessed, and even the network identifier of the preferential access (such as the service set identifier of the WLA). (Service Set Identifier, SSID), working channel, etc., and conditions and charging policies for which the network selection policy applies and is disabled.

The manager client in the terminal is composed of a policy acquisition module, a policy matching module, a policy execution module, an automatic authentication module, and the like, and the client determines whether the terminal should access the cellular network or the WLAN according to the obtained network selection policy. The communication protocol standard between the AKDSF and the terminal is based on the Open Mobile Alliance Device Management (OMA-DM) framework.

At present, the method for offloading cellular network services by using WLAN is that the terminal determines whether the service should be connected to the WLAN or the cellular network according to the type of service initiated and the network selection policy. The cellular network and the WLAN work independently. Each time the terminal decides to access the WLAN, it must search the network, receive a beacon frame (Beacon), or send a probe frame to randomly try to access an access point (Access Point). , ΑΡ ), sometimes it may take several attempts to successfully access the ΑΡ, which takes a long time and wastes system resources and affects the user's business experience. Summary of the invention

The embodiments of the present invention provide a method, a base station, a terminal, and a system for a WLAN and a cellular network to work together to improve the speed at which a terminal accesses a WLAN.

A method for a wireless local area network WLAN and a cellular network to work together, the method comprising:

The base station determines that the terminal should access the WLAN;

The base station determines deployment information of the WLAN;

The base station determines the WLAN scheduling information according to the determined deployment information of the WLAN, and sends the WLAN scheduling information to the terminal through the physical downlink control channel PDCCH of the cellular network.

A base station, the base station includes:

a first determining unit, configured to determine that the terminal should access the wireless local area network WLAN;

a second determining unit, configured to determine deployment information of the WLAN;

And a sending unit, configured to determine WLAN scheduling information according to the determined deployment information of the WLAN, and send WLAN scheduling information to the terminal by using a physical downlink control channel PDCCH of the cellular network.

Receiving WLAN scheduling information sent by the base station through the physical downlink control channel PDCCH of the cellular network; accessing the WLAN according to the WLAN scheduling information

A terminal, the terminal includes:

a receiving unit, configured to receive wireless local area network WLAN scheduling information that is sent by the base station through a physical downlink control channel PDCCH of the cellular network;

An access unit, configured to access the WLAN according to the WLAN scheduling information.

A system in which a wireless local area network WLAN and a cellular network work together, the system comprising a base station and a terminal, wherein:

The base station is configured to determine that the terminal should access the WLAN, determine the deployment information of the WLAN, determine the WLAN scheduling information according to the determined deployment information of the WLAN, and send the WLAN scheduling information to the terminal by using the physical downlink control channel PDCCH of the cellular network;

The terminal is configured to receive wireless local area network WLAN scheduling information that is sent by the base station through the physical downlink control channel PDCCH of the cellular network, and access the WLAN according to the WLAN scheduling information.

According to the solution provided by the embodiment of the present invention, when determining that the terminal should access the WLAN, the base station determines the deployment information of the WLAN when determining that the WLAN needs to be used to offload the cellular network service, and adopts the frequency of the WLAN operation as a subcarrier. In the carrier aggregation mode, the PDCCH is used to perform cross-carrier scheduling on the WLAN, and the terminal can access the WLAN according to the WLAN scheduling information sent by the base station through the PDCCH, thereby avoiding the existence of the terminal in determining the access to the WLAN in the prior art. The problem of long access time and wasted system resources increases the speed at which the terminal accesses the WLAN. DRAWINGS

The drawings are intended to provide a further understanding of the invention, and are intended to be a part of the description of the invention. In the drawing:

1 is a schematic diagram of a terminal network selection architecture based on an operator policy defined by the 3GPP in the prior art;

2 is a schematic flowchart of a method for working in cooperation between a WLAN and a cellular network according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention; FIG. 3 is a schematic structural diagram of a base station according to Embodiment 2 of the present invention;

4 is a schematic structural diagram of a terminal according to Embodiment 3 of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a schematic structural diagram of a system in which a WLAN and a cellular network work in cooperation according to Embodiment 4 of the present invention. detailed description

A number of new technologies have been introduced in the subsequent enhanced version of 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE) (LTE-Advanced, LTE-A), and carrier aggregation technology has also been introduced as a key technology to support higher bandwidth transmission. Carrier Aggregation is based on the principle of combining two or more basic carriers to meet higher bandwidth requirements. After the carrier aggregation technology is introduced, the number of working carriers in one cell is changed from one to multiple, forming a multi-carrier communication scenario.

The solution provided by the embodiment of the present invention is based on the carrier aggregation technology. When the base station determines that the WLAN is to be used to offload the cellular network service, the frequency of the WLAN operation is used as a subcarrier to perform cross-carrier scheduling on the WLAN.

The solution of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings and embodiments.

Embodiment 1

A first embodiment of the present invention provides a method for working in cooperation between a WLAN and a cellular network. The process of the method is as shown in FIG. 2, and includes:

Step 101: The base station determines whether access to the WLAN is required.

In this step, the base station can determine whether it is necessary to use the WLAN to offload the cellular network service, and determine that the terminal should access the WLAN when it is determined that the WLAN is used to offload the cellular network service.

Specifically, the base station may, but is not limited to, determine whether the terminal should access the WLAN by using a service type to be executed in the terminal. For example, the service to be executed in the terminal is an instant communication service. For example, when the QQ chats, it is determined that the service needs to be offloaded by the WLAN, that is, the terminal should be connected to the WLAN.

Step 102: The base station determines deployment information of the WLAN.

The deployment information of the WLAN can be simply understood as the map information of the WLAN AP. The information can be stored centrally in a certain network element. For example, the WLAN AP map information of Haidian District is stored in the network management.

The base station can determine the deployment information of the WLAN in any of the following three ways:

Method 1: When determining that the terminal should access the WLAN, the base station initiates a request to the network element that saves the deployment information of the WLAN. And obtaining the deployment information of the WLAN sent by the network element as the determined deployment information of the WLAN. The second method is: the base station receives the deployment information of the WLA periodically sent by the network element, and the distance determining terminal should access

The deployment information of the WLAN received by the WLAN at the time of the WLAN is used as the deployment information of the determined WLAN. The third method is: when the base station receives the deployment information of the updated WLAN when the deployment information of the saved WLAN is updated, The deployment information of the updated WLAN received at the latest time when the terminal should access the WLAN is determined as the deployment information of the determined WLAN.

Step 103: The base station performs cross-carrier scheduling.

After obtaining the surrounding WLAN deployment information, the base station can use the frequency of the AP as a subcarrier to perform cross-carrier scheduling on the WLAN.

The step 103 may include: determining, by the base station, the WLAN scheduling information according to the determined deployment information of the WLAN, and transmitting the WLAN scheduling information to the terminal by using a Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) of the cellular network.

The information carried by the PDCCH of the existing LTE system includes one or more of the following information:

(a) information identifying the PDCCH format

(b) FM identification information

(c) Uplink resource allocation indication (using binary tree row coding)

(d) Downstream resource allocation indication

(e) modulation coding information

(f) uplink power control information

(g) Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ) related parameters

(h) Channel Quality Indicator (CQI) configuration parameters

According to different information carried by the PDCCH, the PDCCH can be classified into 10 types in the prior art. In this embodiment, in order to enable the terminal to access the WLAN faster and improve the support capability for the service when the WLAN is used to offload the cellular network data, a new PDCCH format is proposed, and the base station uses the format to implement carrier aggregation. The way to cross-carrier scheduling of WLAN networks.

The information carried in the new PDCCH format (that is, the WLAN scheduling information sent by the PDCCH) provided in this embodiment may include information indicating that the current scheduling is a WLAN carrier, and an SSID corresponding to the WLAN indicating the terminal access, indicating the terminal connection. The working channel of the incoming WLAN, at least one of the capability requirement information of the terminal accessing the WLAN. Specifically, the information carried in the new PDCCH format may include information indicating that the current scheduling is a WLAN carrier, an SSID corresponding to the WLAN indicating the terminal access, a working channel of the WLAN indicating the terminal access, and access to the WLAN. The capabilities of the terminal require information for all four types of information.

Further, any one of the remaining three types of bit combinations in the three reserved bits (bits) of the carrier indication field CIF introduced by the enhanced long-term evolution (LTE-AR10) of the tenth version may be used to indicate the current scheduling. Is WLAN Carrier information. Since at present, LTE-A R10 supports up to five 3GPP carriers for aggregation at the same time, the CIF needs 3 bit bits, and the remaining 3 bit combinations are not used, and one of them can be used to indicate the WLAN carrier information. If 000 ~ 100 represents 5 3GPP carriers, then one of the remaining 101, 110, 111 can be used to indicate that the current WLAN carrier is scheduled.

The SSID corresponding to the WLAN indicating the terminal access may occupy 16 bits;

When the WLAN adopts the IEEE 802.11n standard, since 15 non-overlapping channels are defined in the IEEE 802.11n, the working channel of the WLAN indicating the terminal access can occupy 4 bits, when the WLAN adopts the IEEE 802.11b standard. Since three non-overlapping channels are defined in IEEE 802.11n, the working channel of the WLAN indicating the terminal access can occupy 2 bits;

The capability requirement information for the terminal accessing the WLAN can occupy 16 bits. The capability requirements for the terminal may include, but are not limited to, at least one of the following: support for polling, support for Density Parity Check Code (LDPC), and support for transmitting space-time block codes (Space-Time Block Coding) , STBC), support for receiving STBC, etc.

Step 104: The terminal receives the WLAN scheduling information.

In this step, the terminal may receive WLAN scheduling information sent by the base station through the PDCCH of the cellular network. Step 105: The terminal accesses the WLAN.

In this step, the terminal may access the WLAN according to the WLAN scheduling information.

Specifically, the terminal may determine, according to the capability requirement information of the terminal that accesses the WLAN in the WLAN scheduling information, first, whether it meets the capability requirement of the terminal, and when it is determined that the capability requirement of the terminal is not met, the terminal does not need to try to connect. Into the WLAN.

According to the solution provided by the first embodiment of the present invention, the base station determines whether the terminal needs to access the WLAN, and when determining that the terminal needs to access the WLAN, performs cross-carrier scheduling on the WLAN to improve the speed at which the terminal accesses the WLAN. Further, the first embodiment provides at least three ways for the base station to obtain the deployment information of the WLAN, improves the flexibility of the base station to obtain the deployment information of the WLAN, and defines a new PDCCH format for carrying the WLAN scheduling information.

Based on the same inventive concept as the first embodiment of the present invention, the following base stations, terminals, and systems are provided.

Embodiment 2

A second embodiment of the present invention provides a base station. The structure of the base station is as shown in FIG. 3, and includes:

The first determining unit 11 is configured to determine that the terminal should access the WLAN; the second determining unit 12 is configured to determine the deployment information of the WLAN; the sending unit 13 is configured to determine the WLAN scheduling information according to the determined deployment information of the WLAN, and The PDCCH transmits WLAN scheduling information to the terminal.

The second determining unit 12 is specifically configured to determine deployment information of the WLAN by using any one of the following three methods: When determining that the terminal should access the WLA, the device sends a request to the network element that saves the deployment information of the WLAN, and uses the received deployment information of the WLAN sent by the network element as the determined deployment information of the WLAN;

Receiving the deployment information of the WLAN that is sent by the network element at a time, and determining the deployment information of the WLAN that is received by the terminal at the time when the terminal should access the WLAN as the determined deployment information of the WLAN;

The deployment information of the updated WLAN sent by the receiving network element when the saved WLAN deployment information is updated, and the deployment information of the updated WLAN received at the latest time when the terminal determines that the terminal should access the WLAN As the deployment information of the determined WLAN.

Embodiment 3

A third embodiment of the present invention provides a terminal. The structure of the terminal is as shown in FIG. 4, and includes:

The receiving unit 21 is configured to receive wireless local area network WLAN scheduling information that is sent by the base station through the PDCCH of the cellular network;

The access unit 22 is configured to access the WLAN according to the WLAN scheduling information.

Embodiment 4

Embodiment 4 of the present invention provides a system in which a WLAN and a cellular network work together. The structure of the system may be as shown in FIG. 5, including a base station 31 and a terminal 32, where:

The base station 31 is configured to determine that the terminal should access the WLAN, determine the deployment information of the WLAN, determine the WLAN scheduling information according to the determined deployment information of the WLAN, and send the WLAN scheduling information to the terminal through the physical downlink control channel PDCCH of the cellular network;

The terminal 32 is configured to receive wireless local area network WLAN scheduling information that is sent by the base station through a physical downlink control channel PDCCH of the cellular network, and access the WLAN according to the WLAN scheduling information.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate that embodiments of the present invention can be provided as a method, system, or computer program product. Accordingly, the present invention may take the form of an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment, or a combination of software and hardware. Moreover, the invention can take the form of a computer program product embodied on one or more computer-usable storage media (including but not limited to disk storage, CD-ROM, optical storage, etc.) containing computer usable program code.

The present invention has been described with reference to flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams of methods, apparatus (system), and computer program products according to embodiments of the invention. It will be understood that each process and/or block of the flowchart illustrations and/or FIG. These computer program instructions can be provided to a processor of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, embedded processor, or other programmable data processing device to produce a machine for the execution of instructions for execution by a processor of a computer or other programmable data processing device. Means for implementing the functions specified in one or more of the flow or in a block or blocks of the flow chart.

These computer program instructions can also be stored in a particular computer capable of booting a computer or other programmable data processing device In a computer readable memory that operates in a computer readable memory, causing instructions stored in the computer readable memory to produce an article of manufacture comprising instruction means implemented in a block or in a flow or in a flow chart and/or block diagram of the flowchart The functions specified in the boxes.

These computer program instructions can also be loaded onto a computer or other programmable data processing device such that a series of operational steps are performed on a computer or other programmable device to produce computer-implemented processing for execution on a computer or other programmable device. The instructions provide steps for implementing the functions specified in one or more of the flow or in a block or blocks of a flow diagram.

Although the preferred embodiment of the invention has been described, it will be apparent to those skilled in the < Therefore, the appended claims are intended to be construed as including the preferred embodiments and the modifications

It is apparent that those skilled in the art can make various modifications and variations to the invention without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Thus, it is intended that the present invention cover the modifications and modifications of the invention

Claims

Rights request

A wireless local area network WLAN and a cellular network work together, the method comprising: the base station determining that the terminal should access the WLAN;

The base station determines deployment information of the WLAN;

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the WLAN scheduling information includes information indicating that the current scheduling is a WLAN carrier, and

The service set identifier SSID corresponding to the WLAN that the terminal accesses, indicating the working channel of the WLAN accessed by the terminal, and at least one of the capability requirement information of the terminal accessing the WLAN.

The method according to claim 2, wherein any one of the remaining three bit combinations of the three reserved bits of the carrier indication field CIF introduced by the enhanced long-term evolution LTE-A 10 of the tenth version is utilized. Kind of information indicating the WLAN carrier of the current scheduling;

The SSID corresponding to the WLAN indicating the access of the terminal occupies 16 bits;

When the WLAN adopts the IEEE 802.1 In standard, the working channel of the WLAN indicating the terminal access occupies 4 bits, and when the WLAN adopts the IEEE 802.11b standard, the working channel of the WLAN indicating the terminal access occupies 2 bits;

The capability requirement information for the terminal accessing the WLAN occupies 16 bits.

The method of any one of the preceding claims, wherein the deployment information of the WLAN comprises map information of a WLAN access point AP.

The method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the base station determines the deployment information of the WLAN by any one of the following methods:

When determining that the terminal should access the WLAN, the base station initiates a request to the network element that saves the deployment information of the WLAN, and uses the received deployment information of the WLAN sent by the network element as the determined deployment information of the WLAN;

Alternatively, the base station receives the deployment information of the WLAN that is sent by the network element at a time, and uses the deployment information of the WLAN that is the latest time that the terminal determines that the terminal should access the WLAN as the determined deployment information of the WLAN;

Alternatively, the base station receives the updated WLAN deployment information that is sent by the network element when the saved WLA deployment information is updated, and the distance is determined to be the latest WLAN received by the terminal at the time when the terminal should access the WLAN. The deployment information is used as the deployment information of the determined WLAN.

A base station, where the base station includes:

a sending unit, configured to determine WLAN scheduling information according to the determined deployment information of the WLAN, and pass the The physical downlink control channel PDCCH of the network transmits WLAN scheduling information to the terminal.

The base station according to claim 6, wherein the second determining unit is specifically configured to determine deployment information of the WLAN by using any one of the following methods:

When determining that the terminal should access the WLA, the device sends a request to the network element that saves the deployment information of the WLAN, and uses the received deployment information of the WLAN sent by the network element as the determined deployment information of the WLAN;

Alternatively, the deployment information of the WLAN that is sent by the network element at a time is received, and the deployment information of the WLAN that is received by the terminal at the time when the terminal should access the WLAN is determined as the deployment information of the determined WLAN;

Or, the information about the updated WLAN that is sent by the receiving network element when the saved WLAN deployment information is updated, and the distance of the updated WLAN that is received by the network terminal closest to the time when the terminal should access the WLAN. The deployment information is used as the deployment information of the determined WLAN.

A method for working in conjunction with a WLAN and a cellular network, the method comprising: receiving WLAN scheduling information sent by a base station through a physical downlink control channel PDCCH of a cellular network; and accessing the WLAN according to the WLAN scheduling information .

A terminal, wherein the terminal comprises:

A wireless local area network (WLAN) system in which a WLAN and a cellular network work together, wherein the system comprises a base station and a terminal, wherein: