WO2022123685A1

WO2022123685A1 - Station placement design assisting method and station placement design assisting device

Info

Publication number: WO2022123685A1
Application number: PCT/JP2020/045849
Authority: WO
Inventors: 秀幸坪井; 和人後藤; 秀紀俊長; 直樹北; 武鬼沢
Original assignee: 日本電信電話株式会社
Priority date: 2020-12-09
Filing date: 2020-12-09
Publication date: 2022-06-16
Also published as: JPWO2022123685A1

Abstract

This station placement design assisting method comprises: an area division step for dividing a designated area into a plurality of small areas that show areas smaller than the designated area and the ranges of at least some of which overlap each other; a combination pattern extraction step for extracting, for each of the small areas, combination patterns of the placement candidate positions of at least one first radio station and the placement candidate positions of at least one second radio station that are included in the small area, thereby generating combination pattern lists; a duplicated pattern deletion step for deleting duplicated combination patterns between the combination pattern lists of the respective small areas; and an output step for outputting combination pattern lists from which the duplicated combination patterns have been deleted.

Description

Station design support method and station design support device

The present invention relates to a station design support method and a station design support device.

FIG. 26 shows a use case (for example,) proposed by mmWave Networks in TIP (Telecom Infra Project) (main members: Facebook, Deutsche Telekom, Intel, NOKIA, etc.), which is a consortium that promotes open specifications of communication network devices in general. It is a diagram which has been partially modified and schematicized with reference to (see Non-Patent Documents 1 to 3). mmWave Networks is one of the TIP project groups, aiming to build a network that is faster and cheaper than laying optical fiber by using millimeter-wave radio in the unlicensed band.

In buildings such as

buildings

800, 801 and

houses

810, 811, 812 shown in FIG. 26, terminal station equipment 840 to terminal station equipment (hereinafter referred to as "terminal station") 844 installed on each wall surface of the building. The base station device 830 to the base station device (hereinafter referred to as "base station") 834 installed on the electric pole 821 to the electric pole 826 are devices called mmWave DN (Distribution Node).

The base stations 830 to 834 are connected to the communication devices provided in the station building (Fiber PoP (Point of Presence)) 850 and the station building 851 by

optical fibers

900 and 901. This communication device is connected to the communication network of the provider. A mmWave Link, that is, millimeter-wave radio is performed between the terminal station 840 to the terminal station 844 and the base station 830 to the base station 834. In FIG. 26, the millimeter-wave radio link is shown by a alternate long and short dash line.

Base stations 830 to 834 are installed on utility poles 821 to 826, terminal stations 840 to 844 are installed on the wall of a building, and base stations 830 to bases communicate with each other by millimeter-wave radio. Selecting a candidate position for installing a station 834 and a terminal station 840 to a terminal station 844 is called a station design.

As a method for designing a station, there is a method using three-dimensional point cloud data obtained by imaging a space. In this method, for example, first, a moving object such as a vehicle equipped with an MMS (Mobile Mapping System) is driven along a road around a residential area to be evaluated to acquire three-dimensional point cloud data. Next, the wireless communication between the base station 830 to the base station 834 and the terminal station 840 to the terminal station 844 is evaluated by utilizing the acquired point cloud data. As the evaluation means, there are a means for determining the line-of-sight between the two stations in three dimensions and a means for calculating the shielding rate. Here, the "shielding rate" is an index showing how much the object existing between the base station 830 to the base station 834 and the terminal station 840 to the terminal station 844 affects the wireless communication, and vice versa. From the point of view of, it can also be called "transmittance". In order to perform these evaluation means, it is necessary to have point cloud data for all evaluation targets in the space including the candidate positions of the base station 830 to the base station 834 and the terminal station 840 to the terminal station 844.

When trying to cover a certain area (for example, a city) with a communication network as described above, the wireless communication carrier needs to roughly grasp the number of base stations required in order to plan capital investment, etc. There is. For example, as shown in FIG. 26, when a base station is installed on a utility pole and a terminal station is installed on the wall of a building, an area of several hundred meters square may be an evaluation target area. be. In such a case, for all combination patterns of all base station installation position candidates (that is, utility poles) and all terminal station installation position candidates (that is, the wall surface of the building) existing in the evaluation target area. If the line-of-sight judgment and the obstruction rate calculation process are performed, the amount of calculation will be enormous. Therefore, in order to reduce the number of combination patterns to the number that can be processed within a realistic calculation processing time, for example, the evaluation target area is divided into a plurality of smaller areas (hereinafter referred to as "small areas"). Therefore, the station design is performed for each small area.

However, when the station placement design is performed for each small area, the combination pattern of the base station installation candidate position and the terminal station installation candidate position that exist across the boundary between two adjacent small areas is, for example, between the two stations. Even if the combination pattern has a clear view and a low shielding rate, it will not be evaluated. As described above, in the prior art, there is a problem that an effective station design may not be performed because a combination pattern having a line-of-sight between both stations and a low shielding rate may be overlooked.

In view of the above circumstances, it is an object of the present invention to provide a technique that enables more effective station placement design within a realistic calculation processing time.

One aspect of the present invention is an area division step of dividing a designated area into a plurality of the small areas on which at least a part of the range overlaps, which is a small area indicating an area smaller than the designated area. For each of the small areas, a combination pattern of at least one candidate position for installing a first radio station and at least one candidate position for installing a second radio station included in the small area is extracted, and a combination pattern list is generated. A combination pattern extraction step, a duplicate pattern deletion step for deleting duplicate combination patterns between the combination pattern list for each small area, and an output step for outputting a combination pattern list from which the duplicate combination pattern is deleted. It is a station design support method having.

One aspect of the present invention is a step of acquiring information indicating the position of at least one first radio station, and
A step of calculating the number of combination patterns of at least one first radio station and an installation candidate position of at least one second radio station located within a predetermined distance from the position of the first radio station, and the combination pattern. When the number of combinations exceeds a predetermined number, the step of gradually shortening the predetermined distance, and when the number of the combination patterns does not exceed the predetermined number, the step of outputting the number of the combination patterns. It is a station design support method having.

One aspect of the present invention is a step of acquiring information indicating the position of at least one first radio station, and at least one first radio station and at least located within a predetermined distance from the position of the first radio station. A step of calculating the number of combination patterns with the installation candidate positions of one second radio station, and a step of gradually lengthening the predetermined distance when the number of the combination patterns does not exceed a predetermined number. This is a station design support method including a step of outputting the number of combination patterns based on the predetermined distance in the immediately preceding step when the number of combination patterns exceeds a predetermined number.

One aspect of the present invention is an area division portion that divides a designated area into a plurality of small areas in which a designated area is smaller than the designated area and in which at least a part of the range overlaps. For each of the small areas, a combination pattern extraction unit that extracts a combination pattern of the installation candidate position of the first radio station and the installation candidate position of the second radio station included in the small area and generates a combination pattern list. A station design including a duplicate pattern deletion unit that deletes duplicate combination patterns among the combination pattern lists for each small area, and an output unit that outputs a combination pattern list from which the duplicate combination patterns have been deleted. It is a support device.

According to the present invention, it becomes possible to perform a more effective station placement design within a realistic calculation processing time.

It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the station design support apparatus of 1st Embodiment. It is a flowchart which shows the flow of processing by the station design support apparatus of 1st Embodiment. It is a figure for demonstrating the process by the station design support apparatus of 1st Embodiment in 2 steps. It is a schematic diagram which shows the design area in 1st Embodiment. It is a schematic diagram for demonstrating the reduction of a combination pattern by setting a constraint condition. It is a schematic diagram for demonstrating the combination pattern in the case where the constraint condition is not provided. It is a schematic diagram which shows an example of the case where the design area is divided into small areas and station station design is performed. It is a schematic diagram which shows an example of the case where the design area is divided into small areas and station station design is performed. It is a schematic diagram which shows an example of the case where the design area is divided into small areas and station station design is performed. It is a flowchart which shows the operation of the combination pattern list creation of the station design support apparatus 1 in 1st Embodiment or later. It is a schematic diagram which shows the case where the station design support device 1 uses a plurality of rectangular small areas. It is a schematic diagram which shows the case where the station design support device 1 uses a plurality of hexagonal small areas. It is a schematic diagram which shows the case where the station design support device 1 uses a plurality of small areas based on a road section. It is a flowchart which shows the operation of the combination pattern list creation of the station design support apparatus 1 in the 2nd Embodiment. It is a flowchart which shows the operation of the station design support apparatus 1 in 3rd Embodiment. It is a figure which shows an example of the equipment data stored in the equipment data storage part. It is a figure which shows an example of the map of the designated design area. It is a figure which shows an example of the map of the designated design area. It is a figure which shows an example of the map of the designated design area. It is a figure which shows an example of the list presented by the station design support apparatus 1 in the 3rd Embodiment. It is a figure which shows an example of the list presented by the station design support apparatus 1 in the 3rd Embodiment. It is a figure which shows an example of the arrangement of the base station installation candidate position and the terminal station installation position in a design area. It is a figure which shows the adjustment of the radius of a small area. It is a flowchart which shows the operation of the station design support apparatus 1 in 3rd Embodiment. It is a figure which shows the adjustment of the radius of a small area. It is a figure which shows an example of the use case proposed by TIP.

(First Embodiment)
Hereinafter, the first embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a station station design support device 1 which is a device that supports station station design according to the first embodiment. The station design support device 1 includes a design area designation unit 2, a base station candidate position extraction unit 3, a terminal station candidate position extraction unit 4, a two-dimensional line-of-sight determination processing unit 5, a point cloud data processing unit 6, and a station number calculation unit 7. , Operation processing unit 10, map data storage unit 11, equipment data storage unit 12, point cloud data storage unit 13, two-dimensional line-of-sight determination result storage unit 15, pattern number control unit 17, and combination pattern list storage unit 18.

The point cloud data processing unit 6 includes a three-dimensional candidate position selection unit 20, a three-dimensional line-of-sight determination processing unit 23, and a shielding rate calculation unit 24.
The pattern number control unit 17 includes an area division unit 171, a combination pattern extraction unit 172, an overlap pattern deletion unit 173, and a recommended pattern identification unit 174.

The data stored in advance by the map data storage unit 11, the equipment data storage unit 12, and the point cloud data storage unit 13 included in the station design support device 1 will be described.

The map data storage unit 11 stores two-dimensional map data in advance. The map data includes, for example, data showing the position and shape of a building that is a candidate for installing a terminal station, data showing the range of the site of the building, data showing the road, and the like.
The equipment data storage unit 12 is a base station candidate position data in a two-dimensional coordinate system indicating the position of a base station-installed building, which is an outdoor facility such as an electric pole that is a candidate for installing a base station (hereinafter, “two-dimensional base station”). "Candidate position data") is stored.
The point cloud data storage unit 13 stores, for example, three-dimensional point cloud data acquired by MMS.

Hereinafter, with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. 2, the configuration of each functional unit of the station station design support device 1 and the flow of processing of the station station design support method by the station station design support device 1 will be described.

The design area designation unit 2 reads out two-dimensional map data from the map data storage unit 11 (step S1-1). The design area designation unit 2 writes and stores the read map data in, for example, a working memory. The design area designation unit 2 is based on, for example, an instruction signal for designating a range of the design area to be output by the operation processing unit 10 in response to the operation of the user of the station design support device 1 in the map data stored in the working memory. And select a rectangular area. The design area designation unit 2 designates the selected area as the design area (step S1-2).

The terminal station candidate position extraction unit 4 extracts the building contour data indicating the position and shape of the building from the map data in the design area from the map data for each building (step S2-1). The building contour data extracted by the terminal station candidate position extraction unit 4 is data indicating the wall surface of the building where the terminal station may be installed, and is regarded as a position that is a candidate for installing the terminal station.

The terminal station candidate position extraction unit 4 generates and assigns building identification data, which is identification information that can uniquely identify each building, to the building contour data for each building to be extracted. The terminal station candidate position extraction unit 4 outputs the assigned building identification data in association with the building contour data corresponding to the building.

The base station candidate position extraction unit 3 reads out the two-dimensional base station candidate position data corresponding to the base station installation building located in the design area designated by the design area designation unit 2 from the equipment data storage unit 12 and outputs the data ( Step S3-1). If the coordinates of the map data stored in the map data storage unit 11 and the coordinates of the two-dimensional base station candidate position data stored in the equipment data storage unit 12 do not match, the base station candidate position extraction unit 3 will perform. The coordinates of the read two-dimensional base station candidate position data are converted to match the coordinate system of the map data.

The two-dimensional outlook determination processing unit 5 uses the building contour data for each building output by the terminal station candidate position extraction unit 4 for each of the two-dimensional base station candidate position data output by the base station candidate position extraction unit 3. It is determined whether or not there is a line-of-sight for each building in the horizontal direction from the position indicated by each of the two-dimensional base station candidate position data. The two-dimensional line-of-sight determination processing unit 5 detects a line-of-sight range in the building determined to have line-of-sight, that is, the wall surface of the building as the line-of-sight range (step S4-1).

The two-dimensional line-of-sight determination processing unit 5 selects a candidate for the wall surface of the building in which the terminal station is installed with higher priority among the wall surfaces of the building corresponding to the detected line-of-sight range. When the line-of-sight range of a certain building includes a plurality of wall surfaces, the two-dimensional line-of-sight determination processing unit 5 sets, for example, the wall surface closer to the base station as the wall surface on which the terminal station is installed, and sets the wall surface as the final wall surface. Select as the line-of-sight range in the horizontal direction.

In addition, when the line-of-sight range of a certain building includes a plurality of wall surfaces, the method of selecting one wall surface is not limited to the above method and is arbitrary.

The two-dimensional line-of-sight determination processing unit 5 correlates the building contour data of the building having the line-of-sight range detected in the horizontal direction with the data indicating the line-of-sight range in the horizontal direction of the building for each base station candidate position, and has a two-dimensional line-of-sight. It is written and stored in the determination result storage unit 15 (step S4-2). As a result, for each two-dimensional base station candidate position data, the building identification data of the building and the data indicating the horizontal line-of-sight range of the building corresponding to the building identification data are stored in the two-dimensional line-of-sight determination result storage unit 15. Will be.

The two-dimensional line-of-sight determination processing unit 5 outputs "instruction to consider a building in which another building exists between the base station candidate position and the base station candidate position" output by the operation processing unit 10 in response to the operation of the user of the station design support device 1. It is determined whether or not the instruction signal indicating "is received from the operation processing unit 10" (step S4-3). Before the process of FIG. 2 is started, the user of the station design support device 1 selects in advance whether or not to consider a building in which another building exists between the base station candidate position and the base station candidate position. If it is selected to be considered, the operation processing unit 10 receives an operation of the user and indicates an instruction signal indicating "an instruction to consider a building in which another building exists between the base station candidate position and the base station candidate position". Is output.

When the two-dimensional line-of-sight determination processing unit 5 determines that the instruction signal has not been received (step S4-3, No), the process proceeds to step S5-1. On the other hand, when it is determined that the instruction signal is received (step S4-3, Yes), the process proceeds to step S4-4.

In the 2D outlook determination processing unit 5, for each 2D base station candidate position data, another building exists between the building in the design area and the position indicated by the 2D base station candidate position data. Detects a building as a vertical line-of-sight detection target building. The two-dimensional line-of-sight determination processing unit 5 refers to, for example, the two-dimensional line-of-sight determination result storage unit 15, and for each of the two-dimensional base station candidate position data, the building that has not detected the horizontal line-of-sight range is the building and 2 A building in which another building exists between the position indicated by the 2D base station candidate position data, and the building is referred to as a vertical line-of-sight detection target building (hereinafter, the vertical line-of-sight detection target building is also referred to as a "line-of-sight detection target building". Detect as).

The two-dimensional line-of-sight determination processing unit 5 receives, for example, the operation of the user of the station design support device 1 and obtains data indicating the installation altitude for each base station candidate position designated by the user and the height of the building. Import the data shown from the outside.

The two-dimensional line-of-sight determination processing unit 5 uses data indicating the height of the captured building for each line-of-sight detection target building for each detected base station candidate position from the height of the installation altitude at the base station candidate position. Detects the vertical line-of-sight range. The two-dimensional line-of-sight determination processing unit 5 stores the building identification data of the building in which the vertical line-of-sight range is detected and the data indicating the vertical line-of-sight range detected in the building in the two-dimensional line-of-sight determination result storage unit 15. Write and store (step S4-4). As a result, for each 2D base station candidate position data, the building identification data of the building and the data indicating the horizontal and vertical line-of-sight range of the building corresponding to the building identification data are stored in the 2D line-of-sight determination result storage unit 15. It will be remembered.

In the point group data processing unit 6, the three-dimensional candidate position selection unit 20 becomes a base station candidate position indicating a position that is a candidate for installing a base station in the three-dimensional space and a candidate for installing a terminal station in the three-dimensional space. Select a terminal station candidate position that indicates the position.

For example, the user of the station design support device 1 operates the operation processing unit 10 to select any one of the two-dimensional base station candidate position data from the two-dimensional line-of-sight determination result storage unit 15. The operation processing unit 10 outputs the selected two-dimensional base station candidate position data to the three-dimensional candidate position selection unit 20. The three-dimensional candidate position selection unit 20 takes in the two-dimensional base station candidate position data output by the operation processing unit 10. The three-dimensional candidate position selection unit 20 acquires point cloud data near the position indicated by the captured two-dimensional base station candidate position data from the point cloud data storage unit 13, and displays the acquired point cloud data on the screen. The user operates the operation processing unit 10 to select a three-dimensional position that is a candidate for installing a base station from the point cloud data displayed on the screen, and outputs the three-dimensional position to the three-dimensional candidate position selection unit 20. The three-dimensional candidate position selection unit 20 captures the three-dimensional position output by the operation processing unit 10, and uses the captured three-dimensional position as the three-dimensional base station candidate position data.

Next, the 3D candidate position selection unit 20 reads data indicating the line-of-sight range of the building associated with the captured 2D base station candidate position data from the 2D line-of-sight determination result storage unit 15. The three-dimensional candidate position selection unit 20 reads the point cloud data in the range indicated by the read data indicating the line-of-sight range of the building from the point cloud data storage unit 13, and displays the read point cloud data on the screen. The user operates the operation processing unit 10 to select a three-dimensional position that is a candidate for installing a terminal station from the point cloud data displayed on the screen, and outputs the three-dimensional position to the three-dimensional candidate position selection unit 20. The three-dimensional candidate position selection unit 20 captures the three-dimensional position output by the operation processing unit 10, and uses the captured three-dimensional position as the three-dimensional terminal station candidate position data. Hereinafter, the three-dimensional base station candidate position data is simply referred to as "base station candidate position data", and the three-dimensional terminal station candidate position data is simply referred to as "terminal station candidate position data".

The 3D line-of-sight determination processing unit 23 is a point of space between the base station candidate position and the terminal station candidate position indicated by each of the base station candidate position data and the terminal station candidate position data selected by the 3D candidate position selection unit 20. The group data is read from the point group data storage unit 13 (step S5-1). The three-dimensional line-of-sight determination processing unit 23 performs three-dimensional line-of-sight determination processing between the base station candidate position and the terminal station candidate position based on the read point cloud data, and communicates based on the result of the determination processing. Estimate whether or not it is possible (step S5-2).

On the other hand, when the point cloud data processing unit 6 calculates the shielding rate, the shielding rate calculation unit 24 uses the base station candidate position data and the terminal station candidate position data selected by the three-dimensional candidate position selection unit 20. The point cloud data in the space between the base station candidate position and the terminal station candidate position indicated by each is read from the point cloud data storage unit 13 (step S5-1). The shielding rate calculation unit 24 calculates the shielding rate between the base station candidate position and the terminal station candidate position based on the read point cloud data, and estimates whether or not communication is possible based on the result of the calculation process. Step S5-2).
The point cloud data processing unit 6 including the three-dimensional line-of-sight processing determination unit 23 and the shielding rate calculation unit 24 performs the processing of steps S5-1 to S5-2 by combining all the base station candidate position data and the terminal station candidate position data. Do about.

The station number calculation unit 7 is based on the result of estimation of the possibility of communication performed by the point cloud data processing unit 6 having both the three-dimensional line-of-sight processing determination unit 23 and the shielding rate calculation unit 24 using the three-dimensional point cloud data. Then, the base station candidate positions and the terminal station candidate positions are totaled, and the required number of base stations and the number of accommodated terminal stations for each base station candidate position are calculated (step S6-1).

As shown in FIG. 3, the processing configuration in the station design support device 1 is a processing performed using map data which is two-dimensional data, and a point cloud data which is three-dimensional data based on the result of the processing. It can also be regarded as a two-step process called the process to be performed.

As shown in FIG. 3, the processes performed using the map data, which is the first-stage two-dimensional data, are (1) designation of the design area, (2) extraction of the terminal station candidate position, and (3) base station candidate position. It includes four processes of (4) outlook determination using two-dimensional map data.

(1) The process of designating the design area corresponds to the process of steps S1-1 and S1-2 performed by the design area designation unit 2. (2) The process of extracting the terminal station candidate position corresponds to the process of step S2-1 performed by the terminal station candidate position extraction unit 4. (3) The process of extracting the base station candidate position corresponds to the process of step S3-1 performed by the base station candidate position extraction unit 3. (4) The process of the line-of-sight determination using the two-dimensional map data corresponds to the process of steps S4-1 to S4-4 performed by the two-dimensional line-of-sight determination processing unit 5.

The processing performed using the point cloud data, which is the second-stage 3D data, is (5) communication availability determination using the 3D point cloud data, and (6) the number of required base stations and the number of accommodated terminal stations in the design area. Includes two processes: calculation of.

(5) The process of determining whether communication is possible using the three-dimensional point cloud data is performed by the point cloud data processing unit 6 having the three-dimensional line-of-sight processing determination unit 23 and the shielding rate calculation unit 24, in steps S5-1 to S5-2. Corresponds to the processing of. (6) The process of calculating the required number of base stations and the number of accommodated terminal stations in the design area corresponds to the process of step S6-1 performed by the station number calculation unit 7.

For example, in wireless communication such as millimeter waves, base station candidate positions and terminal station candidate positions are used for base stations installed in outdoor equipment such as electric poles and terminal stations installed on the walls of buildings using three-dimensional point group data. It is possible to support the station design by making a three-dimensional outlook judgment between. In order to handle 3D point cloud data, a huge amount of data and a large amount of computational resources are required. Therefore, in the station design support device 1, the two-dimensional line-of-sight determination processing unit 5 provides a two-dimensional line-of-sight between the base station candidate position and the terminal station candidate position before using the three-dimensional point group data. The determination is made, and the point group data processing unit 6 performs a three-dimensional outlook determination process after narrowing down the point group data to be used by using the determination result. Therefore, it is possible to perform efficient three-dimensional outlook determination processing with reduced calculation resources.

Further, in wireless communication, not only a simple linear line-of-sight determination but also a "shielding rate" in a spheroidal region between transmission and reception, which is related to radio waves propagating in space, a so-called Fresnel zone, is calculated. That is also important. The point cloud data processing unit 6 of the station design support device 1 is provided with a shielding rate calculation unit 24 to calculate the shielding rate. The calculation of the obstruction rate requires more calculation resources than the three-dimensional line-of-sight determination process. Since the point cloud data to be used can be sufficiently narrowed down, it is possible to efficiently calculate the shielding rate by reducing the calculation resources.

In the wireless communication system whose station design is targeted by the station design support device 1 of the present embodiment, the base station is deployed in an outdoor communication facility (in this embodiment, an electric pole), and the terminal station is installed on the wall surface of the building. It is a communication system that performs wireless communication using millimeter-wave band radio. The station design support device 1 creates a list of combination patterns of the base station installation candidate positions and the terminal station installation candidate positions (hereinafter referred to as "combination pattern list").

The station design support device 1 performs a process of determining whether or not communication between the two stations is possible by performing a line-of-sight determination and a shielding rate calculation for the combination pattern of both stations. The station design support device 1 determines whether or not communication between the two stations is possible using the map information corresponding to the design area (for example, the residential area to be evaluated) and the point cloud data of the design area collected in advance. ..

However, the wider the design area, the more combinations of the base station installation candidate positions and the terminal station installation candidate positions, and the computational resources required to determine whether communication is possible or not. For example, when calculating the shielding rate between a base station and a terminal station using point cloud data, even if a high-performance PC currently on the market (as of 2020) is used, a combination pattern of both stations is used. It takes about several seconds to calculate the shielding rate per set.

If the combination pattern of the installation candidate positions of both stations is tens of billions to tens of trillions, it will be difficult to complete the communication availability determination process in a realistic processing time. Therefore, it is necessary to narrow down the number of combination patterns of the installation candidate positions of both stations to the extent that the communication availability determination process can be completed in a realistic processing time. The number of combination patterns that can complete the communication availability determination process in a realistic processing time is, for example, less than 500,000.

The station design support device 1 in the present embodiment determines whether or not communication is possible with the user before determining whether or not communication is possible between the installation candidate position of the base station and the installation candidate position of the terminal station in the design area. Information on combination patterns that can complete processing in a realistic processing time is presented.

In this embodiment, as an example, it is assumed that the number of utility poles included in the design area is about several tens (maximum number: 100), and the number of buildings is about one hundred and several tens (maximum number: 200). The explanation is based on the assumption that it is a building).

Further, in the present embodiment, the base station shall be installed on the utility pole, and the terminal station shall be installed on the wall surface of the building. Generally, there are a plurality of positions on the wall surface of the building where the terminal station can be installed, but in the present embodiment, for the sake of simplicity, the central position (center of gravity) of the wall surface (facing the base station direction side) of the building. It is assumed that it is one of the points). As a result, the number of candidate base station installation positions in the design area corresponds to the number of utility poles (that is, dozens), and the number of terminal station installation candidate positions in the design area is the building building. It will be a number (that is, a hundred and several tens).

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram showing a design area according to the first embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 4, in the present embodiment, the design area is assumed to be an area within a circle having a radius D = 200 [m]. This distance of 200 [m] corresponds to a general millimeter-wave communication distance.

In the design area shown in FIG. 4, the base station installation candidate positions (telephone poles) are indicated by "○" marks, and the terminal station installation candidate positions (building walls) are indicated by "x" marks. .. Although only a part of them is shown in FIG. 4, it is assumed that there are actually 100 candidate base station installation positions and 200 terminal station installation candidate positions as described above. When 100 utility poles are installed in an area with a radius D = 200 [m], utility poles can be installed approximately every 40 to 50 [m], which can be used as a general utility pole installation interval.

In this case, the number of combination patterns of the installation candidate positions of one base station in the design area and the installation candidate positions of all terminal stations is expressed by the following equation (1) by using the binomial theorem. Can be done.

_n C ₀ + _n C ₁ + _n C ₂ + ... + _n C _k + ... + _n C _n-1 + _n C _n = 2 ⁿ ... (1)

Therefore, the number of combination patterns of the installation candidate positions of all base stations in the design area and the installation candidate positions of all terminal stations is the total number of base stations with respect to the value obtained by the above equation (1). By multiplying, it can be expressed by the following equation (2).

(Number of combination patterns) = m × 2 ⁿ ... (2)

When the values of m and n in equation (2) are 100 for the number of candidate positions for installation of the above-mentioned base station (number of utility poles) and 200 for the number of candidate positions for installation of terminal stations (number of buildings), respectively. The number of combination patterns will be enormous. Even if the number of candidate base station installation positions and the number of terminal station installation candidate positions are each one-fifth of the above (that is, m = 20, n = 40). ), The number of combination patterns is about 22 trillion as shown by the following equation (3).

(Number of combination patterns) = 20 × 2 ⁴⁰
= 21,990,232,555,520 ... (3)

Therefore, even with this, in order to determine the line-of-sight between the two stations and calculate the shielding rate, it is still difficult to complete the calculation in a realistic processing time with a calculation resource such as a general-purpose PC.

However, the above equation (1) represents a case where no particular restriction condition is provided for the number of terminal stations connected to a certain base station by wireless communication. However, in general, for a base station, based on the direction of the terminal station as seen from the base station that can communicate, or based on the maximum number of frequency channels used in one base station, etc. There are restrictions on the number of terminal stations that can be connected wirelessly. That is, in general, there is an upper limit to the maximum number of terminal stations that can wirelessly communicate with a certain base station.

Therefore, in the above equation (1), a constraint condition may be set so that the value of k is equal to or less than the maximum number (for example, the number of frequency channels). This makes it possible to reduce the number of combinations of patterns between the base station installation candidate positions and the terminal station installation candidate positions.

In the above equation (1), when the number of connections from one base station to terminal stations is k or less, the installation candidate positions of one base station in the design area and the installation candidate positions of all terminal stations are used. The number of combination patterns of can be expressed by the following equation (4).

(Number of combination patterns) = _n C ₁ + _n C ₂ + ... + _n C _k
= 2 ^n- ( _n C _{k + 1} + ... + _n C _n-1 + _n C _n ) ... (4)

Therefore, the number of combination patterns of the installation candidate positions of all base stations in the design area and the installation candidate positions of all terminal stations is the total number of base stations with respect to the value obtained by the above equation (4). By multiplying, it can be expressed by the following equation (5).

(Number of combination patterns) = m × ( _n C ₁ + _n C ₂ + ... + _n C _k )
= M × 2 ⁿ −m × ( _n C _{k + 1} + ・・・ + _n C _n-1 + _n C _n ) ・・・ (5)

As described above, the number of combination patterns is further reduced by imposing the constraint condition as compared with the number of combination patterns obtained by the above-mentioned equation (2).

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram for explaining the reduction of combination patterns by providing constraints. FIG. 5 shows, as an example, a case where the maximum number of terminal stations to which one base station can communicate and connect is 3. On the other hand, FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram for explaining a combination pattern when no constraint condition is provided. In the map data (residential map) shown in FIGS. 5 and 6, the position of the utility pole, which is a candidate position for installing a base station, is indicated by a “●” or “○” mark, and the building is a candidate position for installing a terminal station. The center position of is indicated by an "x" mark. Further, in FIG. 5, the “●” mark indicates the position of the utility pole selected as the base station. In addition, the mark of "○" indicates the position of the utility pole that was not selected as the base station. The state in which the base station installed on the utility pole marked with "●" and the base station installed on the utility pole marked with "x" are connected by wireless communication is shown by a solid line or a broken line. The solid line shows the wireless communication connection at the same base station and terminal station as in FIG. 6, which will be described later.

Compared to the number of base stations in FIG. 5 (49 locations), in FIG. 6, since there are no restrictions, the terminal stations can be accommodated with a smaller number of base stations (18 locations). However, in FIG. 6, many utility poles to which base stations are not deployed are left. If there is no constraint condition, it is conceivable that the terminal station is accommodated in various base station selection patterns different from the base station selection pattern shown in FIG. As described above, by imposing a constraint on the number of terminal stations that can be connected to a certain base station, the number of base stations required to accommodate the terminal stations is further increased. However, in this case, the base station selection pattern is reduced. Therefore, as a result, the number of patterns of the combination of the base station installation candidate position and the terminal station installation candidate position is reduced from the value of the equation (2) to the value of the equation (5).

Hereinafter, a case where the station design is performed by dividing the design area into a plurality of smaller areas (hereinafter referred to as “small areas”) will be described.
FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram showing an example of a case where the design area is divided into small areas for station placement design. The broken line circle (radius D = 200 [m]) shown in FIG. 7 corresponds to the design area shown in FIG. 4 above. Here, a case where the design area shown in FIG. 7 is divided into a plurality of small areas having a radius d = 50 [m] and the station placement design is performed will be described.

As in FIG. 4, in the design area shown in FIG. 7, the base station installation candidate position (telephone pole) is indicated by a “○” mark, and the terminal station installation candidate position (building wall surface) is indicated by “×”. It is indicated by the mark of. Although only a part of them is shown in FIG. 7, it is assumed that there are actually 100 candidate base station installation positions and 200 terminal station installation candidate positions as described above.

As shown in FIG. 7, a circle with a radius d = 50 [m] is set as a small area, and the small areas are arranged without gaps so as to cover the entire design area with a radius D = 200 [m]. In order to line up without gaps, it is necessary to stack adjacent small areas on top of each other. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 7, 81 small areas (= 9 × 9) having a radius d = 50 [m] are required.

Also, since the radius of the small area is one-fourth of the radius of the design area, the area of the small area is one-sixteenth of the area of the design area. Therefore, if the base station installation candidate positions (telephone poles) and terminal station installation candidate positions (buildings) in the design area are evenly distributed, the base stations existing in one small area The number of installation candidate positions (telephone poles) and terminal station installation candidate positions (buildings) is m'= 6.25 (≈100 ÷ 16) and n'= 12.5 (≈200 ÷ 16), respectively.

In this way, when the above m'= 6.25 and n'= 13 (≈12.5) are applied to the above-mentioned equation (2) for the number of small areas: 81 places, the above-mentioned equation (2) is applied to all the small areas. The number of combination patterns of the installation candidate positions of all base stations and the installation candidate positions of all terminal stations can be expressed by the following equation (6).

(Number of combination patterns) = 81 × 6.25 × 2 ¹³
= 506.25 × 8,192
= 4,147,200 ... (6)

In this way, about 4.15 million combinations, which is the number of combination patterns in the case where the design area is divided into small areas and the station placement design is performed, which is represented by the formula (6), is the design area represented by the above formula (3). It is less than about 1 / 5.3 million of the number of combination patterns of about 22 trillion in the case of station design without dividing into small areas. In this way, by dividing the design area into small areas and performing station placement design, the number of combination patterns can be significantly reduced.

However, the number of combination patterns of about 4.15 million does not satisfy less than 500,000 combinations, which is the number of combination patterns that can complete the communication availability determination process in a realistic processing time, which is given as an example above. .. Therefore, it is conceivable to design the station using a small area with a shorter radius.

FIGS. 8 and 9 are schematic views showing an example of a case where the design area is divided into small areas for station placement design. Similar to FIG. 4, in the design area shown in FIGS. 8 and 9, the base station installation candidate position (telephone pole) is indicated by a “○” mark, and the terminal station installation candidate position (wall surface of the building) is indicated. It is indicated by an "x" mark. Although only a part of them is shown in FIG. 7, it is assumed that there are actually 100 candidate base station installation positions and 200 terminal station installation candidate positions as described above.

The broken line circle (radius D = 200 [m]) shown in FIG. 8 corresponds to the design area shown in FIG. 4 above. FIG. 8 shows a case where the station design is performed by dividing the design area into a plurality of small areas having a radius d = 40 [m]. As shown in FIG. 8, a circle having a radius d = 40 [m] is set as a small area, and the small areas are arranged without gaps so as to cover the entire design area having a radius D = 200 [m]. In order to line up without gaps, it is necessary to stack adjacent small areas on top of each other. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 8, 121 small areas (= 11 × 11) having a radius d = 40 [m] are required.

Also, since the radius of the small area is 1/5 of the radius of the design area, the area of the small area is 1/25 of the area of the design area. Therefore, if the base station installation candidate positions (telephone poles) and terminal station installation candidate positions (buildings) in the design area are evenly distributed, the base stations existing in one small area The number of installation candidate positions (telephone poles) and terminal station installation candidate positions (buildings) is m "= 4 (= 100 ÷ 25) and n" = 8 (= 200 ÷ 25), respectively.

In this way, if the above m "= 4 and n" = 8 are applied to the above equation (2) for the number of small areas: 121, all base station installation candidates in all the small areas are candidates. The number of combinations of positions and installation candidate positions of all terminal stations can be expressed by the following equation (7).

(Number of combination patterns) = 121 x 4 x 2 ⁸
= 484 x 256
= 123,904 ... (7)

In this way, about 120,000 combinations, which is the number of combination patterns in the case where the design area is divided into small areas and the station placement design is performed, which is shown by the equation (7), is the communication passability determination process mentioned above as an example. It satisfies less than 500,000 combinations, which is the number of combination patterns that can be completed in a realistic processing time.

However, the smaller the small area is set, the closer the base station installation candidate position and the terminal station installation candidate position are, and the result of the line-of-sight determination and the calculation of the shielding rate is a good combination pattern. Nevertheless, it is expected that the number of cases that will be overlooked will increase. Therefore, the radius of the small area is set so that the number of combination patterns is closer to 500,000, which is the number of combination patterns that can complete the communication availability determination processing as an example above in a realistic processing time. It is possible to adjust.

The broken line circle (radius D = 200 [m]) shown in FIG. 9 corresponds to the design area shown in FIG. 4 above. FIG. 9 shows a case where the station design is performed by dividing the design area into a plurality of small areas having a radius d = 44.4 [m]. As shown in FIG. 9, a circle having a radius d = 44.4 [m] is set as a small area, and the small areas are arranged without gaps so as to cover the entire design area having a radius D = 200 [m]. In order to line up without gaps, it is necessary to stack adjacent small areas on top of each other. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 8, 100 small areas (= 10 × 10) having a radius d = 44.4 [m] are required.

Also, since the radius of the small area is about 2/9 of the radius of the design area, the area of the small area is about 4/81 of the area of the design area. Therefore, if the base station installation candidate positions (telephone poles) and terminal station installation candidate positions (buildings) in the design area are evenly distributed, the base stations existing in one small area The number of installation candidate positions (telephone poles) and terminal station installation candidate positions (buildings) is m "'= 4.94 (≈100 ÷ 81 x 4) and n" "= 10 (≈200 ÷ 81 x 4), respectively. ).

In this way, when the above m "'= 4.94 and n"'= 10 are applied to the above equation (2) for the number of small areas: 100, all the bases in all the small areas. The number of combination patterns of the station installation candidate positions and the installation candidate positions of all terminal stations can be expressed by the following equation (8).

(Number of combination patterns) = 100 × 4.94 × 2 ¹⁰
= 494 x 1024
= 505,856 ... (8)

As described above, about 500,000 combinations, which is the number of combination patterns in the case where the design area is divided into small areas and the station placement design is performed, which is shown by the equation (8), is the communication availability determination process mentioned above as an example. This corresponds to the upper limit of 500,000 combinations that can be completed in a realistic processing time. By adjusting the radius of the small area in this way, it is possible to perform more effective station placement design within a realistic calculation processing time.

Here, since a plurality of small areas are arranged so as to overlap each other as shown in FIGS. 7 to 9, the combination patterns calculated by the equations (6), (7), and (8) can be used. , The same combination pattern may be counted twice. By properly removing this duplicate count, the combination pattern is further reduced.

Hereinafter, an example of the operation in creating the combination pattern list of the station design support device 1 will be described.
FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing an operation of creating a combination pattern list of the station design support device 1 according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

The area division portion 171 sets the size of a small area (for example, a circle with a radius of 50 [m]) that is narrower than the design area (for example, a circle with a radius of 200 [m]) (step S101). The area division unit 171 sets the position of the small area so as to fill the design area with the plurality of small areas (step S102). The caveat here is that adjacent small areas overlap each other and are set to have sufficient overlap. The combination pattern extraction unit 172 generates a combination pattern list which is a list of combination patterns of the base station installation candidate position (telephone pole) and the terminal station installation candidate position (building) for each small area (step S103). The combination pattern extraction unit 172 records the generated combination pattern list in the combination pattern list storage unit 18.

The combination pattern extraction unit 172 determines whether or not the generation of the combination pattern list is completed for all the small areas (step S104). When there is a small area for which the combination pattern list has not been generated (step S104 / NO), the duplicate pattern deletion unit 173 detects a combination pattern that is duplicated among the combination pattern lists generated for each small area. .. The duplication pattern deletion unit 173 deletes the other duplication patterns, leaving only one (step S105). After that, the process returns to step S103.

On the other hand, when the generation of the combination pattern list is completed for all the small areas (step S104 · YES), it is determined whether or not there is a duplicate combination pattern in the already generated combination pattern list (step S106). When there is a duplicate combination pattern in the already generated combination pattern list (step S106 · YES), the duplicate pattern deletion unit 173 deletes the other, leaving only one duplicate combination pattern. (Step S107). Then, the process returns to step S106.

When there is no duplicate combination pattern in the already generated combination pattern list (step S106 / NO), the station design support device 1 outputs the generated combination pattern list. For example, the station design support device 1 presents the generated combination pattern list to the user by displaying it on a display unit (not shown).
This completes the operation of the station design support device 1 shown in the flowchart of FIG.

As described above, according to the station design support device 1 in the first embodiment, in the design area, for example, about 100 base station installation candidate positions and about 100 or more terminal stations are located. When there is an installation candidate position, an appropriate combination pattern can be presented. If all combination patterns of all base station installation candidate positions and all terminal station installation candidate positions in such a design area are to be evaluated, the number of combination patterns is a number as described above. It will be a number on the scale of 10 trillion. Therefore, in this case, it becomes difficult to determine the line-of-sight and calculate the shielding rate for each combination pattern in a realistic calculation time.

According to the station design support device 1 in the first embodiment, the design area is divided into a plurality of small areas and a combination pattern list is created for each small area, so that the number of combination patterns can be significantly reduced. As a result, the station design support device 1 can reduce the number of combination patterns to the extent that the line-of-sight determination and the calculation of the shielding rate can be performed in a realistic calculation time (for example, less than 500,000 patterns).

Further, the station design support device 1 in the first embodiment arranges a plurality of small areas so as to fill the entire design area while allowing superposition. As a result, the station design support device 1 reduces the oversight of combination patterns that have a positional relationship that straddles the boundaries of adjacent small areas and that have good results of line-of-sight determination and obstruction rate calculation. can do.
From the above, the station station design support device 1 in the present embodiment can enable more effective station station design within a realistic calculation processing time.

(Variation example of the first embodiment)
In the first embodiment described above, the station design support device 1 has a configuration in which a small area is set so as to fill the design area while allowing superimposition by a plurality of circular small areas. However, the shape is not limited to such a configuration, and the shape of the small area does not have to be circular.

For example, FIG. 11 is a schematic diagram showing a case where the station design support device 1 uses a plurality of rectangular (square) small areas. For example, as shown in FIG. 11, small areas are arranged vertically and horizontally with half the length of one side of the square (50 [m] in FIG. 11) as a unit to allow superposition. , The design area may be filled with multiple small areas.

Further, for example, FIG. 12 is a schematic diagram showing a case where the station design support device 1 uses a plurality of small areas of a hexagon (regular hexagon). For example, as shown in FIG. 12, small areas are arranged vertically and horizontally with the length of one side of a regular hexagon (50 [m] in FIG. 12) as a unit to allow superposition. The design area may be filled with multiple small areas.

(Second embodiment)
In the first embodiment described above, the case where the station design support device 1 arranges a plurality of small areas having the same shape at equal intervals with respect to the design area has been described. however,
In general, utility poles that are candidate locations for base stations are often built along the side of the road, and the walls of buildings that are candidate locations for terminal installations often face the road.

Therefore, it is considered that the wall surface of the building facing the same road section as the road section on which the utility pole is built has a good view and the shielding rate is low in many cases. On the other hand, it is considered that the wall surface of the building facing the road section different from the road section on which the utility pole is built has no line of sight and the shielding rate is high in many cases.
The road section here means a section where there is a line of sight (without turning) on a certain road.

The station design support device 1 in the second embodiment described below is located in a different road section, so that there is no line of sight and the shielding rate is assumed to be high. The combination pattern with the installation candidate position (building) can be excluded in advance. The station design support device 1 can reduce the number of combinations of patterns by providing such constraint conditions.

The station design support device 1 in the present embodiment sets a plurality of small areas that fill the design area by using information such as roads included in the map data.
FIG. 13 is a schematic diagram showing a case where the station design support device 1 uses a plurality of small areas based on a road section.

As described in the first embodiment described above, all the base station installation position candidates (that is, utility poles) and all the terminal station installation position candidates (that is, the wall surface of the building) existing in the design area If the line-of-sight judgment and the calculation process of the shielding rate are performed for all the combination patterns of, the amount of calculation becomes enormous. Therefore, it is necessary to reduce the number of combination patterns to a number that can be processed within a realistic calculation processing time.

Similar to FIGS. 7 to 9 shown in the first embodiment described above, in the second embodiment as an example, an area of 400 [m] square is considered as a design area. Similar to the first embodiment, in FIG. 13, the base station installation candidate position (telephone pole) is indicated by a “○” mark, and the terminal station installation candidate position (building wall surface) is indicated by an “x” mark. It is shown.

Assuming that the residential area shown in FIG. 13 is the design area, the combination pattern of the installation candidate positions (electric poles) of all the base stations existing in this design area and the installation candidate positions (buildings) of all the terminal stations. The number is a value (about 1 trillion ways) obtained by the following equation (9). As described above, the number of combination patterns exceeds the number of combination patterns (for example, 500,000 patterns) that can complete the communication passability determination process in a realistic processing time.

(Number of combination patterns) = 16 × 2 ³⁶
= 16 × 68,719,476,736
= 1,099,511,627,776 ... (9)

The above equation (9) is the number of base station installation candidate positions (telephone poles) and the number of terminal station installation candidate positions (buildings) shown in FIG. 13 as compared with the above equation (2). It is the one to which m = 16 and n = 36 are applied respectively.

The station design support device 1 in this embodiment sets a small area for each road section using map data. The station design support device 1 generates a combination pattern list of a base station installation candidate position (for example, a utility pole) and a terminal station installation candidate position (for example, a wall surface of a building) for each set small area.

Note that the station design support device 1 sets the road section by dividing the road so that the section with a line of sight becomes one road section, for example, on a curved road. Further, in the case of a road having a long line of sight, for example, a long straight road, the road section is set by dividing the road so that the section of 200 [m]) is one road section, for example. This distance of 200 [m] is the upper limit distance at which sufficient wireless communication can be performed using millimeter-wave radio waves.

As shown in FIG. 13, for example, the station design support device 1 sets the road in the design area into eight road sections of road section A, road section B, road section C, ..., Road section G, and road section H. Cut into. The station design support device 1 sets a small area for each of these eight road sections. In FIG. 13, the small area is shown as a solid oval. The station design support device 1 arranges eight small areas while allowing superimposition so that the entire design area is filled.

For example, in the residential area (design area) shown in FIG. 13, three utility poles, which are candidate positions for installing a base station, are built in a small area including a road section A, which is a candidate position for installing a terminal station. Eight buildings have been built. By applying these numbers (m = 3, n = 8) to the above-mentioned equation (2), the number of combination patterns in the small area including the road section A becomes 768 according to the following equation (10).

(Number of combination patterns) = 3 × 2 ⁸
= 3 × 256
= 768 ... (10)

In this way, the 768 combinations of small areas including the road section A, which are represented by the equation (10), are stationed without dividing the design area into the small areas, which are indicated by the above equation (9). The number of combinations is about 1 trillion, which is less than 1 / 1.4 billion.

Similarly, for example, in the residential area (design area) shown in FIG. 13, four utility poles, which are candidate positions for installing base stations, are built in a small area including road section B, and candidates for installing terminal stations. Seven buildings are being built. By applying these numbers (m = 4, n = 7) to the above-mentioned equation (2), the number of combination patterns in the small area including the road section B becomes 512 according to the following equation (11).

(Number of combination patterns) = 4 × 2 ⁷
= 4 x 128
= 512 ... (11)

In this way, 512 ways, which is the number of combinations of small areas including the road section B represented by the equation (11), are stationed without dividing the design area into the small areas indicated by the above equation (9). The number of combinations is about 1 trillion, which is less than 1 / 2.1 billion.

Similarly, for example, in the residential area (design area) shown in FIG. 13, three utility poles, which are candidate positions for installing base stations, are built in a small area including the road section H, and candidates for installing terminal stations. Seven buildings are being built. By applying these numbers (m = 3, n = 7) to the above-mentioned equation (2), the number of combination patterns in the small area including the road section H becomes 192 according to the following equation (12).

(Number of combination patterns) = 3 × 2 ⁶
= 3 x 128
= 384 ・・・ (12)

In this way, the 384 combinations, which is the number of combinations of small areas including the road section H, which is represented by the equation (12), is a station design without dividing the design area into the small areas, which is indicated by the above equation (9). It is less than about 1 / 2.9 billion with respect to about 1 trillion combinations, which is the number of combinations in the case of performing.

As described above, the number of combination patterns in the eight small areas from the small area including the road section A to the small area including the road section H can be calculated as described above. The total number of the combination patterns of these eight small areas is about 1 trillion, which is the number of combination patterns when the station design is performed without dividing the design area into the small areas, which is shown by the above equation (9). On the other hand, it is at least about one billionth. In this way, by dividing the design area into small areas based on the road section and performing station station design, the number of combination patterns can be significantly reduced.

Hereinafter, an example of the operation in creating the combination pattern list of the station design support device 1 will be described.
FIG. 14 is a flowchart showing an operation of creating a combination pattern list of the station design support device 1 according to the second embodiment of the present invention.

The area division unit 171 divides the road included in the design area into a plurality of road sections based on the map data (step S201). For example, the area division unit 171 divides the road for each straight line within a communicable distance. In addition, for example, the area division portion 171 divides the section of the curve for each line of sight. However, as a caveat, the division of road sections allows the boundaries of adjacent road sections to enter each other and allow the adjacent road sections to overlap.

The area division unit 171 groups the utility poles and buildings for each small area including each road section based on the map data and the equipment data (step S202). In the following description, a small area including a certain road section may be simply referred to as a "road section".
The area division unit 171 determines whether or not all the road sections in the design area have been grouped (step S203).

If there is a road section in the design area that has not been grouped (step S203 / NO), the combination pattern extraction unit 172 will use the utility pole (base station installation candidate position) and building (terminal station installation candidate) for each group. The combination pattern with the position) is extracted (step S204). The combination pattern extraction unit 172 generates a combination pattern list, which is a list of the extracted combination patterns (step S205). The combination pattern extraction unit 172 records the generated combination pattern list in the combination pattern list storage unit 18.

The duplicate pattern deletion unit 173 determines whether or not there is the same (overlapping) combination pattern among the combination pattern lists of different small areas (step S206). That is, in this determination, it is confirmed whether or not there is an overlapping combination pattern in which a base station and a terminal station are installed in the same utility pole and the same building in different groups.

When there is the same (overlapping) combination pattern between the combination pattern lists of different small areas (step S206, YES), the duplication pattern deletion unit 173 leaves only one duplication pattern. Others are deleted (step S207). Then, the process returns to step S206.

On the other hand, when there is no same (overlapping) combination pattern between the combination pattern lists of different small areas (step S206 / NO), the process returns to step S203, and the area division unit 171 determines all the road sections in the design area. Determine if grouping has been performed. When all the road sections in the design area are grouped (step S203, YES), the station design support device 1 outputs the generated combination pattern list. For example, the station design support device 1 presents the generated combination pattern list to the user by displaying it on a display unit (not shown) (step S208).
This completes the operation of the station design support device 1 shown in the flowchart of FIG.

As described above, according to the station design support device 1 in the second embodiment, when there are installation candidate positions of a plurality of base stations and installation candidate positions of a plurality of terminal stations in the design area. In, an appropriate combination pattern can be presented. If all combination patterns of all base station installation candidate positions and all terminal station installation candidate positions in such a design area are to be evaluated, the number of combination patterns is, for example, as described above. The number will exceed 1 trillion. Therefore, in this case, it becomes difficult to determine the line-of-sight and calculate the shielding rate for each combination pattern in a realistic calculation time.

The station design support device 1 in the second embodiment divides the road included in the design area into a plurality of road sections based on the map data, and sets a small area for each road section. Since the station design support device 1 creates a combination pattern list for each small area, the number of combination patterns can be significantly reduced. As a result, the station design support device 1 can reduce the number of combination patterns to the extent that the line-of-sight determination and the calculation of the shielding rate can be performed in a realistic calculation time (for example, less than 500,000 patterns).

Further, since the station design support device 1 in the second embodiment sets a small area for each road section, the line-of-sight determination and the shielding rate calculation between the base station installation candidate position and the terminal installation candidate position are performed. The combination pattern list can be generated so as to exclude the combination patterns that are difficult to obtain good results. This is because, as mentioned above, the wall surface of the building facing the road section different from the road section on which the utility pole is built is considered to have no line of sight and often have a high shielding rate.

Further, the station design support device 1 in the second embodiment arranges a plurality of small areas so as to fill the entire design area while allowing superposition. As a result, the station design support device 1 reduces the oversight of combination patterns that have a positional relationship that straddles the boundaries of adjacent small areas and that have good results of line-of-sight determination and obstruction rate calculation. can do.

(Third embodiment)
In the third embodiment, the station design support device 1 is referred to as a recommended base station installation position (hereinafter referred to as "recommended installation position") based on the design area designated by the user and the installation position of the terminal station. ) Is presented to the user. When a plurality of terminal stations are designated, the number of combination patterns for performing line-of-sight determination and shielding rate calculation processing may be enormous (for example, tens of billions) depending on the position where the terminal stations are designated. The station design support device 1 in the present embodiment can reduce such a combination pattern.

Hereinafter, an example of the operation of the station design support device 1 in the third embodiment will be described.
FIG. 15 is a flowchart showing the operation of the station design support device 1 according to the third embodiment of the present invention.

First, the design area designation unit 2 designates the design area based on the designated input by the user (step S301). The designated design area is, for example, a specific area in the map data stored in the map data storage unit 11 as shown on the left side of FIG.

Next, the base station candidate position extraction unit 3 acquires equipment data from the equipment data storage unit 12 and extracts information on outdoor communication equipment including utility poles in the design area (step S302). The information extracted here is, for example, information as shown on the right side of FIG. As shown on the right side of FIG. 16, the information includes, for example, information indicating a utility pole number identifying a utility pole, a position and type of a utility pole, and the like in a designated design area.

The point cloud data processing unit 6 is based on the information extracted in step S302 on the map of the designated design area, for example, as shown in FIG. 17, based on the information about the outdoor communication equipment including the utility pole and the like. For example, the installation candidate position (telephone pole) of the base station is displayed on a display unit (not shown). In the map shown in FIG. 17, the number of utility poles is 94 and the number of buildings is 230. Utility poles are represented by a "○" mark.

The point cloud data processing unit 6 designates the installation position of the terminal station based on the designated input by the user (step S303). For example, in the map shown in FIG. 18, the installation position of the terminal station is represented by an “x” mark. The point cloud data processing unit 6 is a candidate for installing a base station, which is determined to have a line of sight or has a shielding rate less than a predetermined value, centering on the designated terminal station, based on the installation position of the designated terminal station. The position (telephone pole) is extracted (step S304). In the map shown in FIG. 19, the extracted five base station installation candidate positions (telephone poles) are indicated by “◯” marks. Further, a code (“A”, “B”, “C”, “D”, ...) For identifying the installation candidate position of each base station is shown.

The recommended pattern specifying unit 174 presents the recommended installation position of the base station to the user (step S305).
This completes the operation of the station design support device 1 shown in the flowchart of FIG.

The two methods of presenting the recommended installation positions of the base station will be described below.
The first presentation method is to derive the recommended installation position of the base station for accommodating the terminal station with the minimum number of base stations. In this first presentation method, it is assumed that the user of the station design support device 1 specifies the installation positions of a plurality of terminal stations.

FIG. 20 is a diagram showing an example of a list presented by the station design support device 1 according to the third embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 20, in the first presentation method, the number of terminal stations determined to have no line of sight for any of the base station installation candidate positions in the design area is minimized. The recommended installation location of the base station is presented so that the number of base stations required to accommodate the terminal station in the design area is minimized.

In the list shown in FIG. 20, the minimum value of the number of terminal stations determined to have no line of sight for any of the base station installation candidate positions is 16. Of these, the minimum number of base stations required to accommodate the terminal stations in the design area is 2. In this case, there are two combinations of two base stations required to accommodate the terminal station in the design area, "A" and "D", or "B" and "D". Therefore, the first evaluation order is given to the combination of these two types of base stations.

The second presentation method is to derive the recommended installation position of the base station so as to minimize the number of terminal stations that cannot be connected to a plurality of base stations. In other words, this second presentation method presents the recommended installation position of the base station so that each of the plurality of terminal stations specified by the user can be connected to as many base stations as possible. ..

FIG. 21 is a diagram showing an example of a list presented by the station design support device 1 according to the third embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 21, in the second presentation method, the number of terminal stations determined to have no line of sight for any of the base station installation candidate positions in the design area is minimized. Further, a base that minimizes the number of terminal stations that cannot be connected to multiple base stations and minimizes the number of base stations required to accommodate the terminal stations in the design area. The recommended installation location of the station is presented.

In the list shown in FIG. 21, the minimum value of the number of terminal stations determined to have no line of sight for any of the base station installation candidate positions is 16. Of these, the minimum value of the terminal station that cannot be connected to a plurality of base stations is 1. Further, among these, the minimum value of the number of base stations required to accommodate the terminal stations in the design area is 4. In this case, there is only one combination of four base stations required to accommodate the terminal station in the design area, "A", "B", "C", and "D". Therefore, the first-ranked evaluation order is given to this one combination of base stations.

In order to derive the recommended installation position of the base station, the number of utility poles that are candidate positions for the installation of the base station and the number of terminal stations (specified by the user) are important in the design area. If these numbers are too large, the number of combination patterns of the base station installation candidate position and the terminal station installation position will be so large that it will not be possible to determine the line-of-sight or calculate the shielding rate within a realistic time. It becomes a number.

Hereinafter, description will be made with reference to FIG. 22.
Hereinafter, the number of installation candidate positions (telephone poles) of the base station in the design area is m = 100, and the number of installation positions of the terminal stations specified by the user is n = 5. Terminal stations installed at these five locations may communicate with, for example, 33 base stations. Since there are 100 candidate base station installation positions in the design area, the value of 33 locations means that the terminal station connects to about one-third of these base stations even if it is underestimated. It is an expected value based on the assumption that it is possible.

Actually, when five terminal stations are specified, each terminal station is not necessarily due to the difference due to the position of each terminal station and the positions of a plurality of base stations existing in the vicinity of each terminal station. However, the same number of base stations is not always selected (that is, the same number of combination patterns are generated). However, for the sake of simplicity, the number of combinations of patterns is roughly estimated here, and it is assumed that the same number of base stations are selected for each terminal station.

The number of base stations m = 33 and the number of terminal stations n = 5 are numerical values that can be sufficiently assumed as described above if the wireless communication distance between the two stations is about 200 [m]. When the number of combination patterns is calculated according to the above-mentioned equation (2) using these numbers (m = 33, n = 5), there are about 43 billion combinations according to the following equation (13). In the following equation (13), the positions of the number m of base stations and the number n of terminal stations are opposite to those of equation (2).

(Number of combination patterns) = n × 2 ^m
= 5 × 2 ³³
= 5 × 8,589,934,592
= 42,949,672,960 ... (13)

In this way, even if the candidate positions for installing the base station for the terminal station are underestimated as one-third of the 100 utility poles in the design area and assumed to be 33 locations, the base station and the terminal station The number of combination patterns is about 43 billion. Assuming that it takes 3 seconds to calculate the shielding rate per combination pattern, for example, 358.33 million hours (= 129 billion seconds) is required to process all the combination patterns. You will need it. This corresponds to 149.3 million days, that is, a period exceeding 4000 years.

In the above-mentioned first embodiment, for example, a small area (radius 44.4 [m]) is provided with respect to a design area (a circular area having a radius of 200 [m] in an area of 400 [m] square). Circular area) was set. As a result, in the above calculation, the number of combination patterns could be reduced from about 22 trillion patterns to about 500,000 patterns.

However, in reality, it is not always possible to prepare the prospect judgment of the number of combination patterns and the calculation of the shielding rate of 500,000 combinations with the calculation resources that can be prepared (in some cases, less calculation resources can be prepared. Because it is also assumed).
Therefore, in order to further reduce the number of combination patterns according to the calculation resources that can be prepared, a method of adjusting the radius of the small area to be shorter will be described below.

FIG. 23 is a diagram showing the adjustment of the radius of the small area.
FIG. 23 is a diagram for explaining a method of reducing the number of combination patterns (about 43 billion ways) calculated by the above equation (13). Here, the circular examination range set under the assumption that the wireless communication distance between the terminal station and the base station, which is shown in FIG. 22 above, is about 200 [m] is adjusted. Specifically, for example, the circular diameter _DZ centered on the position of the terminal station designated by the user, which is shown in FIG. 23, is represented by the following equation (14).

D _Z = 200-50 x i ... (14)

Here, when i = 0, it corresponds to the circular area shown in FIG. 22 (same as the circular area of the two-dot chain line shown in FIG. 23), and the radius is Dz = 200 [m]. In this area, as described above, the number of combination patterns is about 43 billion. Therefore, the number of combination patterns is adjusted to be 500,000 or less that can be processed in a realistic time.

The station design support device 1 gradually increases the value of i. As a result, the radius of the small area is gradually shortened, and the number of combination patterns is reduced.
In the above equation (14), if i = 1 as the first step, the radius of the circle Dz = 150 [m]. That is, in FIG. 23, the circular area of the two-dot chain line is reduced to the circular area of the one-dot chain line. In this first stage, it is assumed that the candidate positions for installing base stations capable of wireless communication with the terminal station are m = 25. Further, the number of designated terminal stations does not change, and it is assumed that n = 5 locations. Based on these conditions of n = 5 and m = 25, the number of combination patterns is expressed by the following equation (15).

(Number of combination patterns) = n × 2 ^m
= 5 × 2 ²⁵
= 5 × 33,554,432
= 167,772,160 ... (15)

As described above, the number of combination patterns in the case of i = 1 is about 170 million, which is not the number of combination patterns that can be processed realistically. If the processing time for one set of combination patterns is 3 [seconds], the processing time for all (170 million combinations) combination patterns is 5033.1 billion [seconds], that is, It takes about 16 years. This is only to reduce the number of combinations of about 43 billion combinations calculated by the above equation (13) to 1/256.

In the above equation (14), if i = 2 as the second step, the radius of the circle Dz = 100 [m]. That is, in FIG. 23, the area is reduced from the circular area of the alternate long and short dash line to the circular area of the solid line. In this second stage, it is assumed that the candidate positions for installing base stations capable of wireless communication with the terminal station are m = 16. Further, the number of designated terminal stations does not change, and it is assumed that n = 5 locations. Based on these conditions of n = 5 and m = 16, the number of combination patterns is expressed by the following equation (16).

(Number of combination patterns) = n × 2 ^m
= 5 × 2 ¹⁶
= 5 × 65,536
= 327,680 ... (15)

As described above, the number of combination patterns in the case of i = 2 is about 330,000, which is the number of combination patterns that can be realistically processed. This reduces the number of combinations of about 43 billion combinations calculated by the above equation (13) to 1 / 130,000. As described above, according to the present embodiment, the number of combination patterns is gradually reduced and adjusted so as to satisfy a predetermined number of combination patterns (less than 500,000 combinations that can be processed within a realistic calculation time). can do.

FIG. 24 is a flowchart showing the operation of the station design support device 1 according to the third embodiment of the present invention.
First, the design area designation unit 2 designates the design area based on the designated input by the user (step S401). Next, the point cloud data processing unit 6 designates the position of the terminal station based on the designated input by the user (step S402). Here, it is also possible to specify a plurality of terminal stations.

Next, the point cloud data processing unit 6 selects a base station located at a distance capable of wireless communication from the terminal station (step S403). The combination pattern extraction unit 172 calculates the number of combination patterns from the (plural) terminal stations and the base stations selected in step S403 (step S404). The combination pattern extraction unit 172 determines whether or not the calculated number of combination patterns is a predetermined value (for example, 500,000 ways) or less (step S405).

When the number of combination patterns exceeds a predetermined value (step S405 / NO), the combination pattern extraction unit 172 determines whether or not the distance from the terminal station that selects the base station can be shortened (step S406). When the distance from the terminal station for selecting the base station can be shortened (step S406 · YES), the combination pattern extraction unit 172 selects the base station at a shorter distance from the terminal station (step S407). Then, the process returns to step S404.

On the other hand, when the distance from the terminal station for selecting the base station cannot be shortened (step S406 / NO), the combination pattern extraction unit 172 deletes some designations of the specified plurality of terminal stations (step S408). Then, the process returns to step S403.

Although not shown in the flowchart of FIG. 24, it is assumed that in step S408, partial deletion of a plurality of designated terminal stations may not be completed as a result. That is, even though one terminal station has the shortest distance, the number of combinations may exceed a predetermined number. In such a case, it is conceivable that the station design support device 1 separately presents the user.

On the other hand, in step S405 described above, when the number of combination patterns is equal to or less than a predetermined value (step S405 · YES), the point cloud data processing unit 6 performs a point cloud for each combination pattern included in the generated combination pattern list. The outlook determination process using the data or the obstruction rate calculation process is carried out (step S409).
This completes the operation of the station design support device 1 shown in the flowchart of FIG. 24.

As described above, according to the station design support device 1 in the third embodiment, there are a plurality of utility poles that are candidate positions for installing base stations in the design area, and the position of at least one terminal station is arbitrary. When designating on the wall surface of a building, it is possible to present an appropriate combination pattern. If the installation candidate positions of all the base stations located within the range where wireless communication is possible from the terminal station in such a design area are selected, the number of combination patterns will be on the scale of tens of billions. Therefore, in this case, it becomes difficult to determine the line-of-sight and calculate the shielding rate for each combination pattern in a realistic calculation time.

The station design support device 1 in the third embodiment gradually shortens the radius of the circular area indicating the distance from the installation position of the terminal station to the installation candidate position of the base station to be selected. As a result, the station design support device 1 can gradually reduce the number of combination patterns. As a result, the station design support device 1 can reduce the number of combination patterns to the extent that the line-of-sight determination and the obstruction rate can be calculated in a realistic calculation time (for example, less than 500,000 patterns). Can be adjusted.

(Variation example of the third embodiment)
In the third embodiment described above, the station design support device 1 gradually shortens the radius of the circular area indicating the distance to the installation candidate position of the base station to be selected, thereby reducing the number of combination patterns. It was a configuration to reduce. On the other hand, in the modification of the third embodiment, the station design support device 1 gradually increases the radius of the circular area indicating the distance to the installation candidate position of the base station to be selected. Therefore, the number of combination patterns is adjusted so as to approach a desired value.

FIG. 25 is a diagram showing adjustment of the radius of the small area.
Specifically, for example, the station design support device 1 gradually increases the radius of the area. As a result, the number of combination patterns increases step by step. When the upper limit number of combination patterns that can be processed in a realistic calculation time is exceeded at a certain stage, the station design support device 1 optimally uses the number of combination patterns calculated in the previous stage. Determined as the number of patterns. Then, the station design support device 1 performs a process of determining the line-of-sight and calculating the shielding rate for each combination pattern included in the combination pattern list generated in the previous step.

As described above, the station station design support device 1 in the modified example of the third embodiment has the number of combination patterns by gradually shortening the communication distance as in the station station design support device 1 in the third embodiment described above. On the contrary to reducing the number of union patterns, the shortest communication distance is increased in order to obtain the optimum number of union patterns. As described above, the station design support device 1 in the modified example of the third embodiment has the above-mentioned configuration by gradually expanding the target area from the shortest communication distance. Compared with the third embodiment of the above, the station design can be performed with less computational resources.

The reason for this is that the narrower the target area, the smaller the number of combination patterns. The station design support device 1 in the modified example of the third embodiment starts from the case where the number of combination patterns is smaller, and gradually increases the number of combination patterns as necessary to obtain the optimum number of combination patterns. .. Therefore, the station design support device 1 in the modified example of the third embodiment gradually reduces the number of combination patterns from the large number of combination patterns in the first stage to obtain the optimum number of patterns. It is possible to significantly reduce the calculation resources as compared with the above-mentioned third embodiment.

The station design support device 1 in the above-described embodiment is a small area indicating an area smaller than the designated area, and the designated design area is formed into a plurality of the small areas on which at least a part of the range is superimposed. A combination pattern of the area division unit 171 to be divided and the installation candidate position of the base station (first radio station) and the installation candidate position of the terminal station (second radio station) included in the small area for each small area. A combination pattern extraction unit 172 that extracts a combination pattern list and generates a combination pattern list, an overlap pattern deletion unit 173 that deletes a duplicate combination pattern between the combination pattern list for each small area, and the overlapped combination pattern. It is provided with an output unit that outputs a deleted combination pattern list.

By providing the above configuration, the station design support device 1 can significantly reduce the combination patterns, and can be installed at the base station installation candidate positions and the terminal station installation candidates that exist across the boundary between two adjacent small areas. Even if it is a combination pattern with a position, it can be made difficult to be excluded from the evaluation target. As a result, the station station design support device 1 can support more effective station station design within a realistic calculation processing time.

In the first to third embodiments described above, millimeter-wave radio is shown as an example of wireless communication between the base station and the terminal station, but terrestrial digital communication and satellite radio waves other than millimeter-wave wireless communication are shown. Communication by, or communication using UHF (Ultra High Frequency) may be used.

The station design support device 1 in each of the above-described embodiments may be realized by a computer. In that case, a program for realizing this function may be recorded on a computer-readable recording medium, and the program recorded on the recording medium may be read by a computer system and executed. The term "computer system" as used herein includes hardware such as an OS and peripheral devices. Further, the "computer-readable recording medium" refers to a portable medium such as a flexible disk, a magneto-optical disk, a ROM, or a CD-ROM, and a storage device such as a hard disk built in a computer system. Further, a "computer-readable recording medium" is a communication line for transmitting a program via a network such as the Internet or a communication line such as a telephone line, and dynamically holds the program for a short period of time. It may also include a program that holds a program for a certain period of time, such as a volatile memory inside a computer system that is a server or a client in that case. Further, the above program may be for realizing a part of the above-mentioned functions, and may be further realized for realizing the above-mentioned functions in combination with a program already recorded in the computer system. It may be realized by using a programmable logic device such as FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array).

As described above, the embodiment of the present invention has been described in detail with reference to the drawings, but the specific configuration is not limited to this embodiment, and the design and the like within a range not deviating from the gist of the present invention are also included.

In the station design that uses point cloud data to determine the location where wireless base stations and terminal stations are installed, the line-of-sight judgment and shielding rate from the base stations installed in outdoor equipment such as utility poles to the terminal stations installed on the wall of the building It can be applied to the calculation.

1 ... Station design support device, 2 ... Design area designation unit, 3 ... Base station candidate position extraction unit, 4 ... Terminal station candidate position extraction unit, 5 ... Two-dimensional line-of-sight determination processing unit, 6 ... Point group data processing unit, 7 ... Station number calculation unit, 10 ... Operation processing unit, 11 ... Map data storage unit, 12 ... Equipment data storage unit, 13 ... Point group data storage unit, 15 ... Two-dimensional line-of-sight determination result storage unit, 17 ... Pattern number control Unit, 18 ... Combination pattern list storage unit, 20 ... 3D candidate position selection unit, 23 ... 3D prospect determination processing unit, 24 ... Obstruction rate calculation unit, 171 ... Area division unit, 172 ... Pattern extraction unit, 173 ... Duplicate Pattern deletion unit, 174 ... Recommended pattern identification unit, 800, 801 ... Building, 810, 811, 812 ... Residential, 821, 826 ... Electric pole, 830, 834 ... Base station, 840, 844 ... Terminal station, 850, 851 ... Station Building, 900, 901 ... Optical fiber

Claims

An area division step that divides a designated area into a plurality of small areas that are smaller than the designated area and that at least a part of the range overlaps with each other.
For each of the small areas, a combination pattern of at least one candidate position for installing a first radio station and at least one candidate position for installing a second radio station included in the small area is extracted, and a combination pattern list is generated. Combination pattern extraction step and
A duplicate pattern deletion step for deleting duplicate combination patterns between the combination pattern lists for each small area, and
An output step that outputs a combination pattern list in which the duplicate combination pattern is deleted, and
Station design support method with.
The station design support method according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of small areas are circular with the same radius and are arranged in order with the length of the radius as a unit.
The station design support method according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of small areas are arranged so as to include a plurality of road divisions in which roads included in the area are divided.
The station design support method according to claim 3, wherein the plurality of road divisions are divisions divided into sections having a line of sight on the road.
The station setting design support method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the number of the second radio stations, which is a combination pattern with the first radio station, is not more than a predetermined value.
A step of acquiring information indicating the position of at least one first radio station, and
A step of calculating the number of combination patterns of at least one first radio station and a candidate position for installation of at least one second radio station located within a predetermined distance from the position of the first radio station.
When the number of the combination patterns exceeds a predetermined number, the step of gradually shortening the predetermined distance and the step of gradually shortening the predetermined distance.
When the number of the combination patterns does not exceed the predetermined number, the step of outputting the number of the combination patterns and the step.
Station design support method with.
A step of acquiring information indicating the position of at least one first radio station, and
A step of calculating the number of combination patterns of at least one first radio station and a candidate position for installation of at least one second radio station located within a predetermined distance from the position of the first radio station.
When the number of the combination patterns does not exceed the predetermined number, the step of gradually increasing the predetermined distance and the step of gradually increasing the predetermined distance.
When the number of the combination patterns exceeds a predetermined number, a step of outputting the number of the combination patterns based on the predetermined distance in the immediately preceding step, and
Station design support method with.
An area division portion that divides the designated area into a plurality of the small areas in which at least a part of the range overlaps, which is a small area indicating an area smaller than the designated area.
For each of the small areas, a combination pattern extraction unit that extracts a combination pattern of the installation candidate position of the first radio station and the installation candidate position of the second radio station included in the small area and generates a combination pattern list.
A duplicate pattern deletion unit that deletes duplicate combination patterns between the combination pattern lists for each small area, and
An output unit that outputs a combination pattern list in which the duplicate combination pattern is deleted, and
Station design support device equipped with.