WO2024100800A1

WO2024100800A1 - Station installation design assistancne device, station installation design assistancne method, and program

Info

Publication number: WO2024100800A1
Application number: PCT/JP2022/041708
Authority: WO
Inventors: 俊朗中平; 大輔村山; 聡高谷; 貴庸守山
Original assignee: 日本電信電話株式会社
Priority date: 2022-11-09
Filing date: 2022-11-09
Publication date: 2024-05-16

Abstract

This station installation design assistance device has: a calculating unit that is configured to calculate, for one or more locations, the reception power from each of a plurality of candidates pertaining to the installation position of a base station; and a determining unit that is configured to determine the installation position of a base station from among the candidates for which the reception power at each of the locations is no more than a threshold. As a result, it is possible to provide efficient station installation design while suppressing radio wave interference.

Description

Station location design support device, station location design support method, and program

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

In order to build the coverage area of a wireless communication system, station placement design is carried out to determine the base station placement (installation location and antenna direction). In station placement design, after selecting the base station placement, a simulation of the service area may be performed, using methods such as empirical estimation (Non-Patent Document 1) or ray tracing (Non-Patent Document 2).

Among privately operated wireless systems, there are wireless systems such as local 5G that are permitted to be used only when conditions are met that limit radio interference to areas other than the location of use to below a certain standard (for example, Non-Patent Document 3). Therefore, when designing the placement of such wireless systems for the location of use, it is necessary to build a service area for the location of use while limiting radio interference to areas other than the location of use to below a certain standard. However, with conventional technology that selects the placement of base stations and then evaluates whether the required quality is met for the service area, it is difficult to design placement that takes such conditions into account.

As a result, if a certain distance is maintained to keep radio interference to areas other than the location of use below a certain level, the placement of base stations is significantly restricted, resulting in an inefficient base station design or an inability to ensure a sufficient service area.

The present invention was made in consideration of the above points, and aims to enable efficient station placement design while suppressing radio interference.

In order to solve the above problem, the station placement design support device has a calculation unit configured to calculate the received power from each of multiple candidates for the placement position of a base station for one or more points, and a determination unit configured to determine the placement position of the base station from among the candidates for which the received power at all of the points is equal to or less than a threshold value.

This makes it possible to design stations efficiently while suppressing radio interference.

1 is a diagram illustrating an example of a hardware configuration of a station placement design assistance device 10 according to an embodiment of the present invention. 1 is a diagram illustrating an example of a functional configuration of a station placement design assistance device 10 according to an embodiment of the present invention. 1 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a processing procedure executed by a station placement design assisting device 10. FIG. 11 is a diagram for explaining target area information.

The following describes an embodiment of the present invention with reference to the drawings. Figure 1 is a diagram showing an example of the hardware configuration of a station placement design support device 10 in an embodiment of the present invention. The station placement design support device 10 in Figure 1 has a drive device 100, an auxiliary storage device 102, a memory device 103, a processor 104, and an interface device 105, which are all interconnected by a bus B.

The program that realizes the processing in the station placement design assistance device 10 is provided by a recording medium 101 such as a CD-ROM. When the recording medium 101 storing the program is set in the drive device 100, the program is installed from the recording medium 101 via the drive device 100 into the auxiliary storage device 102. However, the program does not necessarily have to be installed from the recording medium 101, but may be downloaded from another computer via a network. The auxiliary storage device 102 stores the installed program as well as necessary files, data, etc.

When an instruction to start a program is received, the memory device 103 reads out and stores the program from the auxiliary storage device 102. The processor 104 is a CPU or a GPU (Graphics Processing Unit), or a CPU and a GPU, and executes functions related to the station placement design support device 10 in accordance with the program stored in the memory device 103. The interface device 105 is used as an interface for connecting to a network.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of the functional configuration of the station placement design support device 10 in an embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 2, the station placement design support device 10 has a received power calculation unit 11, a candidate exclusion unit 12, and a station placement design unit 13. Each of these units is realized by a process in which one or more programs installed in the station placement design support device 10 are executed by the processor 104.

The following describes the processing steps performed by the station placement design support device 10. Figure 3 is a flowchart for explaining an example of the processing steps performed by the station placement design support device 10.

In step S101, the reception power calculation unit 11 calculates the reception power from multiple candidate wireless stations for one or more points (hereinafter referred to as "interference evaluation points") that are set outside the site of a geographical area (hereinafter referred to as the "target area") in which the use of a wireless system, such as a private wireless system, is planned.

A wireless station candidate is a candidate for the location of one or more base stations that make up the target wireless system. An interference evaluation point is a point included in an area where radio interference from the target wireless system is required to be kept below a certain standard, and is set in advance. Information indicating multiple wireless station candidates and one or more interference evaluation points is included in information about the target area (hereinafter referred to as "target area information") and is stored in advance in the auxiliary storage device 102 or the like. Target area environment information also includes information indicating the environment of the target area, such as the size and shape of the target area, and the range (location) and material of structures.

FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining the target area information. In FIG. 4, the target area A1 has a rectangular shape for convenience, and an example is shown in which 10 wireless station candidates bc are set within the space of the target area A1. Note that in FIG. 4, since it is assumed that the target area is inside an event venue, the shape of the venue is expressed in three dimensions. FIG. 4 also shows an example in which six interference evaluation points ip are set outside the premises of the target area. The positions and shapes of six structures st are also made clear. In addition, 15 evaluation points are set. Note that the position information of the wireless station candidates bc, interference evaluation points ip, structures st, and evaluation points ep may be three-dimensional coordinate information or two-dimensional coordinate information.

In FIG. 4, one wireless station candidate bc and six interference evaluation points ip are connected by dashed arrows. This indicates that the received power at the six interference evaluation points ip is calculated for radio waves from the wireless station candidate bc. This calculation of the received power is performed for all ten wireless station candidates bc. Therefore, ten received powers are calculated for each interference evaluation point ip. The calculation of the received power can be performed using publicly known technology. For example, the received power may be calculated taking into account whether there is a structure st between the interference evaluation point ip and the wireless station candidate bc.

The location of the interference evaluation point ip may be selected from among areas where radio interference may occur or areas where radio interference must be suppressed to within a certain standard.

The evaluation point ep refers to a location that is set in advance as a place where wireless communication is required to be possible in the target area. For example, a location where the terminal is expected to be used is set as the evaluation point.

Then, the candidate exclusion unit 12 determines whether any of the calculated reception powers exceeds the upper limit reception power target (S102). The upper limit reception power target is a threshold value that is set in advance with the aim of suppressing radio interference below a certain standard. The upper limit reception power target may be the same value for all interference evaluation points, or may be a different value for some or all of the interference evaluation points.

If all of the received powers are below the upper limit received power target (No in S102), proceed to step S104. If any of the received powers exceed the upper limit received power target (Yes in S102), execute step S103 and proceed to step S104.

In step S103, the candidate exclusion unit 12 excludes (invalidates) wireless station candidates related to reception power exceeding the upper limit reception power target. In other words, the wireless station candidates are excluded from the candidates for the placement position of the base station. Wireless station candidates that are not excluded in step S103 are called "valid wireless station candidates."

In step S104, the station placement design unit 13 executes station placement design processing. The station placement design processing is processing for determining the number of base stations to be placed and the placement positions of the base stations. At this time, the placement positions of the base stations are selected from among valid wireless station candidates (i.e., wireless station candidates whose all reception power is below the upper limit reception power target). Therefore, it becomes possible to perform station placement design that can suppress radio interference at the interference evaluation point ip. Station placement design refers to determining the placement of base stations (installation locations and antenna directions) to build the coverage area of the wireless system.

The station placement design process can be performed using known technology. For example, the station placement design unit 13 calculates the received power from all valid wireless station candidates for all evaluation points. The evaluation points may be selected using a predetermined method from the range within the target area where wireless communication is desired to be covered.

Then, the station placement design unit 13 selects a predetermined number of radio station candidates from among the valid radio station candidates. Specific selection methods include, for example, the following two methods (A) and (B).

(A) Using a greedy method, wireless station candidates that satisfy the required communication quality for as many evaluation points as possible are selected until a predetermined number is reached. The required communication quality for an evaluation point is the required reception power set for each evaluation point. Therefore, a wireless station candidate that satisfies the required communication quality for a certain evaluation point is a wireless station candidate whose reception power at that evaluation point is equal to or greater than the required communication quality.

(B) The evaluation points are divided into a predetermined number of clusters, and for each cluster, wireless station candidates that satisfy the required communication quality of the greater number of evaluation points are selected. Either non-hierarchical or hierarchical algorithms can be used for cluster division.

Then, the station placement design unit 13 judges whether or not there is a possibility that a terminal that cannot be accommodated will occur when a base station is placed at the wireless station candidate selected by the method (A) or (B). The judgment of whether or not there is a possibility that a terminal that cannot be accommodated will occur can be made by judging the presence or absence of an evaluation point ep where the received power is less than a threshold value. Furthermore, the judgment of whether or not there is a possibility that a terminal that cannot be accommodated will occur at the selected wireless station candidate may be made taking into account the constraints on the number of base stations that can be accommodated.

If it is determined that there is no possibility of a terminal that cannot be accommodated occurring, the station placement design unit 13 determines the selected wireless station candidate as the placement location of the base station. If it is determined that there is a possibility of a terminal that cannot be accommodated occurring, the station placement design unit 13 changes the station placement design conditions (e.g., the number of base stations to be placed, etc.) and repeats the process of selecting a wireless station candidate from among the valid wireless station candidates.

Then, the station placement design unit 13 outputs information indicating the wireless station candidates determined as the placement positions of the base stations as station placement design results (S105).

In the above, an example was described in which the interference evaluation point ip is a different point from the evaluation point ep (a point outside the range of the target area A), but any of the evaluation points ep may be set as the interference evaluation point ip. In this case, both the "required communication quality" and the "upper limit received power target" may be set for the evaluation point ep, and either one or both may be set for each evaluation point ep. The evaluation point ep for which the "upper limit received power target" is set may be treated as an interference evaluation point ip.

In the above description, the wireless station candidates are described taking into account only the location, without taking into account the state of the base station. However, multiple wireless station candidates may be set for the same location, taking into account differences in the state of the base station. For example, multiple wireless station candidates with different base station installation directions may be set for the same location, taking into account the directivity of the base station. It may also be possible to select an antenna to be used from multiple antennas for one base station. In this case, multiple wireless station candidates with different antenna types may be set for the same location.

Furthermore, although the above description assumes a single wireless communication method, multiple different wireless communication methods may be used in combination between base stations or between a base station and a relay station. In that case, since it is not possible to fairly evaluate wireless communication methods using received power, communication quality may be evaluated after converting it into a comparable index such as an expected wireless transmission rate.

As described above, according to this embodiment, it is possible to efficiently perform station placement design that satisfies the required quality for the target area while suppressing radio wave interference to areas other than the target area below a certain level. In other words, it is possible to perform efficient station placement design while suppressing radio wave interference.

In this embodiment, the received power calculation unit 11 is an example of a calculation unit. The station placement design unit 13 is an example of a determination unit.

The above describes in detail the embodiments of the present invention, but the present invention is not limited to such specific embodiments, and various modifications and variations are possible within the scope of the gist of the present invention as described in the claims.

10: Station placement design support device 11: Reception power calculation unit 12: Candidate exclusion unit 13: Station placement design unit 100: Drive device 101: Recording medium 102: Auxiliary storage device 103: Memory device 104: Processor 105: Interface device B: Bus

Claims

A calculation unit configured to calculate a received power from each of a plurality of candidates for a location of a base station for one or more points;
a determination unit configured to determine a location of a base station from among the candidates for which the received power at all of the points is equal to or less than a threshold;
A station placement design support device comprising:
The location is a location included in an area in which suppression of radio interference in wireless communication using the base station is required.
2. The station placement design support device according to claim 1.
The plurality of candidates includes a base station having the same location but a different state as another candidate.
3. The station placement design support device according to claim 1 or 2.
A calculation step of calculating a received power from each of a plurality of candidates for the arrangement position of the base station for one or more points;
a determination step of determining a location of a base station from among the candidates for which the received power at all the points is equal to or less than a threshold;
The station placement design support method is characterized in that the above steps are executed by a computer.
A calculation step of calculating a received power from each of a plurality of candidates for the arrangement position of the base station for one or more points;
a determination step of determining a location of a base station from among the candidates for which the received power at all the points is equal to or less than a threshold;
A program characterized by causing a computer to execute the above.