Wireless communication system and wireless terminal device
09549314 ยท 2017-01-17
Assignee
Inventors
Cpc classification
H04W8/22
ELECTRICITY
H04W72/0453
ELECTRICITY
H04W72/20
ELECTRICITY
International classification
Abstract
A wireless communication system corresponding to a wireless terminal device in which at least one of a first frequency bandwidth for use in an up link and a second frequency bandwidth for use in a down link is variable, including a capability information reception unit capable of receiving and extracting terminal capability information transmitted from the wireless terminal device and related to capability of the wireless terminal device; a category designation unit capable of designating a terminal category to which the wireless terminal device belongs, based on the terminal capability information received and extracted by the capability information reception unit; and a link setting unit capable of setting a link to the wireless terminal device and transmitting a control signal depending on the link setting to the wireless terminal device, based on the terminal category designated by the category designation unit.
Claims
1. A wireless communication system comprising: a processor circuit configured to receive and extract terminal capability information, the terminal capability information indicating at least one of an uplink frequency bandwidth and a downlink frequency bandwidth as a capability of a wireless terminal device, to identify a terminal category to which the wireless terminal device belongs, based on the terminal capability information, and to set a link between a base station and the wireless terminal device; and a transmitter configured to transmit a control signal depending on the link setting between the base station and the wireless terminal device, based on the set terminal category.
2. A wireless communication system comprising: a processor circuit configured to receive and extract terminal capability information, the terminal capability information indicating at least one of an uplink frequency bandwidth as a capability of a wireless terminal device and a downlink frequency bandwidth as a capability of the wireless terminal device, to identify a terminal category to which the wireless terminal device belongs, based on the terminal capability information; and a scheduler configured to schedule on a basis of the terminal category set by the processor circuit for selecting a wireless terminal device to communicate with from among wireless terminal devices.
3. A wireless communication system comprising: a processor circuit configured to receive and extract terminal capability information, the terminal capability information indicating at least one of an uplink frequency bandwidth as a capability of a wireless terminal device and a downlink frequency bandwidth as a capability of the wireless terminal device, and to set a link between a base station and the wireless terminal device according to the terminal capability information; and a transmitter configured to transmit a control signal corresponding to the link setting between the base station and the wireless terminal device.
4. A wireless communication system comprising: a processor circuit configured to receive and extract terminal capability information and indicating a terminal category to which a wireless terminal device belongs, the terminal capability information indicating at least one of an uplink frequency bandwidth as a capability of a wireless terminal device and a downlink frequency bandwidth as a capability of the wireless terminal device; and a scheduler configured to schedule, according to the terminal capability information received and extracted by the processor circuit, a selection of a wireless terminal device to communicate with from among wireless terminal devices.
5. A wireless base station, comprising: a processor circuit configured to receive terminal capability information indicating at least one of an uplink frequency bandwidth as a capability of a wireless terminal device and a downlink frequency bandwidth as a capability of the wireless terminal device, and to set a link between a base station and the wireless terminal device according to the terminal capability information; and a transmitter configured to transmit a control signal corresponding to the link setting between the base station and the wireless terminal device.
6. A wireless base station, comprising: a processor circuit configured to receive and extract terminal capability information and indicating a terminal category to which a the wireless terminal device belongs, the terminal capability information indicating at least one of an uplink frequency bandwidth as a capability of a wireless terminal device and a downlink frequency bandwidth as a capability of the wireless terminal device; and a scheduler configured to schedule, according to the terminal capability information received and extracted by the processor circuit, a selection of a wireless terminal device to communicate with from among wireless terminal devices.
7. A wireless terminal device, comprising: a processor circuit configured to identify a terminal category to which wireless terminal belongs, based on at least one of an uplink frequency bandwidth as a capability of a wireless terminal device and a downlink frequency bandwidth as a capability of the wireless terminal device; and a transmitter configured to transmit the terminal category to a base station.
8. The wireless terminal device according to claim 7, further comprising: a receiver configured to receive a control signal depending on a link setting between the base station and the wireless terminal device, based on said identified terminal category.
Description
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
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BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION
(20) The embodiments of the present invention are described below in detail with reference to the attached drawings.
First Embodiment
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(23) The transmission data to be transmitted is encoded and modulated by the coding/modulating unit 64. An RF signal obtained by the modulation is transmitted from the antenna 61 through the wireless unit 62.
(24) On the other hand, only the signal portion of the down bandwidth selected by the wireless unit 63 of the RF signal received by the antenna 61 is extracted, and transmitted to the demodulating/decoding unit 65. The demodulating/decoding unit 65 demodulates and decodes the RF signal from the wireless unit 63, and the obtained data is output as received data.
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(27) The transmission data to be transmitted is encoded and modulated by the coding/modulating unit 85. An RF signal obtained by the modulation is transmitted from the antenna 81 through the wireless unit 83
(28) On the other hand, the RF signal received by the antenna 81 is extracted by the wireless unit 83 for each of the frequency bandwidth, and transmitted to the demodulating/decoding unit 84. The demodulating/decoding unit 84 demodulates and decodes the RF signal from the wireless unit 83. The obtained data is output as received data.
(29)
(30) The terminal 52 is classified by a terminal category corresponding to the E3G. The actually used up link frequency bandwidth (hereinafter referred to as a up bandwidth) and down link frequency bandwidth (hereinafter referred to as a down bandwidth) can be separately set. Since the up link frequency band and the down link frequency band depend on their bandwidths, the information about the bands is required for each band in addition to the information about each bandwidth. Accordingly, as compared with the case where each bandwidth is constant, necessary control information increases, thereby complicating the control. In the present embodiment, the complicated control can be suppressed as follows. As the information about bands, the central frequency of the each band is conveniently assumed. The information can be varied if the frequency band can be designated. For example, it can be the minimum or maximum frequency.
(31)
(32) In the present embodiment, as illustrated in
(33) The number of contents of each piece of the associated information as illustrated in
(34) As illustrated in
(35) As illustrated in
(36) As illustrated in
(37) Each of the calculation units 91 through 93 notifies the control signal generation unit 88 of the information about the determined contents as control information. Thus, the control information necessary for communications is transmitted to the terminal 52.
(38) As illustrated in
(39) As described above, according to the present embodiment, a terminal category is associated with information not originally included, and the associated information is reflected by the link setting. The contents of the associated information are limited to the scope of the classification by the terminal category. Therefore, the management of the terminal can be more easily performed, and the control can be simplified. As a result, frequency setting such as link setting etc. can be performed at a higher speed.
(40) In the present embodiment, the terminal capability information 66 is transmitted to the base station 51, but a terminal category can be notified instead of the terminal capability information 66. The notification can be realized by, as illustrated in
(41) A number of combinations of up/down bandwidths is large. For example, when 1.25 MHz, 2.5 MHz, and 5.0 MHz are assumed as up bandwidths, 5.0 MHz, 10 MHz, and 20 MHz are assumed as down bandwidths, and down 20 MHz and up 5 MHz are assumed as the bandwidth of the entire system, the following 63 combinations can be assumed in the 2 GHz.
4(4+2+1)+2(4+2+1)+1(4+2+1)=97=63
(42) In Japan, as illustrated in
(43) MIMO is one of the wireless techniques. The MIMO is short for multiple input multiple output, and data is transmitted/received through a plurality of antennas. Thus, as the information associated with a terminal category, as illustrated in
Second Embodiment
(44) In the mobile communications, a mobile object (terminal) can move into an area covered by a different base station. To cope with the movement, handover is carried out. When the handover is performed, at least one assignment of the frequency resources, that is, up/down frequencies, and their bandwidths can be changed. The second embodiment suppresses the number of bits of the control information transmitted and received to change the assignment of the frequency resources during the handover.
(45) During the handover, a terminal has already communicated with one or more base stations. That is, the up/down frequencies and their bandwidths have already been assigned. With the situation taken into account, the second embodiment is designed to reduce the necessary number of bits for control information and shorten the time required to transmit the control information.
(46) The configurations of the terminal and the base station according to the second embodiment are basically the same as in the first embodiment. Therefore, the same or basically the same components as in the first embodiment are assigned the same reference numerals, and only components different from those in the first embodiment are described below in detail.
(47)
(48) On the other hand, as illustrated in
(49) The handover control unit 132 is provided for the base station 51 or the radio network controller 53. By referring to the received electric field strength information transmitted for each base station 51, the necessity of the handover is determined, and the determination result is notified to the link setting unit 87. On the basis of the notification, the base station 51 having the largest received electric field strength is allowed to communicate with the terminal 52. Upon receipt of the notification of the necessity of the handover, the link setting unit 87 sets a link to the terminal 52 to communicate with, designates a terminal category according to the terminal capability information 66 about the terminal 52, and sets the link. If the contents of the link setting are different from the preceding contents, the control information to be transmitted to the terminal 52 is transmitted to the control signal generation unit 88, and a control signal is transmitted.
(50) The following control signal is transmitted.
(51) When the identification about the down link frequency is Nd, the down link frequency information Nd is generated by the equation (2) above.
(52) Similarly, when the information about the up link frequency is Nu, the up link frequency information Nu is generated by the following equation using the down link frequency F.sub.DL and the determined up link frequency F.sub.UL
Nu=5(F.sub.DLF.sub.UL)(5)
(53) The down link frequency information Nd requires 14 bits as described above. However, since the up link frequency information Nu is calculated by the following equation although the up/down link frequency differences are UMTS 1.7/2.1 of the frequency band number iv at the largest up/down link frequency difference of 490 MHz as illustrated in
Nu=5490=2450
(54) Therefore, as compared with the case where the up link frequency information Nu is generated using the equation (2) above, the number of bits can be reduced. By the reduction, the frequency setting accompanied with the link setting etc. can be performed at a high speed. Each piece of the up link frequency information Nu and Nd is calculated by the transmission/reception frequency calculation unit 92.
(55) Each piece of the up link frequency information Nu and Nd is transmitted as a control signal to the terminal 52, and extracted by the control signal extraction unit 68. The device setting control unit 69 calculates the up link frequency F.sub.UL from the up/down link frequency information Nu and Nd, and then calculates the down link frequency F.sub.DL. Thus, a setting is performed according to the control signal transmitted from the base station 51. The calculation of the frequencies F.sub.UL and F.sub.DL is performed by the transmission/reception frequency calculation unit 72 illustrated in
(56) In the present embodiment, the information generated using the equation (5) is transmitted as the down link frequency information Nd with the up link frequency information Nu, but the inverse operation is acceptable. That is, the up link frequency information Nu is generated using the equation similar to the equation (2), and the down link frequency information Nd can be generated using the equation similar to the equation (5). In addition, it is also possible for a base station to determine one of the up and down frequencies, notifies the 52 of the determination, and the terminal 52 can determine the other with reference to the integrated terminal category information as illustrated in
Third Embodiment
(57) In the above-mentioned first and second embodiments, at least one of the up and down frequencies is notified directly from the base station 51 to the terminal 52. In the third embodiment, at least one of the up and down frequencies is predetermined as a reference, and the up and down frequencies are notified using the determined frequency of the reference so that the necessary number of bits for transmitting control information (signal) can be smaller.
(58) The configurations of the terminal and the base station according to the third embodiment are basically the same as in the first embodiment. Therefore, the same or basically the same components as in the first embodiment are assigned the same reference numerals, and only components different from those in the first embodiment are described below in detail. In this example, as illustrated in
(59) In the link setting unit 87 of the base station 51, the down link frequency to be assigned to the terminal 52 is determined with the link use status etc. taken into account. In this case, a control signal is generated using at least one of a predetermined frequency band number or its central frequency and a difference between the central frequency and an actually determined up and down link frequency. Since the central frequency is used as a reference, it is hereinafter referred to as a reference frequency.
(60) The frequency band numbers 1 through 9 can be represented by 4 bits. The difference between the reference frequency and the up link frequency can be represented by 8 bits although 70 MHz is used as the maximum system bandwidth. In this example, the reference frequency is expressed by f.sub.S.sub._.sub.DL, the determined down link frequency by f.sub.DL, the down link frequency information indicating the difference between the frequencies by Nd, and the frequency information Nd is generated using the following equation.
Nd=2(f.sub.S.sub._.sub.DLf.sub.DL)(6)
(61) Thus, the control information indicating the down link frequency can be represented by a total of 12 bits. Therefore, the control information can be transmitted by a smaller number of bits. As a result, it can be set at a speed higher than the frequency setting.
(62) Actually, if a down link frequency band is determined on the basis of UMTS 800 (frequency band number vi) with the central frequency of 877.5 MHz, and the control information is generated using 2.5 MHz as a difference from 877.5 MHz with the reference frequency of 880 MHz as the central frequency, then the band number is 0110 as 6, and 2.5 MHz is 000000101 by the equation (6), and the result is 0110000000101.
(63) In the present embodiment, the control information is generated on the basis of the band number+the difference of reference frequency, but the order can be inverse. Although the difference is obtained between the reference frequency and the down link frequency, it can be obtained between the reference frequency and the up link frequency. The difference can be generated using the following equation where Nu indicates the frequency information, f.sub.S.sub._.sub.UL indicates the up reference frequency, and f.sub.UL indicates the determined up link frequency.
Nu=2(f.sub.S.sub._.sub.ULf.sub.UL)(7)
(64) Since the necessary number of bits can be reduced for the frequency information Nd and Nu, any of them can be transmitted. The number of reference frequency band or the reference frequency can be stored in advance in a storage device.
Fourth Embodiment
(65) In the mobile (wireless) communication, it is common that a scheduling process is performed by selecting a destination and determining a transmitting method. The fourth embodiment is designed to devise the scheduling.
(66) The configurations of the terminal and the base station according to the fourth embodiment are basically the same as in the first embodiment. Therefore, as with the second and third embodiments, the same or basically the same components as in the first embodiment are assigned the same reference numerals, and only components different from those in the first embodiment are described below in detail.
(67)
(68) On the other hand, as illustrated in
(69) The scheduler unit 152 selects the terminal 52 for transmission with reference to the CQI information extracted for each terminal 52 by the CQI information extraction unit 151, and selects a modulation system, a coding rate, a data length, a bandwidth, and an available frequency from a terminal category. The terminal category is notified as a terminal information signal from the terminal 52 to the base station 51, or notified from the terminal category setting unit 101 according to the terminal capability information 66 transmitted by the terminal 52. By transmitting the selection result to the control signal generation unit 88, the result is transmitted as a control signal to the corresponding terminal 52. To manage the terminal 52 by the terminal category (terminal capability information 66) as described above, as with the first embodiment, the control is simplified. The simplified process realize s a frequency setting at a higher speed.
Fifth Embodiment
(70) In the OFDMA, as it is well known, all subcarriers are shared by all users (terminals 52), and a subcarrier having high transmission characteristic for each user is assigned, thereby improving the frequency use efficiency. The firth embodiment generates control information by regarding the subcarriers.
(71) The configurations of the terminal and the base station according to the fifth embodiment are basically the same as in the first embodiment. Therefore, as with the second through fourth embodiments, the same or basically the same components as in the first embodiment are assigned the same reference numerals, and only components different from those in the first embodiment are described below in detail.
(72)
(73) The link setting unit 87 at the base station 51 refers to the integrated terminal category information (
(74) On the other hand, the control signal extraction unit 68 of the terminal 52 extracts the control information (signal) received from the base station 51 from the received data, and notifies the device setting control unit 69 of the information. The subcarrier number and the number of subcarriers in the control signal are transmitted to the transmission/reception frequency calculation unit 72 and the transmission/reception bandwidth calculation unit 73 respectively. Thus, the transmission/reception frequency calculation unit 72 calculates the frequency corresponding to the subcarrier number, and the transmission/reception bandwidth calculation unit 73 calculates the bandwidth corresponding to the number of subcarriers.
(75) The subcarrier number and the number of subcarriers are recognized as control information (signal) so that the resources can be arbitrarily assigned to each subcarrier. The necessary number of bits in representing the subcarrier number and number of subcarriers depends on the total number of subcarriers. However, since the frequency and the bandwidth can be separately managed by the subcarrier number and the number of subcarriers, control can be easily performed. Thus, the frequency setting can be performed at a high speed.
(76) In the present embodiment, the combination of the subcarrier number and the number of subcarriers is transmitted as a control signal, but another combination is available. For example, the frequency can replace the subcarrier number. Otherwise, as in the third embodiment, a reference frequency is predetermined, and a difference from the reference frequency can be adopted. In addition, as illustrated in
Sixth Embodiment
(77) In the mobile communications, a cell can be selected during link setting and during handover, and synchronization can be performed during standby using the central frequency of a bandwidth available in a base station. In this case, a predetermined frequency (for example, the central frequency of a system frequency band hereinafter referred to as a initial use frequency) is used for a CPICH (common pilot channel) for transmitting a common pilot signal from a base station, a SCH (synchronization channel) for transmitting a synchronization signal, a PCH (paging channel) for transmitting a standby signal, a BCH (broadcast channel) for transmitting system information, and a PICH (paging indicator channel) for notifying the presence/absence of a received signal. A predetermined bandwidth (hereinafter referred to as a initial use frequency band) is used for a transmission from a base station to a terminal. The sixth embodiment is designed to generate control information with the consideration above.
(78) The configurations of the terminal and the base station according to the sixth embodiment are basically the same as in the first embodiment. Therefore, as with the second through fifth embodiments, the same or basically the same components as in the first embodiment are assigned the same reference numerals, and only components different from those in the first embodiment are described below in detail.
(79) The frequency and the bandwidth used in transmitting each of the above-mentioned signals are transmitted from the base station 51 to the terminal 52 using the PCH etc. The transmission is performed by generating a control signal as described above with reference to the second embodiment. The initial use frequency and the initial use bandwidth can be stored at the terminal in advance.
(80) When a frequency band is moved after establishing a wireless channel, the central frequency of a frequency band is used in transmitting the signal before the movement. In the sixth embodiment, a control signal is generated and transmitted by using the central frequency as a reference frequency as in the third embodiment. Thus, a frequency can be easily set at a high speed by reducing the necessary number of bits for a control signal.
(81) In the present embodiments (first through sixth embodiments), the link setting unit 87 and the scheduler unit 152 at the base station (wireless communication system) and the device setting control unit 69 of the terminal 52 are realized by a CPU for executing a program or a DSP etc. In some existing wireless communication systems or terminals, the present invention can be applied by changing the program executed by a CPU, a DSP, etc. Thus, a program for realizing the wireless communication system or the terminal according to the present invention can be prepared, and the program can be recorded on a record medium such as flash memory, CD-ROM, etc. and then distributed. It can be distributed through a communication network.