JP2002152114A - Mobile communication device and base station - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Problem] To provide a mobile communication device (receiver) for performing a prediction process of a radio wave arrival direction, controlling the directivity of an antenna, and transmitting a signal from a base station without increasing the load on the receiver side. The purpose of the present invention is to receive the radio waves in an optimal state. SOLUTION: A mobile communication device (receiver) includes: receiver position information, a speed vector, position information of a base station near a reception point from a base station, and a receivable antenna direction near a reception point. Data such as the name of the received base station is collected (S11), and based on these data, a prediction process is performed for a change in the direction of arrival of the radio wave due to future progress (S12). Using the result of the prediction processing, the antenna directivity control is performed together with the movement (S13), and the radio wave from the base station is received in a good state.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a mobile communication device and a base station, and more particularly to a mobile communication device for controlling the direction of an antenna of a mobile communication device according to the progress of the mobile communication device. And a base station.

[0002] A base station includes a broadcasting station, and a mobile communication device includes a receiver that receives a broadcast while moving.

[0003]

2. Description of the Related Art In a radio communication system in which a plurality of radio base stations each cover a service area, when a mobile communication apparatus passes through a service area of a plurality of base stations, a base station to communicate with is switched and a handover is performed. Over is performed.

[0004] At the time of this handover, for example, the mobile communication device selects an optimal base station based on the state of radio waves from the base station (reception level, delay profile, etc.). This allows the mobile communication device to continue communication while moving.

[0005]

In the case of mobile communication (including broadcasting), radio waves from a plurality of base stations propagate very complicated due to shielding or reflection by buildings.

A description will be given with reference to FIG.

FIG. 8 shows base stations 11, 12, and 13 and building 2
1, 22, a car (vehicle) 30, a mobile communication device 300 mounted on the car 30, and a road 40.

[0008] The mobile communication device 300 includes an antenna 301.
Having. The antenna 301 may have directivity. The directivity is controlled physically or electronically.

[0009] Now, it is assumed that the car 30 is traveling on the road 40 from right to left. At this time, looking at the state of propagation of the radio wave on the road 40, the radio wave from the base station 13 does not directly reach the (A), (B) and (C) zones on the road 40 in FIG. Absent.

On the other hand, looking at the base stations 11 and 12,
In the (C) zone, a direct wave from the base station 11 does not reach,
A direct wave from the base station 12 arrives. In the zone (B), a direct wave from the base station 11 and a direct wave from the base station 12 arrive. In the zone (A), a direct wave from the base station 11 arrives and a direct wave from the base station 12 does not reach.

FIG. 8 illustrates three base stations and two buildings, but in reality, many base stations and many buildings are involved. Furthermore, in a city, the reflection of buildings cannot be ignored, and the state of propagation of radio waves from the base station on the road 40 shows a complicated appearance.

In such a situation, if a radio wave is received and the base station is switched using only the reception status of the radio wave as in the related art, a receiving circuit is required for base station selection. However, there has been a problem that the burden on the receiver side is increased, for example, the size of the receiver becomes large and the receiving algorithm becomes complicated.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a mobile communication device that performs a process of predicting a radio wave arrival direction, controls the directivity of an antenna, and increases a load on a receiver side. It is intended to receive radio waves from a base station in an optimal state.

[0014]

In order to solve the above problems, the present invention employs means for solving the problems having the following features.

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a mobile communication apparatus (including a receiver for receiving a broadcast while moving) for transmitting and receiving to and from a base station (including a broadcast station). Transmitting means (for example, the data transmitting unit 34 in FIG. 6) for transmitting information on the peripheral base station transmitted from the base station and the direction of the antenna to be directed as the mobile communication device proceeds. Receiving means (for example, the data collection unit 31 in FIG. 6) for receiving information about the antenna, the information about the direction of the antenna received by the receiving means, the information about the position and the information about the velocity vector. Prediction means for predicting a change in situation (for example, the prediction processing unit 3 in FIG. 6)
2) and means for controlling the directivity of the antenna based on the output of the prediction means (for example, the antenna directivity control unit 33 in FIG. 6).

Claim 1 defines a mobile communication device (receiver).

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a base station (including a broadcasting station) for transmitting and receiving a plurality of mobile communication devices (including a receiver for receiving a broadcast while moving).
A receiving means (for example, the data receiving unit 42 in FIG. 7) for receiving the position information and the speed vector information of the mobile communication device, and a reception status database (for example, the reception in FIG. 1) storing the reception status of the surrounding area. The mobile communication device refers to the reception status database based on the situation database 46) and the information on the position of the mobile communication device and the information on the velocity vector, and provides the mobile communication device with information on the peripheral base station and the mobile communication device. And a transmission unit (for example, the data transmission unit 41 in FIG. 7) for transmitting information on the direction of the antenna to be directed as the traveling of the antenna proceeds.

Claim 2 defines a base station (broadcasting station).

According to the first or second aspect of the present invention, in the mobile communication device, the radio wave arrival direction is predicted, the directivity of the antenna is controlled, and the load on the receiver side is increased without increasing the load on the receiver side. Radio waves from stations can be received in an optimal state.

[0020]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention relates to a mobile communication device (including a receiver) with position information and a velocity vector, information transmitted from a base station (including a broadcast station) (base station position information / near a receiving point). Information about the orientation of the antenna at
Predict future changes in radio wave propagation conditions due to the movement of mobile communication devices, and control the direction of the antenna to build a highly reliable communication and broadcast system without increasing the burden on the mobile communication device. Is an invention that is made possible.

An embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the algorithm and data flow of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 8, a case of three base stations 11, 12, and 13 will be described as an example.

In the following description with reference to FIGS. 1 to 7, the mobile communication device will be simply referred to as a “receiver”.

First, the algorithm of the receiver will be described.
The receiver obtains its own position information and speed vector (moving direction and moving speed) in real time (S1). If there is car navigation data (map data, destinations, route data on the way), the data 36 is used to predict the moving direction (S2).

From the base station 11, the receiving point
The position information of the base station near (the location of the receiver), the receivable antenna direction near the receiving point, and the name of the base station received at that time are distributed (S3). The directions of the receivable antennas are not only those relating to the direct waves from the base station 11 to the receiver, but also those which are expected to be able to receive well the reflected waves from buildings and radio waves from other base stations. All incoming waves are delivered. The receiver collects the above data (S11), and based on these data, performs a prediction process for a future change in the position, the traveling direction, and the arrival direction of the radio wave accompanying the traveling of the receiver (S12).

The antenna directivity control is performed using the result of the prediction processing (S13), and the radio wave from the base station is received in a good state.

Further, the position information and the velocity vector of the receiver, the direction of the antenna when the receiver receives the radio wave of the base station, the reception result (base station name, reception electric field level (absolute level,
C / N), error rate, etc.), and expected route information of the receiver are sent to the base station 11 (S4, S14).

At the receiver, the above processing is repeated.

Next, the algorithm of the base station 11 will be described.

The base station 11 provides the receiver with positional information on the base station (including the base station 11) near the receiving point, the direction of the antenna with respect to the arriving wave receivable near the receiving point, and the information received at that time. (If there are a plurality of incoming waves, all of them) are transmitted (S2).
1).

Next, the receiver receives the position information of the receiver, the velocity vector, the direction of the antenna, the reception result, and the expected route information of the receiver from the receiver (S22), and updates the reception status database 46 from these data. (S23). The reception status database 46 stores reception locations, directions of antennas at the locations, reception results at that time, and reception dates and times.

Next, data is extracted from the base station position database 45 and the reception status database 46 based on the position information of the receiver, the velocity vector, and the predicted course (S24).

The base station 11 repeats the above processing.

The base station 11 exchanges information in the reception status database 46 with surrounding base stations (here, the base station 12 and the base station 13) by wireless or wired communication.
Update the data.

In the above description, an example in which the number of receivers is one has been described. However, according to the present invention, when there are a plurality of receivers in the service area, the base station 11 The above processing is performed between the steps.

FIGS. 2 to 5 are diagrams for explaining a mechanism for changing the direction of the antenna when the receiver is moving.

Two base stations, base station 11 and base station 12
The vehicle 30 traveling on the road 40 (the vehicle travels from the (A) zone to the (B) zone and the (C) zone, which is divided into regions according to the insensitive state of radio waves) is received. At that time, building 2
Since the radio waves 1 and 22 block radio waves in some sections, it is necessary to change the antenna directivity in order to continuously receive radio waves from a base station using a directional antenna.

In FIG. 2, the base station 11 can receive in the zone (A), and the base station 11 informs the receiver of the position information of the base stations 11 and 12 located in the vicinity of the receiver. Receiving radio waves in the path of the car
The direction to which the antenna should be directed is notified for each area where (direction, number) changes.

In FIG. 3, based on the information sent from the base station 11, when the car enters the zone (B), the next zone (C) receives the radio wave from the base station 11 which has been received until now. Is expected to become unreceivable, and when entering the zone (B), the antenna directivity is predicted in advance so that radio waves from the base station 12 can be received, and the antenna directivity is changed. .

In FIG. 4, after changing the directivity of the antenna by the prediction process and switching to the reception of the radio wave from the base station 12, the reception location, the speed vector of the car, and the antenna receiving the radio wave are transmitted from the receiver. , The reception result, and the destination / route information of the vehicle are transmitted to the base station 12. The base station 12 that has received these data updates its own reception status database, and further shares this data between the base stations, thereby predicting the antenna directivity for vehicles that pass through this area. Make it available as data for use in processing.

In FIG. 5, as in FIG. 2, information on the position of the base station around the vehicle and information on the directivity direction of the antenna to be pointed in zones (C) and (D) to be passed now and in the future. Is transmitted from the base station 12 to the receiver.

According to the present invention, the data exchange as shown in FIGS. 2 to 5 is repeatedly performed to secure a good reception state while reducing the load on the receiver side.

Note that the prediction process is performed in order to cope with the insensitivity of the radio wave from the base station caused by the shielding of the building or the like to the direction of the antenna directivity in order to change the base station to receive before the car moves to the radio wave insensitive area. And a prediction process that calculates the position of the base station, the position of the vehicle, and the velocity vector as the vehicle moves, and continuously directs the directivity of the antenna to the base station. .

In the above description, an example in which the receiver is an antenna having a single directivity has been described. However, the present invention is also applicable to a case where a signal is received by an antenna having a plurality of directivities. The receiving beam is directed to a plurality of arriving waves based on this information, and the receiver determines which receiving beam to use, so that the radio wave can be received satisfactorily.

FIG. 6 shows an example of main functional blocks of the receiver (mobile communication device).

In FIG. 6, the receiver includes a data collection unit 31,
It includes a prediction processing unit 32, an antenna directivity control unit 33, and a data transmission unit.

The data collection unit 31 collects the receiver position information and velocity vector information of the receiver, and obtains the position information of the base station from the base station near the reception point, the receivable antenna direction near the reception point, and Collects received data such as base station names.

The prediction processing unit 32 predicts a future change in the radio wave propagation state in the course direction based on the data collected by the data collection unit 31.

The antenna directivity control unit 33 controls the directivity of the antenna based on the prediction of the prediction processing unit 32.

The data transmitting unit 34 receives the position information and the velocity vector of the receiver, the direction of the antenna when the receiver receives the radio wave of the base station, the reception result (base station name, reception electric field level (absolute level, C / C N), error rate, etc.) and expected path information of the receiver to the base station.

Next, FIG. 7 shows an example of main functional blocks of the base station.

In FIG. 7, the base station includes a data transmitting unit 41,
It comprises a data receiving unit 42, a data updating unit 43, and a data collecting unit 44.

The data transmission section 41 transmits the position information of the peripheral base station at the current location of the receiver (mobile communication device), the receivable antenna direction near the reception location, the base station name received at that time, and the like. Send.

The data receiving unit 42 receives the position information and the velocity vector of the receiver transmitted by the receiver, the direction of the antenna when the receiver receives the radio wave of the base station, the reception result (base station name,
It receives the received electric field level (absolute level, C / N), error rate, etc., expected path information of the receiver, and the like.

The data updating unit 43 is configured to control the direction of the antenna when the receiver receives the radio wave of the base station, the reception result (base station name, received electric field level (absolute level, C / N), error rate, etc.).
The data of the reception status database is updated based on such information.

The data collection unit 44 receives the position information of the receiver,
Data is extracted from the base station position database 45 and the reception status database 46 based on the velocity vector and the expected course.

[0057]

According to the present invention as described above, the following various effects can be obtained.

In the present invention, position information of a base station (including a broadcasting station) and antenna directivity data suitable for reception around a mobile communication device (including a receiver) are distributed from the base station. Since the receiver performs pre-processing based on this data, it is possible to receive radio waves from the optimal base station in a good condition even if radio waves are blocked by a building or the like.

Since the mobile communication device according to the present invention does not require a complicated algorithm for estimating an incoming wave from an unknown direction, the configuration of the mobile communication device becomes simpler.

In the present invention, the propagation status data is updated based on the information from the mobile communication device. Therefore, as the number of mobile communication devices received at that location increases, the more reliable the propagation data is transmitted to the mobile communication device. Can be provided.

In the present invention, the propagation data and the use status of the receiver are accumulated in the base station, and this can be used to design an optimal base station.

[0062]

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 shows a base station and a receiver (mobile communication device) of the present invention.
FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an algorithm and data flow in FIG.

FIG. 2 shows the position information of each base station from the base station 11 to the receiver, and the information of the direction of the antenna directivity enabling good radio wave reception in the areas (A), (B), and (C) passing therethrough. Is a diagram showing a state in which

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a case where the antenna directivity is changed by a prediction process on the receiver (mobile communication device) side to switch to reception of radio waves from the base station 12 before entering a radio wave insensitive area (C) of the base station 11; It is a figure showing a situation.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a state in which a reception location, a vehicle speed vector, a directivity direction of an antenna, a reception result, and destination / route information are transmitted to a base station 12 that receives radio waves. is there.

FIG. 5 shows the position information of each base station in the vicinity to the receiver (mobile communication apparatus) from the base station 12 and the antenna to be pointed in the current and expected areas (C) and (D). FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a state in which the direction is transmitted.

FIG. 6 is a diagram for describing an example of main functional blocks of a receiver (mobile communication device).

FIG. 7 is a diagram for describing an example of main functional blocks of a base station.

FIG. 8 is a diagram for explaining a direct wave propagation state on a road by three base stations and two buildings.

[Explanation of symbols]

 11, 12, 13 Base station 21, 22 Building 30 Car (automobile) 31 Data collection unit 32 Prediction processing unit 33 Antenna directivity control unit 34 Data transmission unit 35, 36 Database of mobile communication device 40 Road 41 Data transmission unit 42 Data receiving unit 43 Data updating unit 44 Data collecting unit 45 Base station position database 46 Reception status database 300 Mobile communication device 301 Antenna

 ────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuing on the front page (72) Inventor Fumiyasu Suginoshita 1-10-11 Kinuta, Setagaya-ku, Tokyo Japan Broadcasting Corporation Japan Broadcasting Research Institute F-term (reference) 5K059 AA12 DD06 5K067 AA02 AA33 BB03 DD19 DD20 DD42 EE04 EE10 KK02

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A mobile communication device for transmitting and receiving to and from a base station, a transmitting means for transmitting position information and speed vector information of the device to the base station, and a periphery of the device transmitted from the base station. Receiving means for receiving information about the base station and information about the direction of the antenna to be directed along with the progress of the mobile communication device; information about the direction of the antenna received by the receiving means; information about the position and the velocity vector A mobile communication device comprising: a prediction unit that predicts a change in a radio wave propagation situation in the future from the information of the above; and a unit that controls directivity of an antenna based on an output of the prediction unit. 2. One or more base stations that perform transmission and reception with one or more mobile communication devices, a receiving unit that receives position information and speed vector information of the mobile communication devices, and a peripheral area of the base station. A reception status database storing the reception status of the mobile communication device, based on the information on the position and the information on the speed vector, based on the reception status database,
A base station comprising: a transmitting unit configured to transmit, to the mobile communication device, information on a base station in the vicinity of the device and information on an orientation of an antenna to be directed as the mobile communication device advances.