RADIO COMMUNICATION TERMINAL DEVICES AND METHODS FOR RANDOM ACCESS

Abstract

A terminal apparatus includes processing circuitry to duplicate a transmission packet to generate duplicated transmission packets and to assign the duplicated transmission packets to a subcarrier resource for a random access channel. A transmitter in the terminal transmits the duplicated transmission packets using the subcarrier resource for the random access channel.

Claims

1. A radio communication terminal apparatus comprising: processing circuitry configured to duplicate a transmission packet to generate duplicated transmission packets and to assign the duplicated transmission packets to a subcarrier resource for a random access channel; and a transmitter configured to transmit the duplicated transmission packets using the subcarrier resource for the random access channel.

2. The radio communication terminal apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the processing circuitry is configured to assign the duplicated transmission packets to at least one of a plurality of antennas for transmission over the subcarrier resource in the random access channel.

3. The radio communication terminal apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the duplicated transmission packets include two or more duplicated transmission packets.

4. The radio communication terminal apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the processing circuitry is configured to assign at least two of the duplicated transmission packets to two consecutive time slots in the random access channel.

5. The radio communication terminal apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the subcarrier resource includes one or both of a timing or a spreading code in addition to a transmission frequency.

6. The radio communication terminal apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the processing circuitry is configured to assign the duplicated transmission packets on at least two resources which are on the same subcarrier for the random access channel.

7. The radio communication terminal apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the transmitter is configured to transmit the duplicated transmission packets using the subcarrier resource for the random access channel without waiting for a response from a base station to confirm whether transmission packets transmitted on the random access channel are received at the base station.

8. A random access method comprising: duplicating a transmission packet to generate duplicated transmission packets; assigning the duplicated transmission packets to a subcarrier resource in a random access channel; and transmitting the duplicated transmission packets using the subcarrier resource for the random access channel.

9. The random access method according to claim 8, wherein the assigning includes assigning the duplicated transmission packets to at least one of a plurality of antennas for transmission over the subcarrier resource for the random access channel.

10. The random access method according to claim 8, wherein the duplicated transmission packets include two or more duplicated transmission packets.

11. The random access method according to claim 8, wherein the assigning includes assigning at least two of the duplicated transmission packets to two consecutive time slots for the random access channel.

12. The random access method according to claim 8, wherein the subcarrier resource includes one or both of a timing or a spreading code in addition to a transmission frequency.

13. The random access method according to claim 8, wherein the assigning includes assigning the duplicated transmission packets on at least two resources which are on the same subcarrier for the random access channel.

14. The random access method according to claim 8, wherein the transmitting includes transmitting the duplicated transmission packets using the subcarrier resource for the random access channel without waiting for a response from a base station to confirm whether transmission packets transmitted on the random access channel are received at the base station.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

[0027] FIG. 1 shows a configuration of a radio communication terminal system using a random access method according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention;

[0028] FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a radio communication terminal apparatus according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention;

[0029] FIG. 3 is a flow chart explaining a random access method according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention;

[0030] FIG. 4A shows an assignment of a transmission packet to RACH according to Embodiment 1;

[0031] FIG. 4B shows an assignment of a transmission packet to RACH according to Embodiment 1;

[0032] FIG. 4C shows an assignment of a transmission packet to RACH according to Embodiment 1;

[0033] FIG. 4D shows an assignment of a transmission packet to RACH according to Embodiment 1;

[0034] FIG. 5A shows an assignment of a transmission packet to RACH according to Embodiment 1;

[0035] FIG. 5B shows an assignment of a transmission packet to RACH according to Embodiment 1;

[0036] FIG. 5C shows an assignment of a transmission packet to RACH according to Embodiment 1;

[0037] FIG. 5D shows an assignment of a transmission packet to RACH according to Embodiment 1;

[0038] FIG. 5E shows an assignment of a transmission packet to RACH according to Embodiment 1;

[0039] FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a radio communication terminal apparatus according to Embodiment 2 of the present invention;

[0040] FIG. 7 is a flow chart explaining a random access method according to Embodiment 2 of the present invention;

[0041] FIG. 8 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a radio communication terminal apparatus according to Embodiment 3 of the present invention;

[0042] FIG. 9 is a flow chart explaining a random access method according to Embodiment 3 of the present invention;

[0043] FIG. 10 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a radio communication terminal apparatus according to Embodiment 4 of the present invention;

[0044] FIG. 11 is a flow chart explaining a random access method according to Embodiment 4 of the present invention;

[0045] FIG. 12A shows a correlation between a priority, the number of the radio communication terminal apparatuses belonging to the same cell, and the number of duplications of a transmission packet according to Embodiment 4; and

[0046] FIG. 12B shows a correlation between a priority, the number of the radio communication terminal apparatuses belonging to the same cell, and the number of duplications of a transmission packet according to Embodiment 4.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Example Embodiment 1

[0047] FIG. 1 shows a schematic configuration of a radio communication system composed of four radio communication terminal apparatuses 200-1 to 200-4 and base station apparatus 100 that establish individual channels using a random access method according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention. In FIG. 1, a communication area of this radio communication system is indicated as cell A. Furthermore, an OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing) signal is subjected to packet exchange in cell A of FIG. 1. In addition, the configurations and operations of the radio communication terminal apparatuses 200-1 to 200-4 will be explained below, but the radio communication terminal apparatuses 200-1 to 200-4 refer to the same configuration and the same function so that the branch numbers may be omitted when explanations of the function and the like are made entirely.

[0048] FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of radio communication terminal apparatus 200. Radio communication terminal apparatus 200 includes transmission packet generating section 201, duplication section 202, assignment section 210, packet multiplexing section 221, radio transmission section 222 and antenna element 223. Furthermore, assignment section 210 includes RACH subchannel assigning sections 211-1 to 211-c. In addition, c is an arbitrary natural number of two or greater.

[0049] Transmission packet generating section 201 generates transmission packet including information of radio communication terminal apparatus 200 necessary for establishing an individual channel to base station apparatus 100 when radio communication terminal apparatus 200 is started or recovered from the idol state, and inputs the generated transmission packet to duplication section 202.

[0050] Duplication section 202 duplicates the transmission packet input from transmission packet generating section 201, and inputs c duplicated transmission packets to RACH subchannel assigning sections 211-1 to 211-c, respectively.

[0051] RACH subchannel assigning section 211 assigns the transmission packets input from duplication section 202 randomly to arbitrary subcarriers with arbitrary RACH time slots. Assignment section 210 compares the assignment results of RACH subchannel assigning sections 211-1 to 211-c each other, and when transmission packets are assigned to the same subcarrier with the same time slot with overlap, assignment section 210 instructs one of RACH subchannel assigning sections 211 to perform assignment again. Assignment section 210 then instructs RACH subchannel assigning sections 211-1 to 211-c to input transmission packets to packet multiplexing section 221 with the subcarriers of assigned time slots after confirming that time slots and subcarriers assigned by RACH subchannel assigning sections 211-1 to 211-c are not overlapped. RACH subchannel assigning sections 211-1 to 211-c input transmission packets at predetermined timing and frequency to packet multiplexing section 221 in accordance with instructions from assignment section 210.

[0052] Packet multiplexing section 221 multiplexes transmission packets input from RACH subchannel assigning sections 211-1 to 211-c and inputs multiplexed transmission packets to radio transmission section 222.

[0053] Radio transmission section 222 is composed of S/P converter, IFFT apparatus, P/S converter, guard interval insertion apparatus, bandpass filter, D/A converter, low noise amplifier or the like, and after generating an OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing) signal from the transmission packet input from packet multiplexing section 221, radio transmission section 222 transmits the generated OFDM signal by radio to base station apparatus 100 through antenna element 223.

[0054] Next, the operations of radio communication terminal apparatus 200 will be explained using FIG. 3. FIG. 3 is a flow chart showing steps of a random access method according to this embodiment.

[0055] First, in step ST310, duplication section 202 duplicates c transmission packets input from transmission packet generating section 201.

[0056] Next, in step ST320, RACH subchannel assigning sections 211-1 to 211-c assign the transmission packets input from duplication section 202 randomly to arbitrary subcarriers at arbitrary time slots of RACH.

[0057] Next, in step ST330, assignment section 210 determines whether or not assignment results by RACH subchannel assigning sections 211-1 to 211-c are overlapped. When assignment section 210 determines assignment results by RACH subchannel assigning section 211 are overlapped in step ST330, assignment section 210 makes one of RACH subchannel assigning sections 211 which has caused the overlap perform the assignment of step ST320 again. On the other hand, in step ST330, when assignment section 210 determines assignment results by RACH subchannel assigning section 211 are not overlapped, step ST340 is executed.

[0058] Next, in step ST340, radio transmission section 222 generates an OFDM signal from the transmission packet input from packet multiplexing section 221, and transmits the generated OFDM signal by radio to base station apparatus 100 by RACH through antenna element 223.

[0059] FIGS. 4A to 4D and FIGS. 5A to 5E show specific aspect of assigning a transmission packet to the arbitrary subcarriers at arbitrary time slots of RACH by the random access method according to this embodiment. In this embodiment, RACH subchannel assigning section 211 is taken to process five subcarriers (SC) and five time slots (TS) as a unit of RACH and assigns transmission packets randomly within this one unit. As can be seen in FIG. 4A, for example, transmission packets (RACH access signals) are continuously transmitted using five consecutive time slots TS1, TS2, TS3, TS4, TS5 and are consecutive in the time domain.

[0060] FIG. 4A shows an assignment of transmission packets to RACH in radio communication terminal apparatus 200-1, and FIG. 4B to FIG. 4D show radio communication terminal apparatuses 200-2 to 200-4, respectively. FIG. 4A and FIG. 4D show an aspect of randomly assigning transmission packets to one of time slots and to one of subcarriers of RACH, and FIG. 4B to one of subcarriers by all time slots of RACH, and FIG. 4C to one of time slots in SC3 of RACH.

[0061] FIGS. 5A to 5E show transmission conditions of radio communication terminal apparatuses 200-1 to 200-4 about SC1 to SC5 in timings of TS1 to TS5, in the case that radio communication terminal apparatuses 200-1 to 200-4 transmit transmission packets by the assignment aspects shown in FIGS. 4A to 4D. FIG. 5A shows a transmission condition in TS1, FIG. 5B in TS2, FIG. 5C in TS3, FIG. 5D in TS4 and FIG. 5E in TS5, respectively. FIGS. 5A to 5E append x to all colliding transmission packets and o to transmission packets first received at base station apparatus 100, per radio communication terminal apparatuses 200-1 to 200-4.

[0062] As shown in FIGS. 5A to 5E, individual channels can be established to base station apparatus 100, at a timing of TS1 in radio communication terminal apparatus 200-1, at a timing of TS3 in radio communication terminal apparatus 200-2, at a timing of TS5 in radio communication terminal apparatus 200-3 and at a timing of TS4 in radio communication terminal apparatus 200-4, respectively.

[0063] In this way, according to this embodiment, radio communication terminal apparatus 200 assigns a plurality of duplicated transmission packets to RACH randomly in RACH subchannel assigning sections 211-1 to 211-c, and transmits the transmission packets at the assigned time slots and subcarriers without waiting for a response from base station apparatus 100 to the first transmission packets, thereby establishing an individual channel to base station apparatus 100 in a short time.

[0064] Furthermore, a plurality of transmission packets are assigned to time slots of RACH randomly only according to radio communication terminal apparatus 200-2 of this embodiment, and to subcarrier of RACH only according to radio communication terminal apparatus 200-3 so that it is possible to reduce load of signal processing in RACH subchannel assigning section 211 necessary for the assignment of transmission packets compared to the case that the plurality of transmission packets are assigned to time slots and subcarriers of RACH randomly.

[0065] Moreover, according to radio communication terminal apparatus 200-1 or 200-4 of this embodiment, RACH subchannel assigning section 211 assigns a plurality of transmission packets to one of time slots of RACH and also to one of subcarriers of RACH randomly so that, even when many radio communication terminal apparatuses 200 belong to the same cell, it is possible to reduce the likelihood of collision of transmission packets in RACH.

[0066] In addition, the following applications and changes may be possible to the random access method and radio communication terminal apparatus 200 according to this embodiment.

[0067] In this embodiment, a case has been described where a plurality of radio communication terminal apparatuses 200 assign transmission packets randomly to time slots and subcarriers of RACH, but the present invention is not limited to this, and, for example, it is equally possible for a plurality of radio communication terminal apparatuses 200 to transmit not OFDM but packet signals of a single carrier by radio communication, and assign those packet signals randomly to the arbitrary time slots of RACH.

[0068] Furthermore, in this embodiment, a case has been described where radio communication terminal apparatus 200 assigns randomly and transmits transmission packets to time slots and subcarriers of RACH, but the present invention is not limited to this, and, for example, it is possible for radio communication terminal apparatus 200 to select spreading codes randomly instead of time slots and subcarriers of RACH, and also perform code division of the transmission packets using the selected spreading codes. Furthermore, it is possible for radio communication terminal apparatus 200 to assign transmission packets randomly to RACH subchannel where time slots, subcarriers and spreading codes are setting elements. As a result, even when many radio communication terminal apparatuses 200 belong to the same cell, it is possible to further reduce the likelihood of collision of transmission packets in RACH.

Example Embodiment 2

[0069] FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing a configuration of radio communication terminal apparatus 600 according to Embodiment 2 of the present invention. Radio communication terminal apparatus 600 further includes priority determining section 601 and number-of-duplications determining section 602 in radio communication terminal apparatus 200 explained in Embodiment 1. Therefore, radio communication terminal apparatus 600 includes many components to show the same function as in the components of radio communication terminal apparatus 200, so that such components are assigned the same reference numerals as in the components of radio communication terminal apparatus 200, and explanations thereof will be omitted.

[0070] Priority determining section 601 determines a priority according to kinds of services planned by radio communication terminal apparatus 600 after communication with base station apparatus 100 is started. For example, in call services and video streaming services, since allowable delay time is short (QoS delay requirement is demanding), priority determining section 601 determines that high priority is necessary in radio communication terminal apparatus 600 scheduled to plan such service. Priority determining section 601 then inputs information of the determined priority to number-of-duplications determining section 602.

[0071] Number-of-duplications determining section 602 compares priority information input from priority determining section 601 with a conversion table provided in advance, determines the number of duplications corresponding to the priority and inputs information of, the determined number of duplications to duplication section 202.

[0072] Next, the operations of radio communication terminal apparatus 600 will be explained using FIG. 7. FIG. 7 is a flow chart explaining steps of the random access method according to Embodiment 2 of the present invention.

[0073] First, in step ST710, priority determining section 601 determines a priority of radio communication terminal apparatus 600 based on QoS delay requirement information input from control section or the like (not shown).

[0074] Subsequently, in step ST720, number-of-duplications determining section 602 determines the number of duplications of transmission packets according to the priority determined in step ST710, and inputs information of the number of duplications to duplication section 202.

[0075] Then, steps ST310 to 340 in Embodiment 1 are to be sequentially executed.

[0076] Here, an example of the conversion table held in number-of-duplications determining section 602 will be shown below in Table 1. This conversion table is made such that =1, based on c=xp . . . (1) {c is the number of duplications, is constant and p is the priority}.

TABLE-US-00001 TABLE 1 Priority:Number of duplications 5:5 4:4 3:3 2:2 1:1

[0077] In this way, according to the random access method of this embodiment, the number of duplications of transmission packet in duplication section 202 are determined according to kinds of services to be planned after an individual channel is established, and as QoS delay requirement out of a plurality radio communication terminal apparatuses 600 becomes more demanding so that it is possible to establish the individual channel to base station apparatus 100 in a short time. As a result, according to the random access method according to this embodiment, the problems of deterioration of communication quality, non-accessible state for communication and the like are made less likely to occur in the plurality of the whole radio communication terminal apparatuses 600 belonging to the same cell.

Example Embodiment 3

[0078] FIG. 8 is a block diagram showing a configuration of radio communication terminal apparatus 800 according to Embodiment 3 of the present invention. Radio communication terminal apparatus 800 further includes number-of-duplications determining section 802 in radio communication terminal apparatus 200 explained in Embodiment 1. Radio communication terminal apparatus 800 includes many components to show the same function as in the components of radio communication terminal apparatus 200 so that such components are assigned the same reference numerals as in the components of radio communication terminal apparatus 200, and explanations thereof will be omitted.

[0079] Number-of-duplications determining section 802 compares information of the number of retransmissions input from control section or the like (not shown) with a conversion table provided in advance, determines the number of duplications corresponding to the number of retransmissions and inputs information of the determined number of duplications to duplication section 202. In addition, the number of retransmissions in this embodiment is incremented every time all TS1 to TS5 shown in either of FIGS. 4A to 4D are transmitted.

[0080] Next, the operations of radio communication terminal apparatus 800 will be explained using FIG. 9. FIG. 9 is a flow chart explaining steps of a random access method according to this embodiment.

[0081] First, in step ST910, number-of-duplications determining section 802 compares the number of retransmissions input with the conversion table provided in advance, determines the number of duplications of the transmission packet and inputs information of the determined number of duplications to duplication section 202.

[0082] Then, steps ST310 to ST340 in Embodiment 1 are to be sequentially executed.

[0083] Here, an example of a conversion table held in number-of-duplications determining section 802 will be shown below in Table 2. This conversion table is made such that =1, based on c=Fx . . . (1) {c is the number of duplications, F is the number of retransmissions and is constant}.

TABLE-US-00002 TABLE 2 Number of retransmissions:Number of duplications 5:6 4:5 3:4 2:3 1:2

[0084] In this way, according to the random access method of this embodiment, the number of transmission packets transmitted from radio communication terminal 800 to base station apparatus 100 by RACH increases according to the number of retransmissions so that, out of a plurality of radio communication terminal apparatuses 800 belonging to the same cell, one with higher urgency is more likely to establish the individual channel to base station apparatus 100 in a short time. As a result, according to the random access method of this embodiment, the problems of deterioration of communication quality, non-accessible state for communication and the like are made less likely to occur in the plurality of the whole radio communication terminal apparatuses 800 belonging to the same cell.

Example Embodiment 4

[0085] FIG. 10 is a block diagram showing a configuration of radio communication terminal apparatus 1000 according to Embodiment 4 of the present invention. Radio communication terminal apparatus 1000 further includes radio reception section 1001, control information extracting section 1002 and number-of-duplications determining section 1003 in radio communication terminal apparatus 200 explained in Embodiment 1. Radio communication terminal apparatus 1000 includes many components to show the same function as in the components of radio communication terminal apparatus 200 so that such components are assigned the same reference numerals as in the components of radio communication terminal apparatus 200, and explanations thereof will be omitted.

[0086] Radio reception apparatus 1001 includes bandpass filter, A/D converter, low noise amplifier, guard interval removal apparatus, S/P converter, FFT apparatus, P/S converter or the like, and acquires an OFDM signal to notify the number of radio communication terminal apparatus 1000 which belong to cell A transmitted regularly from base station terminal 100 through antenna element 223, and after predetermined reception signal proceeding to the OFDM signal is performed, radio reception section 1001 inputs the OFDM signal to control information extracting section 1002.

[0087] Control information extracting section 1002 extracts information of the number of radio communication terminal apparatuses 1000 belonging to cell A out of the reception signal input from radio reception section 1001, and inputs the extracted control information to number-of-duplications determining section 1003.

[0088] Number-of-duplications determining section 1003 compares control information input from control information extracting section 1002 with the conversion table provided in advance, determines the number of duplications corresponding to the control information and inputs the information of the determined number of duplications to duplication section 202.

[0089] Next, the operations of radio communication terminal apparatus 1000 will be explained using FIG. 11. FIG. 11 is a flow chart explaining steps for a random access method according to this embodiment.

[0090] First, in step ST1110, control information extracting section 1002 extracts control information from reception signal input from radio reception section 1001.

[0091] Then, in step ST1120, number-of-duplication determining section 1003 learns the number of radio communication terminal apparatuses 1000 belonging to cell A based on control information and determines the number of duplications corresponding to this number with reference to the conversion table provided in advance.

[0092] Steps ST310 to ST340 in Embodiment 1 are to be sequentially executed.

[0093] Here, an example of the conversion table held in number-of-duplications determining section 1003 will be shown below in Table 3. In table 3, RACH subchannel assigning section 211 is taken to process a total of 1000 RACH subchannels composed of 10 time slots and 100 subcarriers per time slot as a RACH unit, assign 100 transmission packets at maximum in one unit and furthermore, radio communication terminal apparatus 1000 belongs to priorities 1 to 5.

TABLE-US-00003 TABLE 3 Priority/Number of duplications (number of terminals)/(20):(35):(100) 5/7(4):5(7):1(20) 4/6(4):4(7):1(20) 3/5(4):3(7):1(20) 2/4(4):2(7):1(20) 1/1(4):1(7):1(20) Sum of the number of duplications: 92:98:100

[0094] Furthermore, in FIG. 12A, correlation between the number of radio communication terminal apparatuses 1000 belonging to cell A and the number of duplications about priority 5 in this embodiment is shown. Also, in FIG. 12B, correlation between the number of radio communication terminal apparatuses 1000 belonging to cell A and the number of duplications about priority 3 in this embodiment is shown. As shown in FIG. 12A and FIG. 12B, this embodiment is set such that the number of duplications of transmission packet in duplication section 202 decreases with increase of the number of radio communication terminal apparatuses 1000 belonging to the same cell.

[0095] Therefore, according to the random access method of this embodiment, as the number of radio communication terminal apparatuses 1000 belonging to the same cell increases, the number of transmission packets transmitted by radio communication terminal apparatuses 1000 decreases so that it is possible to reduce the likelihood of collision of transmission packets at RACH in the same cell. As a result, according to the random access method according to this embodiment, the problems of deterioration of communication quality, non-accessible state for communication and the like are made less likely to occur in the plurality of the whole radio communication terminal apparatuses 1000 belonging to the same cell.

[0096] In addition, although in the above embodiments, a case has been described where the duplicated transmission packets are multiplexed and transmitted in subcarriers or time slots, when, for example, other resources such as radio communication terminal apparatus 200 include a plurality of transmission antennas, it is possible to multiplex and transmit the duplicated transmission packets in spatial resources such as transmission antenna and directivity pattern, and spreading codes in CDMA system.

[0097] In addition, function blocks used in the explanations of the above embodiments are typically implemented as LSI constituted by an integrated circuit. These may be individual chips or partially or totally contained on a single cup.

[0098] LSI is adopted here but this may also be referred to as IC, system LSI, super LSI, or ultra LSI depending on differing extents of integration.

[0099] Further, the method of circuit integration is not limited to LSI's, and implementation using dedicated circuitry or general purpose processors is also possible. After LSI manufacture, utilization of an FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array) or a reconfigurable processor where connections and settings of circuit cells within an LSI can be reconfigured is also possible.

[0100] Further, if integrated circuit technology comes out to replace LSI's as a result of the advancement of semiconductor technology or a derivative other technology, it is naturally also possible to carry out function block integration using this technology. Application in biotechnology is also possible.

[0101] The present application is based on Japanese Patent Application No. 2004-065625 filed on Mar. 9, 2004, the entire content of which is expressively incorporated by reference herein.

INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY

[0102] The random access method and radio communication terminal apparatus according to the present invention provides an advantage of establishing an individual channel to the base station in a short time, and is effective for using in the radio communication system and the like with service demanding QoS delay requirement planned.