JP2000092541A - Wireless communication system, base station device, and wireless portable device - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Problem] To provide a wireless communication system, a base station device, and a wireless portable device that can quickly switch between different systems. A base station of a system B uses system information such as a control channel used by the base station for monitor information such as an occupation state of a wireless channel in a service area, or a system A in which the system information is close or overlapping. To the base station 106. The base station 106 transmits, to the multi-mode portable device 101, the control system information as well as the system A information as well as the system B information transferred from the base station 108. The multi-mode portable device 101 can quickly connect to the base station 108 of the system B using the information of the system B.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a wireless communication system, a base station apparatus, and a wireless portable device having a wireless portable device capable of making a call using at least two or more different systems. The present invention relates to a wireless communication system, a base station device, and a wireless portable device that can be used.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art At present, there are various types of wireless communication systems such as cellular cellular phones and cordless telephones, and they are properly used depending on the area or application. The so-called dual-mode or multi-mode portable device that can use a plurality of different systems with one portable device includes CDMA and analog dual-mode portable phones in the United States, and PDC (Personal Digital C) in Japan.
and a satellite phone dual system are already in practical use.

In the future, GSM (Global1 Sys.), Which is the most widely used cellular phone system as the most widely used cellular system in the world and announced in 1997 by the Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers, B-5-141.
tem for Mobile1 commicat
PHS (Person), which has been put into practical use in Japan and is excellent in terms of cost and high-speed communication.
Na1 Handyphone System) is being studied for practical use.

However, simultaneous access to a plurality of systems in such a multi-mode portable device causes problems such as characteristic degradation due to mutual interference in the portable device and complicated processing on the network side. Needs to select one of several systems.

The operation of the portable device in such a multi-mode system will be described with reference to FIG. Here, for simplicity of description, it is assumed that there are two systems, System A and System B. 4, reference numeral 401 denotes a multi-mode portable device; 402, a network of the system A;
04 is a base station in areas 405 and 406 of system A, 407 is a network of system B, and 408 and 409 are areas 410 and 41 of system B, respectively.
1 base station.

The multi-mode portable device 401 has, for example, a system A radio section and a system B radio section, and can receive services in both the system A and the system B.

In FIG. 4, the multi-mode portable device 401 is within the service area of the system A, and the system A is in a call or waiting for an incoming call. However, since the area 406 is an area (edge area) located at the end of the service area of the system A, if the user of the multi-mode portable device 401 further moves in the direction indicated by the arrow 412, the multi-mode portable device 401 The machine 401 needs to switch the service from the system A to the system B.

[0008] Such switching is performed manually by a user who is notified from the base station 404 that the area 406 is an edge area of the system A, or when the multi-mode portable device 401 goes out of the area 406 and returns to the base station. Station 4
When the service from the service station 04 cannot be received, the multi-mode portable device 401 automatically switches to the base station 408.
The system is switched by establishing a link with the system. However, in each case the system A
After terminating the connection with the base station 404 on the system B side, the connection with the base station 408 on the system B side is performed again.

For connection, first, it is necessary to receive a control signal transmitted from each base station. In an existing portable telephone system such as PDC and GSM, a channel for transmitting the control information is, for example, as shown in FIG. Although unique channels # 1, # 2, # 3, and # 4 are assigned to each of the base stations 501, 502, 503, and 504 as shown in FIG.
Since there are a plurality of channels in the entire system, and in a new system connection, the multi-mode portable device 401 does not have information on the channel on which each base station is transmitting a control signal. , It is necessary to perform an operation of finding a control channel of the connection destination base station 408.

Therefore, in the conventional method, it takes time to acquire a control channel and acquire control information necessary for reconnection to another system, and during that time, no service can be received from either system.

[0011]

As described above, in the conventional multi-mode system, since the respective systems are independent and no mutual information is transmitted, the information of the system to which the multi-mode system is switched to is switched. There is a problem that it takes time to perform acquisition and device setting again, and it takes time to switch the system.

The present invention has been made to solve such a problem. Even when switching between different systems, it is possible to obtain in advance system information of a base station, an area, and the like as a switching destination. It is an object of the present invention to provide a wireless communication system, a base station apparatus, and a wireless portable device capable of performing a quick system switching by using such information.

[0013]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION A wireless communication system according to the present invention has a first system base station and a first service area which is close to or overlaps the service area of the first system base station. In a wireless communication system including a base station of a second system different from the system, the base station of the first system and the base station of the second system respectively transmit information of the own system to a base station of another system. Means for transferring, including the information of the other system transferred from the base station of the other system in the control signal of the own system,
Means for transmitting data to a wireless portable device capable of making a call using both the first system and the second system.

In the wireless communication system having such a configuration, even when switching between different systems, system information such as a base station and an area to be switched to can be obtained in advance. Quick system switching can be performed.

Further, the base station apparatus of the present invention belongs to a first system of a wireless communication system including a plurality of systems, and is close to or overlaps a service area of a base station of a second system different from the first system. In a base station having a service area to be provided, means for transferring information of the first system to a base station of the second system is provided.

Further, the base station apparatus of the present invention belongs to a first system of a wireless communication system including a plurality of systems, and is close to or overlaps a service area of a base station of a second system different from the first system. In the base station having the service area to perform, the information of the second system transferred from the base station of the second system is included in the control signal of the first system, and both the first system and the second system are included. Means for transmitting to a wireless portable device capable of making a call by the system of (1).

Further, the wireless portable device according to the present invention is a wireless portable device capable of making a call using both the first system and the second system, wherein the information of the second system is transmitted from the base station of the first system. Means for receiving a control signal containing information on the second system, and means for notifying that connection with the second system is possible when the control signal containing information on the second system is received by the means. Storage means for storing the above information.

When the wireless portable device receives the control signal including the information of the second system, the wireless portable device terminates the call or call waiting state of the first system and stores the second system stored in the storage means. Means may be provided for using the information to make a connection to the second system.

[0019]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. In the following drawings, the same symbols indicate the same or corresponding parts. An embodiment of a wireless communication system according to the present invention will be described.

In this embodiment, switching between the two systems will be described for simplicity.
FIG. 1 shows the configuration of a system according to this embodiment.

In the figure, 101 is a multi-mode portable device, 102 is a wired network, 103 is a wired telephone,
104 is the network of the system A, 105 and 106
Are the base stations of the system A, 107 is the network of the system B, and 108 and 109 are the system B, respectively.
, And 110 is a relay device.

FIG. 2 shows an example of the configuration of the multi-mode portable device 101. In the figure, reference numeral 201 denotes a system A radio unit having a system A antenna 202; 203, a system B radio unit having a system B antenna 204;
5 is a control unit having a storage unit 206, 207 is an interface unit, 208 is a microphone, 209 is a speaker, 210
Is a display, and 211 is a keypad.

The multi-mode portable device 101 has a system A
Has been established with the base station 106, and is in a call or waiting for an incoming call. The base station 106 monitors the occupation status of the wireless channel in the service area and information on location registration at appropriate time intervals. Further, system information such as a control channel used by the base station 106 is transmitted to the base station 108 of the system B which is close to or overlaps with the base station 106 via the relay device 110 in the monitor information. On the other hand, the base station 1 on the system B side whose area is close to or overlaps the base station 106
In the same manner, 08 adds the information of the control channel used by the base station 108 to the monitoring result such as the occupation status of the wireless channel in its own service area and the information of the location registration, and sends the information to the base station 106 via the relay device 110. Is transmitted to. Here, the relay device 110 is provided for transmitting information of different systems. Therefore, the relay device 110
May be provided in each of the base stations 106 and 108 with a mechanism for transmitting information to and receiving information from a base station of another system, and the information may be directly transmitted and received between the base stations 106 and 108.

The base station 106 transmits to the multi-mode portable device 101, as control information, information on the system B transmitted from the base station 108 in addition to the information on the own area or the peripheral area regarding the system A.

When the multi-mode portable device 101 receives a control signal including information of a system different from the system to which a connection is currently established, the speaker 209 sounds that switching to the corresponding system is possible. It is emitted as a signal or displayed on the display 210. The received information is stored in the storage unit 206 provided in the control unit 205. Therefore, the multi-mode portable device 1
01 can switch the system using the information received and held.

The system switching is performed, for example, in the following procedure. First, a manual switching method will be described. The user of the multi-mode portable device 101 switches to another system, that is, the system B by using the keypad 21.
When the multi-mode portable device 101 is instructed by a switch or the like provided on the base station 106, the base station 106 on the system A side
Terminates connection with. Subsequently, an attempt is made to establish a connection with the base station 108 on the system B side. in this case,
Since the connection to the system B is the same as the establishment of a new connection, the connection is performed in the same procedure as when starting up from the power-on.
However, since the control channel used by the base station 108 is transmitted through the base station 106 and the information is stored in the storage unit 206 as described above, it is particularly necessary to scan all the control channels of the system B. Therefore, it is not necessary to search for the control channel of the base station 108, and information about the control channel of the base station 108 can be uploaded from the storage unit 206 and immediately received.

The switching method can be performed automatically as follows in addition to the manual switching method. That is, when the multi-mode portable device 101 receives a control signal including information of a different system, that is, the system B, when the multi-mode portable device 101 can be switched to another applicable system, that is, the system B, While maintaining the established system, that is, the call or incoming call waiting state in the system A, it receives the signal of the control channel of the base station 108 of the other system that can be switched intermittently, that is, the system B, and receives the signal. Measure strength. And
A signal from the currently connected base station 106 is compared with the received electric field strength, and when the signal strength from the base station 108 of another system, that is, the system B is higher than the signal strength of the base station 106, May switch the system.

In this case, the system switching is automatically performed without requiring a user's instruction. The termination of the link with the base station 106 and the connection procedure with the base station 108 are the same as the manual switching. Also, the switching determination condition is as follows:
The setting may be made by the user. For example, as the switching determination condition, the switching is performed when the reception electric field strength of the other system is large, and the number of continuations of the switching when the number of times of measurement in the large state continues (or how long the large state continues) The switching is performed when the level difference of the received electric field strength exceeds a certain level, but the level difference or the like may be set by the user.

Further, the base station 10 uses the information on the occupation status of the radio channel and the location registration included in the system information.
8 if there is no available channel in the base station 108, it indicates that system switching is difficult, and if there is another connectable base station candidate, the base station is indicated. A mechanism for attempting connection with the base station may be provided.

FIG. 1 shows a case where inter-system information transmission is performed between base stations. However, as shown in FIG. 3, a network of each system, that is, a network 104 of system A and a network 107 of system B are connected to each other. A transmission path 301 for mutually transmitting information may be provided between the two systems, and a special pipe is not provided as shown in FIGS. 1 and 3, and connection with both systems such as PSTN (public network) is made. Information may be mutually transmitted through another network.

In the above description, switching in the case where the service areas of the base stations of two systems are close or overlapping has been described. However, when the service areas of the base stations of three or more systems are close or overlapping, This can be similarly implemented by transmitting information of each system by base stations of different systems.

[0032]

As described above, according to the radio communication system of the present invention, switching between different systems can be performed in a short time.
It can be performed reliably.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a system configuration according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration example of a multi-mode portable device.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a system configuration according to another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining a configuration of a multi-mode system and system switching.

FIG. 5 is a diagram for explaining a relationship between a base station and a control channel used by each base station.

[Explanation of symbols]

 101 Multi-mode portable device 102 Wired network 103 Wired telephone 104 Network of system A 105, 106 Base station of system A 107 Network of system B 108, 109 Base station of system B 110 Relay device 201 System A wireless unit 202 ... System A antenna 203 ... System B wireless unit 204 ... System B antenna 205 ... Control unit 206 ... Storage unit 207 ... Interface unit 208 ... Microphone 209 ... Speaker 210 ... Display 211 ... Keypad 301 ... Transmission Road 401 Multi-mode portable device 402 Network A of system A 403, 404 Base station of system A 405, 406 Area of system A 407 Network of system B 408, 409 Base station of system B 10,411 ... of system B area 501, 502, 503, 504 ... base station

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A base station of a second system different from the first system having a base station of a first system and a service area close to or overlapping the service area of the base station of the first system. A base station of the first system and a base station of the second system, respectively, means for transferring information of the own system to a base station of another system, and a base station of the other system. Means for including the transferred information of the other system in the control signal of the own system and transmitting the information to a wireless portable device capable of making a call by both the first system and the second system. A wireless communication system, characterized by: 2. A base station belonging to a first system of a wireless communication system comprising a plurality of systems and having a service area close to or overlapping a service area of a base station of a second system different from the first system. , First
A base station device comprising means for transferring information of the system of (1) to the base station of the second system. 3. A base station belonging to a first system of a wireless communication system comprising a plurality of systems and having a service area close to or overlapping a service area of a base station of a second system different from the first system. Including the information of the second system transferred from the base station of the second system in the control signal of the first system,
A base station apparatus comprising: means for transmitting to a wireless portable device capable of making a call using both the system of (1) and the system of (2). 4. A wireless portable device capable of making a call using both the first system and the second system,
Means for receiving a control signal containing information of the second system from the base station of the first system;
When receiving a control signal containing information on the second system, a means for notifying that connection with the second system is possible, and a storage means for storing information on the second system. Characteristic wireless portable device. 5. When a control signal including information on the second system is received, a call or call waiting state of the first system is terminated, and the information of the second system stored in the storage means is returned. 5. The wireless portable device according to claim 4, further comprising means for using and connecting to a second system.