Abstract:
The terminal measures the wireless channel quality of each frequency band, and notifies the base station of the quality. The base station determines the frequency band to be used by the terminal on the basis of the notification from the terminal. Then, the terminal is grouped depending on the difference etc. in frequency band in operating the terminal, and notified which terminal group the terminal belongs. Upon
receipt of the notification from the base station, the terminal sets its own available frequency band and terminal group, and measures the notified wireless channel quality of the available frequency band. The measurement result is notified to the base station. The base station perform a scheduling process for each
available frequency band on the basis of the wireless channel quality of the available frequency band of the terminal, and starts communicating with the terminal.
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Notices, Deadlines & Correspondence
DESCRIPTION
WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEM
Technical Field
The present invention relates to a wireless communication
system.
Background Art
A mobile communication system for assigning transmission
using a scheduler as an HSDPA system standardized in a 3GPP has
been partially put to practical use.
Described below is an example of an HSDPA system for
performing a high-speed downlink transmission using an example
of the configuration of a terminal and an example of a
configuration of a base station.
FIGS. 1 through 5 are explanatory views of a conventional
HSDPA system.
In the terminal illustrated in FIG. 1, for example, a
wireless channel quality measurement/calculation unit 13
measures and calculates a wireless channel quality indicator
(hereinafter referred to as a CQI (channel quality indicator))
according to the pilot signal of a downlink signal received
through an antenna 10, a radio unit 11, and a
demodulation/decoding unit 12. As a practical example, an SIR
is calculated by measuring the reception power and interference
power of the pilot signal. The CQI value is assembled into a
transmitting signal by a wireless channel quality indicator
transmission unit 14, encoded and modulated by a
coding/modulation unit 15, and transmitted to a base station
on an uplink wireless channel through the antenna 10.
On the other hand, the base station illustrated in FIG.
2 receives a signal carrying the CQI value transmitted from a
terminal through an antenna 20, a radio unit 21, and a
demodulation/decoding unit 22, collects a wireless channel
quality indicator (CQI), and notifies a scheduler 24 of the
indicator. The scheduler 24 calculates the priority of the
terminal for each available frequency band using the wireless
channel quality indicator (hereinafter referred to as a CQI
(channel quality indicator) reported from the terminal, and
selects a transmission parameter on a higher priority basis.
A control signal generation unit 25 generates a transmitting
control signal, and transmits the signal to a terminal through
a coding/modulation unit 27, a radio unit 28, and the antenna
20. The transmission data of a transmission data buffer 26 is
transmitted to a terminal after the control signal is
transmitted.
FIG. 3 is a flowchart of a scheduling process.
Assume that there are terminals UE1 through UEn in the
cell of a base station. In step S10, the CQI values (CQI1
through CQIn) of the terminals UE1 through UEn are received.
In step Sll, the CQI1 through CQIn are stored. In step S12,
a TTI is initialized. A TTI is short for a transmission time
interval, and refers to a transmission interval of the data to
a terminal. In this example, it is used as a variable indicating
a transmission frequency. In step S13, the TTI is increased
by 1. In step S14, the priority Pk of the terminal UEk is
calculated. In step S15, the system is initialized to i=0, ]=1.
In step S16, the wireless resources R1 is calculated. With i=0,
the wireless resources have not been assigned. Therefore, R1
refers to the entire wireless resources. In step S17, if is
determined whether or not the wireless resources R1 is smaller
than 0. If the determination in step S17 is YES, control is
passed to step S21. If the determination in step S17 is NO,
the terminal UEj having the priority Pk of the maximum value
Pk_max is calculated from the n-1 terminals in step S18. In
step S19, the method of transmitting data (data length,
modulation system, etc.) to the terminal UEj is selected. In
step S20, l is increased by 1, j is increased by 1, and control
is returned to step S16. In step S21, the transmitting method
selected in step S19 is modulated as a control signal, and the
result is transmitted to the terminal. In step S22, the
transmission data is modulated for the terminal to which the
control signal has been transmitted, transmits the result to
the terminal, and control is returned to step S13.
As a method of calculating the priority, the MAX CIR method
of selecting a larger CQI value, and the PF (proportional
fairness) method of selecting a larger CQI and performing a
selection for egual opportunity.
In the above-mentioned 3GPP, the specification of the E3G
(evolved 3G) system is inspected as a next generation mobile
communication system. In this respect, the implementation of
the OFDMA system and the SC-FDMA system are studied respectively
for downstream and upstream as a multi-connection method.
In addition, in the E3G system, a scheduling process is
performed as with the HSDPA system using the frequency band
broader than the conventional HSDPA (for example, four times).
Furthermore, the terminal used in the E3G system has different
bandwidths between upstream and downstream. Additionally, in
the downstream, the available bands by terminals depend on each
terminal, for example, 1.25 MHz, 2.5 MHz, 5 MHz,10 MHz, 20 MHz,
etc.
Therefore, it is necessary to perform a scheduling
process at the system band of 20 MHz by considering the available
bandwidth.
That is, as illustrated in FIG. 4, it is necessary to
perform the scheduling process on the entire system using one
scheduler.
Furthermore, assume that the downlink system bandwidth
is 20 MHz, and the downlink bandwidth of a terminal is 5 MHz.
At this time, the frequency used during operation is variable
with the relationship with other terminals taken into account,
and there are four options. Therefore, to allow the scheduler
of a base station to select the optimum band from among a
plurality of bands with the available bandwidths by other
terminals taken into account, the CQI is measured and calculated
for every 5 MHz band at a terminal as illustrated in FIG. 5,
and the result is to be reported to the base station.
That is, four times as much as the measurement and
calculation are required as compared with the HSDPA system. In
addition, the frequency of reporting the CQIs to the base
stations quadruples. As a result, the interference of the
up-channel also quadruples.
In the E3G system, when the entire system is scheduled
by one scheduler,
When simply compared with the scheduler of the
conventional HSDPA system, the number of terminals to be
scheduled is multiplied (for example, quadrupled).
• As compared with the transmission interval of 2 msec
of the conventional HSDPA system, the interval is 1/4, that is,
0.5 msec.
For the two above-mentioned reasons, for example, 16
times scheduling speed as fast as the conventional system is
demanded. That is, the priority calculation time is to be set
to 1/16.
On the other hand, the improvement of the performance of
the process of the CPU and the DSP for performing the scheduling
process approximately quadruples on the basis of the reference
of year 2010 as the target of starting the service of the E3G,
which is far from the above-mentioned 16 times with the Moore's
Law (double process speed in 18 months) taken into account.
Therefore, it is inevitable that the scheduling process
is performed at a higher speed.
The patent document 1 discloses the technology of
grouping and scheduling terminals moving at a high speed.
Furthermore, it specifies the bands to be scheduled. It is
assumed that they are based on the HSUPA (high speed uplink
packet access) of the 3GPP. However, in the descriptions, a
terminal moving at a low speed or during halts is not scheduled.
The patent document 2 discloses an example using an OFCDM
(orthogonal frequency and code division multiplexing). That
is, a spreading process is performed in the frequency and time
directions, and then a multiplexing operation is performed.
The patent document 3 groups the terminals using the
amount of attenuation of transmission power. Since there are
no descriptions about available frequency bands, it is
considered that tne conventional OFDM is used.
The patent document 4 discloses a base station detecting
the moving speed of a mobile station using a Doppler frequency,
and optimally selecting a coding rate and a modulation system.
The patent document 5 discloses optimally determining the
transmission rate of the communications of a mobile station and
a base station according to the information about the Doppler
frequency etc. of a mobile station.
The patent document 6 discloses grouping a subcamer,
acquiring channel quality information for each group, and
transmitting and receiving the information.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No.
2006-060814
Patent Document 2: Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No.
2005-318434
Patent Document 3: Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No.
2001-036950
Patent Document 4: Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No.
2003-259437
Patent Document 5: Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No.
2005-260992
Patent Document 6: Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No.
2005-160079
Disclosure of the Invention
The present invention aims at providing a wireless
communication system capable of speeding up a scheduling
process at a base station.
The wireless communication system according to the
present invention having a base station communicating with a
plurality of subordinate terminals using a plurality of
frequency bands includes: a grouping device for assigning the
plurality of terminals to a group of each of the frequency bands
according to the wireless channel quality acquired for each
frequency band used by a terminal in communicating with a base
station; a scheduling device for scheduling the grouped
terminal for each group; and a communication device for the base
station communicating with a terminal according to a result of
the scheduling.
Brief Description of the Drawings
FIG. 1 is an explanatory view (1) of a conventional HSDPA
system;
FIG. 2 is an explanatory view (2) of a conventional HSDPA
system;
FIG. 3 is an explanatory view (3) of a conventional HSDPA
system;
FIG. 4 is an explanatory view (4) of a conventional HSDPA
system;
FIG. 5 is an explanatory view (5) of a conventional HSDPA
system;
FIG. 6 is a sequence of the flow of the process according
to an embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 7 is an explanatory view illustrating the case in
which a grouping operation is performed in the easiest method
on a basis of channel quality of each band during channel
setting;
FIG. 8 illustrates an image of measuring wireless channel
quality for each available band;
FIG. 9 is an explanatory view (1) of the method of grouping
and scheduling a terminal;
FIG. 10 is an explanatory view (2) of the method of
grouping and scheduling a terminal;
FIG. 11 is an explanatory view of an image of grouping
and scheduling methods when the available bandwidth of a
terminal is different from that illustrated in FIG. 10;
FIG. 12 is an explanatory view (1) of a hierarchical
grouping process;
FIG. 13 is an explanatory view (2) of a hierarchical
grouping process,
FIG. 14 illustrates an example of a grouping table of a
base station when a terminal is grouped;
FIG. 15 is an explanatory view of other grouping methods;
FIG. 16 illustrates an example of a grouping table of a
base station for the grouping operation illustrated in FIG. 15;
FIG. 17 is a view (1) of an example of the process when
a terminal is grouped;
FIG. 18 is a view (2) of an example of the process when
a terminal is grouped;
FIG. 19 is a view (3) of an example of the process when
a terminal is grouped;
FIG. 20 is a view (4) of an example of the process when
a terminal is grouped;
FIG. 21 is a view (5) of an example of the process when
a terminal is grouped;
FIG. 22 is a view of the configuration illustrating the
principle of the terminal according to the present invention;
FIG. 23 is a view illustrating the configuration of the
principle of the base station according to the present
invention;
FIG. 24 illustrates an example of a configuration
illustrated in FIG. 22 applied to a case when a CQI is measured
as wireless channel quality;
FIG. 25 illustrates an example of a configuration
illustrated in FIG. 23 applied to a case when a CQI is measured
on as wireless channel quality;
FIG. 26 illustrates the second example of a configuration
of a base station according to an embodiment of the present
invention;
FIG. 27 illustrates the third example of a configuration
of a base station according to an embodiment of the present
invention;
FIG. 28 illustrates the second example of a configuration
of a terminal according to an embodiment of the present
invention corresponding to FIG. 27;
FIG. 29 illustrates the fourth example of a configuration
of a base station according to an embodiment of the present
invention;
FIG. 30 illustrates the fifth example of a configuration
of a base station according to an embodiment of the present
invention;
Best: Mode for Carrying Out the Invention
Described below is a downlink transmission as an example.
FIG. 6 is a sequence of the flow of the process according
to an embodiment of the present invention.
In FIG. 6, a terminal measures the wireless channel
quality for each frequency band (1) . That is, an SIR is
calculated from received data, and a CQI value is obtained on
the basis of the calculated SIR. The measured wireless channel
quality is notified to a base station (2). The base station
determines the available frequency band by the terminal from
the information about the received wireless channel quality (3) ,
and classifies all terminals that have transmitted the wireless
channel quality into groups (4) . When the grouping process is
completed, the base station notifies each terminal of the
terminal group to which the terminal belongs (5) . Upon receipt
of the terminal group notification, the terminal sets an
available frequency band and the terminal group (6). The
terminal measures the wireless channel quality at the available
frequency bands set for the terminal (7) , and notifies the base
station of the measurement result (8). The base station
performs a scheduling process for each available frequency band
on the basis of the notified wireless channel quality. That
is, the base station selects a technique for transmission on
the basis of the priority of the terminal, and selects a
transmitting method. Then, it generates control information
to be received by the terminal (9), notifies the terminal of
the transmission control information (10), and then transmits
data (11).
Thus, in the OFDMA system and the MC-CDMA system,
terminals are grouped depending on the possible available
bandwidths and the available frequencies. The grouping
process can be performed when a wireless channel is set, or can
be performed at predetermined intervals after setting the
wireless channel. The information for the grouping process can
be a possible available bandwidth of a terminal, the channel
quality of each band, the use of a channel (load) of each band,
etc.
FIG. 7 is an explanatory view illustrating the case in
which a grouping operation is performed in the easiest method
on a basis of channel quality of each band during channel
setting.
Practically, assume a case in which a terminal has the
maximum possible available bandwidth of 5 MHz, and the bandwidth
of the system of 20 MHz. When a characteristic is set, the
terminal measures the wireless channel quality for each band
obtained by dividing the system band of 20 MHz by the maximum
possible available bandwidth of 5 MHz, calculates a wireless
channel quality indicator (1), and notifies the base station
of the calculated indicator (2) . The base station (or a
wireless channel control station) determines the available
frequencies on the basis of the information and the possible
available bandwidth about the terminal (3) , divides the
terminal for each available bandwidth and available frequencies,
and performs the grouping process (4) . It is also possible to
determine the available frequencies by considering the channel
load between the frequencies that can be accommodated.
FIG. 7 is substantially the same as FIG. 6, but the
available frequency bands and the terminal group are set when
a channel is set, and the wireless channel quality of the
available frequency bands of each terminal is measured by each
terminal in a normal state, and the base station performs the
scheduling process on the basis of the reported wireless channel
quality, and starts communications. The operation in the
normal state is the same as in FIG. 6, and the description is
omitted here.
FIG. 8 illustrates an image of measuring wireless channel
quality for each available band.
As described above, the terminal for which a terminal
group is determined measures the channel quality only for the
determined available frequencies, calculate the CQI, and
reports the results to the base station.
Thus, the number of CQI reports decreases, thereby
reducing the uplink interference.
The base station that has received the CQI classifies the
CQI for each group of the terminal, and performs the scheduling
process for each terminal group (each available frequency band) .
Thus, since the number of terminals to be scheduled decreases,
the computational complexity in calculating a priority of the
terminal in the scheduling process is reduced, thereby speeding
up the entire process. Furthermore, since the scheduling
process is performed on each terminal group, the entire process
can be furthermore sped up by concurrently operating a plurality
of schedulers.
FIGS. 9 and 10 are explanatory views of the method of
grouping and scheduling a terminal.
In FIGS. 9 and 10, the band of the system is 20 MHz, the
available bandwidth of the terminal is 5 MHz, and the terminals
UE 100 through 139 are classified into four groups. Using a
frequency band 1, a group 1 is scheduled by a scheduler 1 in
the four schedulers. Similarly, a group 2 is assigned a band
2 and a scheduler 2, a group 3 is assigned a band 3 and a scheduler
3, and a group 4 is assigned a band 4 and a scheduler 4. They
are illustrated by (a) in FIG. 10. Since the data transmission
interval is 0.5 ms, the scheduling process of each group is
performed every 0.5 ms.
Thus, when a plurality of schedulers are provided, one
scheduler is assigned to each terminal group. That is, the
group 1 is scheduled by, for example, the scheduler 1, and the
group 2 is scheduled by the scheduler 2. The scheduling
processes can be concurrently performed as illustrated by (b)
in FIG. 10.
FIG. 11 is an explanatory view (1) of an image of grouping
and scheduling methods when the available bandwidth of a
terminal is different from that illustrated in FIG. 10.
In FIG. 11, the available bandwidth of the terminal is
10 MHz, and there are a group 5 scheduled by a scheduler 5 using
bands 1 and 2, and a group 6 scheduled by a scheduler 6 using
the bands 3 and 4.
FIGS. 12 and 13 are explanatory view of hierarchical
grouping.
As described above, the possible available bandwidth by
a terminal depends on the performance of a terminal. Therefore,
there can be a method of performing a grouping process on the
basis of a possible available bandwidth. In the case
illustrated in FIG. 12, the terminals UE 160 through 169 capable
of using 20 MHz are classified into a group 7, and scheduled
by a scheduler 7. On the other hand, the terminals UE 140
through 149, and the UE 150 through 159 having the available
band of 10 MHz are respectively classified into the group 5
scheduled by the scheduler 5 using the bands 1 and 2 and the
group 6 scheduled by the scheduler 6 using the bands 3 and 4.
The terminals UE 100 through 109, UE 110 through 119, UE 120
through 129, and UE 130 through 139 having the available band
of 5 MHz are respectively classified into the group 1 scheduled
by the scheduler 1 using the band 1, the group 2 scheduled by
the scheduler 2 using the band 2, the group 3 scheduled by the
scheduler 3 using the band 3, and the group 4 scheduled by the
scheduler 4 using the band 4.
As illustrated by (a) and (b) in FIG. 13, it is assumed
that all of the possible available bands are used, and that,
for example, a group having a broad loop such as 10 MHz as a
possible available band is defined as a higher order group, and
a group having a narrow loop such as 5 MHz as a possible available
band is defined as a lower order group. At this time, the
scheduling process is performed from the higher order group to
the lower order group.
As illustrated by (a) in FIG. 13, the group 7 is first
scheduled every 0.5 ms as the transmission time of each piece
of data, and then the groups 5 and 6, and finally the groups
1 through 4 are scheduled. Part (b) in FIG. 13 illustrates the
image of hierarchical scheduling. The scheduling process is
performed sequentially and hierarchically from the scheduler
7. Since the two schedulers, that is, the schedulers 5 and 6,
and the four schedulers, that is, the schedulers 1 through 4,
are concurrently operated, the scheduling processes can be
expected to be sped up.
FIG. 14 illustrates an example of a grouping table of a
base station when a terminal is grouped.
Corresponding to each terminal group number, the central
frequency of the available band of each group, the bandwidth,
and the identification number of the terminal belonging to each
group is entered.
FIG. 15 is an explanatory view of other grouping methods.
The necessary transmission speed depends on the data to
be transmitted. Therefore, the necessary bandwidth depends on
the data. That is, QoS may need an available broad bandwidth,
or an available narrow bandwidth. Furthermore, if a
transmission can be performed by narrowing the bandwidth for
the relationship with other terminals although a necessary
transmission speed cannot be satisfied, the transmission can
be performed. Therefore, when the possible available
bandwidth of a terminal is 20 MHz, it cannot only belong to the
terminal group of 20 MHz, but also belong to the terminal group
of a narrower bandwidth such as 10 MHz, 5 MHz, etc. Therefore,
the terminal group is hierarchically defined in the descending
order of size of the available bandwidth. In FIG. 15, the
terminal having the available band of 20 MHz can perform
communications at 10 MHz and 5 MHz. In addition, the terminal
having the available band of 10 MHz can also perform
communications at 5 MHz. The terminals UE 160 through 169
having the available band of 20 MHz not only belong to the group
7 scheduled by the scheduler 7, but also belong to all groups
1 through 6. Accordingly, when the terminals UE 160 through
169 cannot use the band of 20 MHz, they can be assigned to the
group 5 or 6 having the band of 10 MHz. When they cannot also
use the band of 10 MHz, they can be assigned to any of the groups
1 through 4 of the band of 5 MHz. Thus, the possibility that
the terminals UE 160 through 169 cannot perform communications
can be reduced. Similarly, the terminals UE 140 through 149
and UE 150 through 159 having the available band of 10 MHz can
also be assigned to the groups 1 through 4 so that communications
can also be performed at 5 MHz when the communications cannot
be performed at the band of 10 MHz. Since the terminals UE 100
through 109, UE 110 through 119, UE 120 through 129, and UE 130
through 139 belong only to the groups 1 through 4 because there
is no available band lower than 5 MHz.
The scheduling process is performed from a higher order
group (for example, 20 MHz) to a lower order group (for example,
5 MHz) . Thus, the number of terminals to be scheduled in a group
can be reduced, and the priority calculating process can also
be reduced, thereby speeding up the entire scheduling process.
FIG. 16 illustrates an example of a grouping table of a
base station for the grouping operation illustrated in FIG. 15.
The central frequency of the available band of each group,
the bandwidth, and the identification numbers of the terminals
belonging to each group are entered in the table corresponding
to each of the terminal group numbers 1 through 7.
As with the case illustrated in FIG. 14, when a plurality
of schedulers are provided, the number of schedulers are to be
equal to the number of groups. By providing a scheduler for
each group and concurrently and hierarchically operating the
plurality of schedulers, the scheduling process can be sped up.
In addition, the plurality of schedulers can be replaced with
one scheduler capable of performing concurrent operations.
FIGS. 17 through 21 are views of examples of the process
when a terminal is grouped.
In the example illustrated in FIG. 17, in step S30, the
maximum possible available bandwidth of a target terminal is
confirmed. In step S31, the CQI of each band is received from
the terminal. In step S32, the available band is selected from
the maximum value of the CQI. In step S33, a terminal group
corresponding to the selected band is selected.
In the example illustrated in FIG. 18, the maximum
possible available bandwidth of a target terminal is confirmed
in step S35, and the CQI of each band is received in step S36.
In step S37, the available band is selected from the CQI and
the use state of each band, and in step S38, a terminal group
is selected. The use state of each band refers to the number
of terminals already assigned to each band, etc. When the
number of terminals assigned to a certain band becomes too large,
the frequency of the selection by the scheduler is reduced and
the transmission speed becomes lower. In this case, performed
is the process of selecting the band of the second largest CQI,
not the band of the largest CQI, etc.
In the example illustrated in FIG. 19, the maximum
possible available bandwidth of a target terminal is confirmed
in step S40. In step S41, the bandwidth and the CQI for each
band are received from the terminal. InstepS42, the available
bandwidth and the available band are selected from the maximum
value of the CQI. In step S43, a terminal group is selected.
In FIG. 19, the terminal can use a plurality of available bands.
For example, when the system band is 20 MHz and the available
band of the terminal is 10 MHz, the terminal can use 10 MHz and
5 MHz. Therefore, the terminal measures the CQIs of two bands
having a 10 MHz width and four bands having a 5 MHz, and the
base station selects the available band from the measurement
results.
In the example illustrated in FIG. 20, for example, assume
the case in which the GBR (guaranteed bit rate) of the QoS is
set. That is, assume the case in which a service of the
regulated lowest transmission speed is set. For example,
assume that the possible transmission speed is 3 Mbps with the
band of 5 MHz, the modulation system of the QPSK, and at the
coding rate of 1/3. At this time, when the GBR of a terminal
is 5 Mbps, it is necessary to have the bandwidth of 10 MHz to
satisfy the GBR. Therefore, the terminal is assigned to the
group having the available bandwidth of 10 MHz. The modulation
system can be a QPSK, and a multivalue modulation system of 16
QAM, 64 QAM, etc. , the coding rate can be variable, and the MIMO
function can be used.
In step S45, the maximum possible available bandwidth of
a target terminal is confirmed. In step S46, the QoS of
transmission data to the target terminal is confirmed. In step
S47, the necessary bandwidth is calculated. In step S48, the
CQI for each band of the necessary bandwidth is received from
the terminal. In step S4 9, the available bandwidth is selected
from the maximum value of the CQI, the possible available
bandwidth, and the necessary bandwidth. InstepS50, a terminal
group is selected.
In the example illustrated in FIG. 21, the degradation
of the transmission characteristic by the movement of a terminal
is considered. That is, the Doppler frequency is determined
by the moving speed of the terminal, and the level of the
degradation of the transmission characteristic is determined
by the Doppler frequency. Since the Doppler frequency is
enhanced with increasing available frequencies, it is desired
to use a lower frequency in the communications with the terminal
to correspond to a high-speed movement.
Then, for example, when the system bandwidth is 20 MHz,
and the central frequency is fl