JP3366287B2 - Intermittent reception method - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To save the power consumption of a mobile terminal, which corresponds to the use state of a user, and to effectively save a battery by controlling a system so that an information part showing the presence or absence of paging information corresponding to a call group to which a self- terminal belongs is intermittently received. SOLUTION: When a radio wave is received in a reception antenna 202 in a mobile machine 108, a control signal decoding/judging part 204 to which a reception signal is supplied from a receiver 203 decodes the reception signal and extracts a control signal. A signal timing extraction part 209 extracts the signal timing of the control signal from the signal output of the control signal decoding/judging part 204 and outputs extracted signal timing to a battery saving management part 210. The battery saving management part 210 generates the reception timing of a call information channel from signal timing from the signal timing extraction part 209 and from a call group number from a call group reception part 207 and executes intermittent timing control on each function block.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an intermittent reception system for reducing power consumption of a mobile terminal by intermittently receiving a control signal from a base station side in a mobile communication system.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Since a mobile terminal is generally driven by a battery, an intermittent reception system for intermittently receiving a control signal from a base station is applied during a standby time in order to prolong a battery usable period. For example, consider a case where the control channel from the base station is composed of time division frames as shown in FIG. In the example shown in FIG. 7, two paging channels (paging channels) are included in one frame period.
And four communication setting channels are time-division multiplexed. Then, each channel is repeated for each time division multiplexed frame 701.

For example, one of the two paging channels (CH1) is a paging channel for mobile terminals with odd telephone numbers, and the other (CH2) is a paging channel for mobile terminals with even telephone numbers. Therefore,
The odd-numbered mobile terminals intermittently receive only the CH1 paging channel. When the paging channel includes call information addressed to the own terminal, the mobile terminal performs processing according to the call. However, when the paging information addressed to the own terminal is not included, the power supply to the part in the mobile terminal which is not required to operate during the standby time is stopped until the next paging channel reception timing arrives.

In order to reduce power consumption as much as possible, various techniques have been applied to the intermittent reception system. For example, Japanese Patent No. 2655548 and Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-209953 describe a method of reducing power consumption by lengthening an intermittent reception cycle when a predetermined condition is satisfied.

[0005]

The above-mentioned predetermined conditions are the received electric field strength and the remaining battery level, and the environment and situation of the mobile terminal itself. Then, the intermittent reception cycle becomes long regardless of the usage pattern of the user. However, there are users who want to frequently use the mobile terminal regardless of the received electric field strength and the remaining battery level. In particular, there are users who use the service frequently. On the other hand, there are users who do not use the service so frequently. For such a user, it is desirable to extend the intermittent reception cycle to save the battery consumption even when the received electric field strength is high or the battery level is abundant. That is, in the conventional discontinuous reception method,
There is a problem that battery saving that matches the usage of the user is not realized.

[0006] Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a discontinuous reception method capable of reducing power consumption of a mobile terminal according to a usage pattern of a user and effectively realizing battery saving.

[0007]

In the discontinuous reception system according to the present invention, the control channel transmitted to the mobile terminal includes an information portion indicating the presence or absence of paging information for each calling group, and the communication control station is Call frequency measuring means for measuring the call frequency for each mobile terminal; call group control means for grouping each mobile terminal into one of a plurality of call groups based on the measurement result of the call frequency measuring means; The mobile terminal includes call group information receiving means for receiving call group information indicating which call group it belongs to, and the mobile terminal for receiving the call group information from the communication control station. Controls to intermittently receive the information part indicating the presence or absence of paging information corresponding to the calling group to which the terminal belongs, and the intermittent reception period Outside characterized in that it comprises a discontinuous reception means that performs control for stopping the power supply to each functional block in the terminal.

The paging group control means has a paging frequency of any mobile terminal belonging to a paging group lower than a paging frequency of each mobile terminal belonging to another paging group having a higher paging frequency, and a paging frequency lower than the paging frequency. Each mobile terminal is configured to be grouped so that the frequency is higher than the call frequency of each mobile terminal belonging to the call group. Further, each mobile terminal is configured to be grouped so that the number of mobile terminals included in each call group is equal. If the mobile terminals are grouped according to the call frequency as described above, the frequency of sending paging information to each mobile terminal belonging to a group having a low call frequency is low, and therefore each mobile terminal belonging to the group has a paging channel. The chance of executing the reception process of is reduced and the battery saving effect is increased.

[0009] It is preferable that the calling group notifying means notifies the mobile terminal of the calling group information at least when the location of the mobile terminal is registered.

The control channel is configured to include, for example, a paging channel and a paging information channel indicating the presence or absence of paging information for each paging group. Also,
For example, each of the plurality of paging channels included in the control channel is configured to include an information portion indicating the presence or absence of paging information of the paging group corresponding to each paging channel.

[0011]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a system configuration diagram showing an example of a mobile communication system to which the discontinuous reception method according to the present invention can be applied. In the system shown in FIG. 1, the telephones 100 to 102 are fixed terminals and are connected to the communication control station 103 in this example. The base stations 104 and 105 are
Mobile stations (hereinafter also referred to as mobile devices) 108 to 109, which are mobile communication terminals located in their own radio base zones A and B (hereinafter referred to as zones) 106 and 107, respectively.
110 to 111 and the communication control station 103 are connected by a wireless channel.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a part related to communication setting when the mobile device 108 is called. Note that, in FIG. 2, constituent elements of the mobile device 108 other than a part related to communication setting at the time of calling are omitted. Further, the other mobile devices 109 to 111 are configured similarly to the mobile device 108. In the mobile device 108, when the reception antenna 202 receives the radio wave, the receiver 203 supplies the received signal to the control signal decoding / determination unit 204. The control signal decoding / determination unit 204 decodes the received signal and extracts the control signal.

The signal timing extraction unit 209 extracts the signal timing of the control signal from the signal output of the control signal decoding / determination unit 204. Then, the extracted signal timing is output to the battery save management unit 210. The battery save management unit 210 generates the reception timing of the call notification channel from the signal timing from the signal timing extraction unit 209 and the call group number from the call group reception unit 207, and performs intermittent timing control (power supply) for each functional block. Supply on / off control). The call group number and the call announcement channel will be described in detail later.

The base zone detection unit 205 includes a base station 10
The base zone information from 4, 105 is detected, and the base zone information is output to the location registration determination unit 213 via the communication monitoring control unit 217. The location registration determination unit 213 determines from the base zone information whether location registration is necessary for the mobile station,
When it is determined that it is necessary, the control signal code generation unit 214 is notified of that fact. The control signal code generation unit 214 generates a position registration request signal according to the notification and outputs it to the transmitter 215. The transmitter 215 sends the position registration request signal as a radio wave from the transmission antenna 216.

The call group receiving unit 207 receives the call group number designated via the base stations 104 and 105 from the communication control station 103 at the time of location registration and outputs it to the battery save management unit 210.

The call notification determining unit 208 determines from the information of the call notification channel whether or not there is paging information regarding the own station, and when it is determined that there is paging information regarding the own station, notifies the communication setting receiving unit 206 to that effect. To do. Also,
The battery save management unit 210 is instructed to create the reception timing of the paging channel that receives the paging information. The communication setting reception unit 206 receives the paging information according to the notification from the call notification determination unit 208.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing an example of the structure of a part related to communication setting when the base station 104 is called. Note that, in FIG. 3, components of the base station 104 other than a part related to communication setting at the time of calling are omitted. The base station 105 is also configured similarly to the base station 104. Base station 1
In 04, the call notification transmission unit 303, the communication control station 1
The call presence / absence information received from the control signal code generation unit 3
It outputs to 07. Further, the communication setting transmission unit 304 outputs the call group number received from the communication control station 103 and the communication setting information when the mobile station receives a call to the control signal code generation unit 307. Then, the paging transmission unit 305 outputs the paging information at the time of calling the mobile station, which is received from the communication control station 103, to the control signal code generation unit 307.

Signal timing receiving section 306 outputs the signal timing received from communication control station 103 to control signal code generating section 307 and control signal decoding / determining section 312. The control signal code generation unit 307 matches each input signal timing and sends each information through a predetermined channel.
That is, the call presence / absence information is transmitted on the call notification channel,
The communication setting information is sent on the communication setting channel and the paging information is sent on the paging channel. The control signal transmitter 308 sends the output signal of the control signal code generation unit 307 as a radio wave from the transmission antenna 309.

When the radio wave is received by the receiving antenna 310, the control signal receiver 311 supplies the received signal to the control signal decoding / determining section 312. Control signal decoding / determination unit 3
Reference numeral 12 decodes the control signal in accordance with the signal timing of the received signal. Then, the control signal is transmitted to the communication setting receiving unit 31.
3 to the communication control station 103.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing an example of the structure of a part related to communication settings when the communication control station 103 is called. In FIG. 4, the components of the communication control station 103 other than the part related to the communication setting at the time of calling are omitted.

In the configuration shown in FIG. 4, the telephone 100,
101 to 102 are connected to presence / absence connection control units 405 and 406 to 407 in the communication control station 103. Note that, in reality, a wired communication network including an exchange is interposed between the telephones 100, 101 to 102 and the communication control station 103. And the telephones 100, 101-1
When a call request is issued from 02 to the mobile station, the request arrives at the communication control station 103. Presence / absence connection control unit 40
5, 406 to 407, when detecting a call request from the telephone, the communication monitoring controller 4 of the connection destination mobile station information and the call reception request.
08 will be notified.

The call frequency measuring unit 409 is connected to the communication monitoring control unit 408 and measures the call frequency to each mobile station. The call group control unit 410 assigns each mobile station to any of a plurality of call groups using the call frequency as a parameter.

The base station control unit 411 is provided for each base station, connects the communication monitoring control unit 408 and each base station, and controls each base station. In the base station control unit 411, the call notification transmission unit 413 supplies the call presence / absence information transmitted from the base station via the call notification channel to the base station. The communication setting sending unit 414 supplies to the base station the calling group number transmitted from the base station on the communication setting channel and the communication setting information when the mobile station receives a call. The paging sending unit 415 sends to the base station paging information when a mobile station receives a call, which is sent by a paging channel. Then, the signal timing transmission unit 4
16 supplies the signal timing of each channel in the control signal transmitted from the base station to the base station.

The communication setting receiving unit 417 inputs the position registration information and the communication setting information received by the base station on the communication setting channel from the base station and outputs them to the communication monitoring control unit 408.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing a configuration example of the control channel. In this example, a call notification channel, two paging channels (paging channels), and three communication setting channels are time-division multiplexed in one frame period. Then, each channel is repeated for each time division multiplexed frame 501.

For example, one of the two paging channels (CH1) is a paging channel for mobile terminals with odd telephone numbers, and the other (CH2) is a paging channel for mobile terminals with even telephone numbers. Further, the call notification channel is set with information indicating the presence or absence of a call for each call group. Hereinafter, a portion including information indicating the presence or absence of calling is referred to as a subchannel. A mobile station belonging to a certain paging group receives only subchannels related to the group to which the mobile station belongs. Then, the receiving process of the paging channel and the communication setting channel is performed only when the setting of calling is made in the sub-channel.

Next, the operation will be described. In the communication control station 103 shown in FIG. 4, the communication monitoring control unit 408
Receives a connection request from the telephones 100, 101-102 via the presence / absence connection control units 405, 406-407, it performs a call process for the connection-destination mobile station and informs the call frequency measurement unit 409 of the connection destination. Notify the mobile station number. The call frequency measuring unit 409 manages the call frequency for each mobile station. That is, the number of calls for each mobile station is counted, and the number of calls per unit time is set as the call frequency.
The call frequency measurement unit 409 dynamically grasps the call frequency, and supplies the latest value at the time when the mobile station performs location registration or the like to the call group control unit 410.

The paging group controller 410 dynamically assigns each mobile station to any paging group based on the paging frequency. Here, allocation is performed so that the number of mobile stations belonging to each calling group becomes equal. For example, if there are 100 mobile stations under the control of the communication control station 103 and the number of paging groups is 4, then grouping is performed such that 25 paging groups are assigned to each paging group.

The call group control unit 410 also divides the group according to the magnitude of the call frequency. For example, at that time, 100 mobile stations are under the control of the communication control station 103.
It is assumed that there is a station and the number of calling groups is 4, the first group has the highest calling frequency, the second group has the second highest calling frequency, the third group has the third highest calling frequency, and the fourth group. When the group is the group with the lowest call frequency, 25 stations are assigned to the first group in the order of the highest call frequency from the 100 stations, and the remaining 75 stations are assigned.
Twenty-five stations with a high calling frequency among the stations are assigned to the second group, 25 stations with a high calling frequency among the remaining 50 stations are assigned to the third group, and the remaining 25 stations are assigned to the fourth group.

Therefore, the first group collects the mobile stations having the higher calling frequency, and the fourth group collects the mobile stations having the lower calling frequency. Mobile stations having a relatively high call frequency are collected in the second group, and mobile stations having a relatively low call frequency are collected in the third group. The call group control unit 410 regroups each time a new value is input from the call frequency measurement unit 409.

That is, the mobile stations having the highest call frequency are assigned to the call group having the highest call frequency so that the number of mobile stations belonging to each call group becomes equal. Grouping is performed so that it can be assigned to the corresponding call group. Therefore, the call frequency of any mobile terminal belonging to a certain call group is lower than the call frequency of each mobile terminal belonging to another call group having a higher call frequency, and each mobile terminal belonging to another call group having a lower call frequency. Each mobile terminal is divided into groups so that the mobile terminal has a higher calling frequency than the terminal.

The communication monitoring control unit 408 notifies the mobile station of the group to which the mobile station belongs via the communication setting channel via the communication setting transmitting unit 414 and the base station. For example, the group to which the mobile station belongs is notified at the time of location registration. Further, when the grouping is changed due to a change in the calling frequency of each mobile station or an increase or decrease in the number of mobile stations, the communication monitoring control unit 408 does not wait for the time of location registration and The mobile station is notified of the change of the calling group by using the signal exchange between the communication control station and the mobile station at the time of communication setting.

Next, the call group notification operation at the time of location registration will be described in detail with reference to FIGS. Here, the case where the mobile device 108 is powered on in the zone 106 of the base station 104 is taken as an example. When the power of the mobile device 108 is turned on, the control signal from the base station 104 is received and determined through the route of the receiving antenna 202, the receiver 203, the control signal decoding / determination unit 204, and the base zone detection unit 205. Then, the base zone detection unit 205 knows that the own station exists in the zone 106 of the base station 104. Then, the base zone detection unit 205 uses the communication monitoring control unit 217.
The base zone information is output to the location registration determination unit 213 via the.

The location registration determination unit 213 determines that location registration is necessary based on the base zone information. Then, the position registration determination unit 213 and the control signal code generation unit 21
4, the radio wave including the position registration request signal is transmitted to the base station 104 through the path of the transmitter 215 and the transmission antenna 216.

In the base station 104, receiving antennas, 3
10, control signal receiver 311, control signal decoding / determination unit 3
The location registration request signal is received on the 12th route. The control signal decoding / determination unit 312 sends the position registration request signal to the communication control station 103 via the communication setting reception unit 313 in conformity with the signal timing from the signal timing reception unit 306.

In the communication control station 103, the communication monitoring control unit 408 inputs the position registration request signal via the communication setting receiving unit 417. Then, the call group control unit 410 is requested to divide the mobile devices 108 into groups. The call group control unit 410 obtains the call frequency of each mobile station from the call frequency measurement unit 409, and determines the grouping of the mobile devices 108 based on the obtained call frequency. And mobile device 1
Communication monitoring control unit 408
Return to.

The communication monitoring control unit 408 creates location registration acceptance information including the calling group number, and the communication setting sending unit 4
It transmits to the base station 104 via 14. In the base station 104, the location registration acceptance information is input to the communication setting transmission unit 304 and supplied to the control signal code generation unit 307. The control signal code generation unit 307 has a signal timing reception unit 306.
The position registration acceptance information is put on the communication setting channel in conformity with the signal timing from the signal and transmitted from the control signal transmitter 308 and the transmitting antenna 309.

In the mobile station 108, the communication setting information including the location registration acceptance information is input to the control signal decoding / determining section 204 via the receiving antenna 202 and the receiver 203. The control signal decoding / determination unit 204 outputs the received communication setting information to the communication monitoring control unit 217 via the communication setting receiving unit 206. Further, the call group number added to the location registration acceptance information included in the communication setting information is separated by the control signal decoding / determination unit 204 and transmitted to the call group reception unit 207.

The calling group number is notified to the battery save management section 210. Battery save management unit 210
Controls the power supply to each functional block so as to intermittently receive the sub-channel (see FIG. 5) in the call announcement channel corresponding to the notified call group number.

Next, specific battery save control will be described with reference to FIG. Battery save management unit 21
0 controls the power supply to each functional block so as to intermittently receive only the sub-channel corresponding to the calling group to which the own station belongs during standby. In other words, power is supplied only to the minimum required functional blocks and power is not supplied to the other functional blocks except during the period in which the sub-channel corresponding to the calling group to which the own station belongs is received. Then, in the state where there is no call for the call group to which the own station belongs, (1/6) × (1/4) = with respect to the cycle of one time division frame 501 during intermittent reception.
The reception operation is performed for (1/24) cycles.

In the conventional example shown in FIG. 7, since the paging channel must be received during the intermittent reception operation, (1
/ 6) The reception operation of the period was performed. Therefore, in this embodiment, a battery saving effect that is four times that of the conventional example is expected. If the sub-channel is set to have a call, the receiving process of the paging channel assigned to the own station is performed.

Further, in this embodiment, the call groups are divided into groups based on the call frequency. Then, since the mobile stations having a low calling frequency are collected in the same group, the paging information is transmitted less frequently to the mobile stations belonging to the group. As a result, each mobile station belonging to the group has less opportunity to execute the paging channel reception process, and the battery saving effect is enhanced. When grouping is performed by ignoring the call frequency, the paging channel reception process is frequently performed because the mobile station that is frequently called is included in the group, although the frequency at which the own station is called is extremely low. There may be situations in which it must be done. That is, although the frequency with which the local station is called is extremely low, the degree of battery consumption increases.

In the conventional example shown in FIG. 7, the battery saving effect can be enhanced by increasing the time division frame period, but the time until the call is detected becomes long. According to the present invention, it is possible to improve the battery saving effect by keeping the time until the call is detected almost unchanged (without changing the time division frame period).

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a time division frame in another embodiment. In the example shown in FIG. 6, 1
In one time division frame 601, three paging channels and three communication setting channels are set. Each paging channel corresponds to each call group according to the frequency of use. In addition, each paging channel includes a sub-channel in which information indicating presence / absence of calling for each paging group is set.

During standby, each mobile station performs control to intermittently receive only the subchannel of the paging channel corresponding to the calling group to which the mobile station belongs. Call group notification method and grouping method according to usage frequency,
This is similar to the case of the above embodiment.

Even when the time division frame of the control channel is constructed as shown in FIG. 6, a higher battery saving effect can be expected as compared with the case of the conventional example shown in FIG. Also, for mobile stations that are rarely called,
The fact that a higher battery saving effect can be expected is the same as in the case of the above embodiment.

[0047]

As described above, according to the present invention, in the intermittent reception system, the communication control station measures the call frequency for each mobile terminal, and based on the measurement result, each mobile terminal is assigned to a plurality of call groups. The mobile terminal notifies each mobile terminal of call group information indicating which call group it belongs to, and the mobile terminal indicates whether or not there is paging information corresponding to the call group to which the mobile terminal belongs. Since it is configured to control the power supply to each functional block in the terminal except during the period of intermittently receiving the information portion, it is possible to enhance the battery saving effect without prolonging the time required to detect a call. .

Further, if each mobile terminal is configured to be grouped according to the calling frequency, the battery saving effect of each mobile terminal belonging to a group with a low calling frequency can be further enhanced. This means that for a user who uses the device with a low usage frequency (call frequency), the battery consumption that matches the usage frequency, that is, the low battery consumption according to the low usage frequency is realized.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a system configuration diagram showing an example of a mobile communication system.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a part related to communication setting at the time of calling in a mobile device.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a configuration example of a part related to communication setting at the time of calling in a base station.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a configuration example of a portion related to communication setting at the time of calling in a communication control station.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing a configuration example of a control channel.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram showing another configuration example of a control channel.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram showing a configuration example of a conventional control channel.

[Explanation of symbols]

100-102 telephone 103 Communication control station 104,105 Base station 106,107 zone 108-111 Mobile device (mobile station)

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Claims (6)

(57) [Claims] 1. Intermittent reception for saving power consumption of a mobile terminal in a communication system including a communication control station that performs a call control process for the mobile terminal and a base station that connects the mobile terminal and the communication control station. In the system, the control channel sent to the mobile terminal includes an information portion indicating the presence or absence of paging information for each call group, and the communication control station is a call for measuring the call frequency for each mobile terminal. Frequency measuring means, and call group control means for grouping each mobile terminal into one of a plurality of call groups based on the measurement result of the call frequency measuring means,
A call group notifying unit for notifying each mobile terminal of the call group information indicating which call group it belongs to, wherein the mobile terminal receives the call group information from the communication control station via the base station. Means for receiving call group information,
An intermittent receiving means for controlling to intermittently receive the information portion indicating the presence or absence of paging information corresponding to the calling group to which the own terminal belongs, and for controlling the power supply to each functional block in the terminal during the period other than the intermittent receiving period; An intermittent reception system characterized by including. 2. The paging group control means sets the paging frequency of any mobile terminal belonging to a paging group to be lower than the paging frequency of each mobile terminal belonging to another paging group having a higher paging frequency, so that the paging frequency is higher. 2. The intermittent reception system according to claim 1, wherein each mobile terminal is divided into groups so as to be higher in frequency than each mobile terminal belonging to another low call group. 3. The intermittent reception system according to claim 2, wherein the call group control means divides the mobile terminals into groups so that the number of mobile terminals included in each call group becomes equal. 4. The intermittent reception system according to claim 1, wherein the calling group notifying means notifies the mobile terminal of the calling group information at least when the location of the mobile terminal is registered. 5. The intermittent reception system according to claim 1, wherein the control channel includes a paging channel and a paging announcement channel indicating the presence or absence of paging information for each paging group. 6. The control channel includes a plurality of paging channels, and each paging channel includes an information portion indicating presence / absence of paging information of a paging group corresponding to each paging channel.
The intermittent reception method described.