1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to code division multiple access (CDMA) technology, and especially relates to a code division multiple access communication system, and a base station control device and a base station thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a code division multiple access radio communications system, communications are performed by assigning a code that is unique to each of a plurality of subscribers, and assigning the same wide range frequency band to the subscribers at the same time. For a specified communication through a channel, all other ongoing communications provided through other channels constitute an interference signal, whether the channels are in a cell to which the specified communication is being performed, or in other cells. Moreover, the power of a base station defines the number of subscribers that can be accommodated in the base station (or a sector), and the range of a service area of the base station. Therefore, transmission power and a target level of received power should be controlled such that there are no excesses or deficiencies. That is, the power levels should be controlled such that a desired signal to noise ratio (S/N) and a desired frame error rate (FER) are achieved. If optimal control is performed, the number of subscribers that can be accommodated in the entire communication system will be maximized. In a conventional communication system, a maintenance terminal for managing two or more base stations and base station control devices are used to predict and determine various parameters about the power of the base station, and control the base station, such that the maximum subscriber accommodation of the communication system is attained. The conventional communication system as mentioned above may provide optimal control, when the cell environment for communications, such as the number of subscribers, the number of base stations, and others, is relatively static, with few changes.
However, in actual operations, the cell environment dynamically changes according to various factors such as change of the number of subscribers, spatial deviation of the subscribers, temporal deviation of traffic from day to night, addition and deletion of the base stations, and change of a neighboring building. In order to optimally perform the power control of each base station, a quick response to the changes of the cell environment is required. By the conventional technique, if the cell environment changes, the maintenance terminal that manages the base station etc. needs to analyze and perform simulation such that parameters of the base stations etc. are reconfigured, which consumes time. When the cell environment changes rapidly, the parameters that are predicted as above may no longer be optimal.
Accordingly, the objectives of the present invention are to offer a quick response to the change of the cell environment, and to optimize the power control of the base station, which substantially obviate one or more of the problems caused by the limitations and disadvantages of the related art.
Features and advantages of the present invention will be set forth in the description that follows, and in part will become apparent from the description and the accompanying drawings, or may be learned by practice of the invention according to the teachings provided in the description. Objects as well as other features and advantages of the present invention will be realized and attained by the base station and the base station control device particularly pointed out in the specification in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable a person having ordinary skill in the art to practice the invention.
To achieve these and other advantages and in accordance with the purpose of the present invention, as embodied and broadly described herein, the present invention provides means as described below.
The code division multiple access communication system 100 of the present invention includes a base station 104 that communicates with two or more communication terminals 102, using two or more radio channels 105, and a base station control device 106 that controls the base station 104, wherein a variation range (xmax-xmin, ymax-ymin) of transmitted power or received power of the base station is adjusted, based on power distribution of the radio channels, as shown in
The above-described functions can be performed by the base station control device 106 of the present invention, which, then, includes an power distribution calculation means (210) configured to obtain the power distribution (
The power distribution calculation means obtains the power distribution (404) of a radio channel through which radio communications are not completed normally (uncompleted calls).
According to the present invention, the variation range of the transmitted power or the received power is adjusted autonomously without intervention of the maintenance terminal, such that a prompt response to change in the cell environment is achieved. Also, when radio communications are not completed due to shortage of power, a prompt and accurate response is provided, using the power distribution of the radio channel through which the radio communications did not complete normally.
In the following, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.
Generally, the base station 104 shown in
At step 306, the base station 104 determines whether there is a call, i.e., whether a radio channel is being used. If there are no calls, the flow 300 does not go beyond step 306, rather, presence of a call is checked for again. When it is determined that there is a call, information about the radio channel of the call is collected from the BB unit 206 at step 308. The collected information is stored in the memory 216. The information is acquired under the control of the call control unit 209. The acquired information (statistical information) includes transmitted power of a downlink, received power of an uplink (power that the base station received), and an index that indicates whether the call is successfully completed. Calls that are not completed normally (uncompleted calls) include, for example, calls disconnected compulsorily, calls disconnected due to unsatisfactory communication quality, and the like. Step 310 determines whether a call is successfully completed, using the criterion described above. When a call is determined to be successfully completed, the process progresses to step 314. Otherwise, the process progresses to step 312.
At step 312, accumulated probability distribution of the transmitted power levels and the received power levels for the uncompleted calls are generated. The statistical information processing unit 214 (refer to
x1≦X1<x2
x2≦X2<x3
x3≦X3<x4
x4≦X4
Here in the present explanation, the number of the points in time is set at four for explanation purposes. However, any number N of points in time may be considered.
Under a premise such as above, when a call is uncompleted, the total number of the uncompleted calls is incremented by one. Then, it is determined to which Xi (X1 through X4), transmitted power Pi, which is actually used for the call, belongs. When the call is considered uncompleted at the power Xi, a counting value Ai corresponding to the power Xi is incremented by one. By repeating the processes from step 306 through step 316 for a predetermined number of times, a table such as below is generated, and stored in the memory 216 (refer to
Here, X1<X2< . . . <XN. At step 312, the accumulated probability is calculated using the power distribution values obtained in this manner. In this case, the accumulated probability represents a probability P1k of all the collected uncompleted calls having a transmitted power value falling between x1 and xk (k<=N). That is, since the accumulated probability expresses a probability of the value of the power actually transmitted falling below Xk (dB) (1<=k<=n), the accumulated probability in the case of n=k (k<=n) is calculated by ΣAi (i=1, 2, . . . k)/ΣAi (i=1, 2, . . . N). This calculation process is performed until the number of calls that should be collected reaches a predetermined value (step 316). The same calculation process is performed about the received power that the base station received, such that the power distribution values and accumulated probability of the received power value and the counting value are computed about the uncompleted calls.
At step 314, a calculation process almost the same as explained in step 312 is performed for calls that are determined normally completed at step 310. That is, the process for computing the power distribution values of the transmitted power, the accumulated probability distribution of the transmitted power, the power distribution values of the received power, and the accumulated probability distribution of the received power for the completed calls is performed until a predetermined number of the calls are checked.
When it is determined that the predetermined number of calls to be checked is reached at step 316, the process progresses to step 320 where the power parameters are reconfigured. Before explaining step 320, the accumulated probability distributions generated at step 312 and step 314 are explained.
(call loss ratio)=(number of uncompleted calls)/(predetermined number of calls).
The predetermined number of calls is the number of calls as described at step 316 of
At step 506, power parameters are reconfigured using the accumulated probability distribution (curve 404 of
The target received power of the base station is obtained and reconfigured similarly to obtaining the transmitted power, the maximum transmitted power xmax, the minimum transmission power xmin, and the initial transmission power xin, and reconfiguring the variation range of the transmission power of the base station. That is, maximum target received power xmax, minimum target received power xmin, and initial target received power xin are obtained, and the variation range of the target received power is reconfigured. However, if the maximum target received power value xmax obtained is in excess of the power capability (equipment limit) of the communication terminal, it is impossible to increase the target received power (transmitted power of the communication terminal) at the base station, and to accommodate more subscribers. In this case, the base station provides information of the fact to the maintenance terminal 110 (not shown). Here, the minimum received power value xmin is obtained based on the second reconfiguring threshold P2. However, xmin may be obtained by subtracting a predetermined value from the maximum received power value xmax, which is desirable from a viewpoint of securing a range of variation (dynamic range) of the received power of the base station.
Contrary to the above, if it is determined that the call loss ratio is smaller than the predetermined value at step 504, the process progresses to step 510. At step 510, the power parameters are reconfigured using the accumulated probability distribution (curve 406 of
The target received power of the base station is obtained and the variation range of the target received power is reconfigured in a similar manner of obtaining the maximum transmission power ymax, the minimum transmission power ymin, and the initial transmission power yin, and reconfiguring the variation range of the transmission power of the base station. That is, about the target received power of the base station, the maximum target received power ymax, the minimum target received power ymin, and the initial target received power yin are determined, and the variation range of target received power is adjusted. It is also possible to subtract a predetermined value from the maximum target received power value ymax rather than to calculate the minimum target received power value ymin corresponding to the second reconfiguring threshold P2, securing the dynamic range of the received power of the base station.
The power parameters (xmax, xmin, xin, ymax, ymin, yin) are reconfigured in the manner as described above, and used for future calls.
At step 514, the number of the maximum allowable simultaneous calls is calculated according to the following formula.
(the number of the maximum allowable simultaneous calls)=(the maximum transmission power)/(the maximum allowable transmission power)
The maximum allowable transmission power of the right-hand side denominator is the possible maximum power that can be assigned to a call channel, and the maximum transmission power of the numerator is the total power that the base station transmits. Therefore, the number of the maximum allowable simultaneous calls expresses the smallest number of subscribers that can be accommodated in the cell. At step 516, the number of the maximum allowable simultaneous calls is compared with a predetermined value (the number of guaranteed simultaneous calls) that is provided from the maintenance terminal 110, and when the former is greater than the predetermined value, the process returns (A) (before step 306 of
Moreover, since the parameter that governs the number of subscribers in a code division multiple access system is an power value, if the transmitted power value per subscriber is increased, the number of subscribers that can be served will decrease. According to the embodiment of the present invention, it is possible to control such that no more than a predetermined guaranteed number of terminals are accepted in a cell by providing the number of the maximum allowable simultaneous calls to the maintenance terminal based on the power parameters that are reconfigured, restricting call origination and location registration. Here, restriction of call origination means, for example, that call attempts are refused at a fixed rate, which may be based on an identification number (MSID) of a communication terminal and restricting conditions (if it is a 50% restriction, only one communication terminal of every two communication terminals is allowed to make a call), which is performed by the communication terminal itself. The location registration restriction restricts location registration of the communication terminal, therefore, the communication terminal is prohibited not only to originate, but also to receive a call.
As mentioned above, according to the embodiment of the present invention, the base station or the base station control device reconfigures the power parameters (xmax, xmin, xin, ymax, ymin, yin) that determine the variation range of the transmission power of the base station and the communication terminal based on the power distribution (accumulated distribution) of the radio channel, which the base station or the base station control device obtains, and the reconfiguring threshold values P1, and P2 provided from the maintenance terminal 110. Processing load for obtaining the power distribution of the radio channel, which changes according to changes of the cell environment, is much lighter than simulation tasks conventionally performed by the maintenance terminal. For this reason, the base station etc. can reconfigure the power parameters autonomously and promptly, according to the changes of the cell environment, such that the transmission power control of the base station is optimally performed without the maintenance terminal predicting power parameters.
As mentioned above, according to the present invention, the transmission power control of the base station is optimized, providing prompt response to the changes of the cell environment.
Further, the present invention is not limited to these embodiments, but various variations and modifications may be made without departing from the scope of the present invention.
The present application is based on Japanese priority application No. 2002-106194 filed on Apr. 9, 2002, with the Japanese Patent Office, the entire contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference.
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