JP5762584B1 - Communications system - Google Patents

Abstract

A communication system that effectively reduces a load on a network. A communication system including femtocell base stations F1 to F4 connectable to a plurality of IMS networks 11 and 12 includes a load balancer 21 capable of communicating with the femtocell base stations F1 to F4. The load balancer 21 controls which of the IMS networks 11 and 12 the femtocell base stations f1 to F4 are connected to based on a predetermined weight. [Selection] Figure 1

Description

  The present invention relates to a communication system.

  In recent years, in order to expand the communication area of mobile devices such as mobile phones, femtocell base stations that connect mobile devices to a network via an Internet line have been installed inside houses and buildings. In a communication system including a femtocell base station, when a mobile device connects to a web server on the Internet line via the femtocell base station, the following processing is performed. First, the mobile device transmits a URL for connecting to the web server to the femtocell base station to the femtocell base station. When the femtocell base station receives the URL from the mobile device, the femtocell base station transmits a DNS query of the URL and an identification number of the mobile device (hereinafter also referred to as a FQDN (Fully Qualified Domain Name) request) to the DNS (Domain Name System). . The DNS diagnoses whether connection is possible based on the identification number of the mobile device, and if connection is possible, returns the IP address of the URL to the femtocell base station apparatus. The femtocell base station transmits the IP address of the URL to the mobile device based on the answer from the DNS. After completing such processing, the mobile device comes to connect to a web server on the Internet line using the IP address transmitted from the femtocell base station (see, for example, Patent Document 1).

  In addition, as a technique for distributing the load during communication, for example, when a query request is issued from a client device, the query request is appropriately distributed to a cache server from a plurality of cache servers according to the actual processing capacity. A load distribution device that distributes a load is known (see, for example, Patent Document 2).

JP 2009-271842 A JP2013-242751A

  In the above communication system, the DNS does not consider the load situation in the network when determining the IP address to be transmitted to the femtocell base station. For example, even if a failure occurs in a part of the network and there is a possibility that the load in the network is increased to compensate for the failure, the situation is not considered. Therefore, there are cases where the DNS transmits the IP address of the PDG of a network with a heavy load to the femtocell base station. When the femtocell base station is connected to a network with a large load, communication of the mobile device cannot be performed smoothly, which may cause trouble for the user of the mobile device.

  Even if the technology described in Patent Document 2 is used, the load distribution device described in Patent Document 2 is a technology that distributes query requests to an appropriate cache server in accordance with the actual processing capability of the cache server. When the load on the network is large, only a slight load distribution is performed inside the network, and when a large-scale failure occurs in one network, it is not possible to cope with it sufficiently.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object thereof is to provide a communication system that effectively reduces the load on the network.

  The inventor of the present application may develop a network for each region as a sub-network of the Internet as a design concept of the communication infrastructure, and a plurality of networks may coexist. In such a case, the load on each network simultaneously increases. Focusing on the fact that this is rare, we came up with a technology that can effectively relieve the load on the network.

In order to solve the above problems, a communication system according to the present invention is a communication system including a plurality of femtocell base stations connectable to a plurality of networks, and a first load distribution capable of communicating with the plurality of femtocell base stations. A first information processing apparatus capable of communicating with at least the first load distribution apparatus , wherein the first load distribution apparatus includes a plurality of the femtocell base stations based on a predetermined weight. first control unit for controlling whether to connect to any network, Bei example, said first information processing apparatus includes a first monitoring unit for monitoring the load in the plurality of network, and the plurality of network Based on the first acquisition unit that acquires the communication status of different upper networks, the monitoring result of the first monitoring unit, and the communication status acquired by the first acquisition unit, Comprising a first determination unit that determines the predetermined weight, a.

With this configuration, the first information processing apparatus can determine the predetermined weighting based on the monitoring result of the first monitoring unit and the communication status of the upper network. For this reason, in the communication system, for example, when a failure occurs in a part of the communication status of the upper network, a femtocell base station is connected to a network covering an area related to the part area. The predetermined weight can be determined so as to reduce the number to be played.

The front Symbol first information processing apparatus, the first of the first indication portion may be further provided with to instruct the predetermined weighting to the load balancer.

  If comprised in this way, in the said communication system, the 1st information processing apparatus can change the weighting of a 1st load distribution apparatus.

The first control unit may perform control so that a relatively large number of the femtocell base stations are connected to the network having the larger predetermined weight.

  If comprised in this way, the said communication system can relieve | distribute load more effectively about each network by increasing the weight of the network with a small load in a network among several networks, for example.

Furthermore, the communication system further includes a second load balancer capable of communicating with the plurality of femtocell base stations, and the second load balancer is configured to use the plurality of femtocells based on the predetermined weighting. A second control unit that controls which of the plurality of networks the base station connects to may be provided so that the first load distribution device and the second load distribution device operate in parallel. .

  With this configuration, even if a failure occurs in one of the first load balancer and the second load balancer, the other load balancer allows the femtocell base station to Since it is possible to control which of these networks is connected, the reliability of the communication system can be improved.

  ADVANTAGE OF THE INVENTION According to this invention, the communication system which can relieve | moderate the load of a network effectively can be provided.

It is a figure which shows an example of a structure of the communication system which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the relationship between the communication range of the femtocell base station which concerns on the same embodiment, and the position of a mobile apparatus. It is a figure which shows an example of the functional block of the load distribution apparatus which concerns on the same embodiment. It is a figure which shows an example of the functional block of the information processing apparatus which concerns on the embodiment. It is a timing chart which shows an example of the procedure of the communication control of the communication system which concerns on the embodiment. It is a timing chart which shows an example of the procedure of the communication control of the communication system in connection with the embodiment. It is a figure which shows an example of a structure of the communication system which concerns on the modification of embodiment of this invention.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an example of a configuration of a communication system according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1, the communication system 1 according to the present embodiment includes, as an example, a plurality of networks, an IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem) network (also referred to as an IMS core) 11 and an IMS network 12. The femtocell base stations F1 to F4 are exemplified as a plurality of femtocell base stations connectable to the IMS networks 11 and 12, and a load balancer 21 that can communicate with the femtocell base stations F1 to F4 is included. Further, the communication system 1 includes an information processing device (first information processing device) 31 that can communicate with the load distribution device (first load distribution device) 21. The information processing apparatus 31 is connected to the IMS networks 11 and 12 and the upper network 41, respectively.

  The IMS network 11 is a network that covers the Kanto region, and the IMS network 12 is a network that covers the Kansai region. In the present embodiment, the communication system 1 will be described as including two IMS networks, the IMS networks 11 and 12, but the number of IMS networks is not limited to this.

  Further, the IMS network 11 includes a PDG (Packet Data Gateway) 11a serving as a network entrance. The IMS network 11 includes various server devices (not shown) in addition to the PDG 11a, and these various server devices are connected to each other in the IMS network 11. Among these various server devices, there is also a server device group having a so-called redundant configuration in which server devices having the same function function in parallel with each other, improving the reliability of communication in the IMS network 11. Yes. Since the IMS network 12 has the same configuration as the IMS network 11, detailed description thereof is omitted in the present embodiment.

  The femtocell base station F1 is installed indoors such as a home, office or basement, and is used for a mobile device 51 such as a mobile phone or a portable personal computer, as shown in FIG. (Femtocell) Functions as a base station forming A1. The femtocell base station apparatus F1 connects the mobile station 51 located in the communication area A1 and the IMS network 11 or 12 so that they can communicate with each other using the IP address of the PDG 11a or 12a received from the load distribution apparatus 21. . Note that the femtocell base stations F2 to F4 have the same configuration as the femtocell base station F1, and thus detailed description thereof is omitted in this embodiment. Moreover, although the communication system 1 demonstrates in the case where it has four femtocell base stations of the femtocell base stations F1-F4, the number of femtocell base stations is not restricted to this.

  Returning to FIG. 1, the load distribution device 21 includes, for example, a control unit, a storage unit, a communication interface, and the like, and is configured by a computer device that can execute communication control using software stored in the hardware and the storage unit. The Further, as shown in FIG. 3, the load balancer 21 functionally determines which of the plurality of femtocell base stations F1 to F4 is connected to the plurality of IMS networks 11 and 12 based on a predetermined weight. A control unit (first control unit) 211 to be controlled is provided.

  Returning to FIG. 1, the information processing device 31 includes, for example, a control unit, a storage unit, a communication interface, and the like, and is configured by a computer device that can execute communication control using software stored in the hardware and the storage unit. The Further, as shown in FIG. 4, the information processing device 31 functionally monitors the load on the IMS network 11, and the instruction unit (first instruction unit) 311 that instructs the load distribution device 21 to perform weighting. The monitoring unit (first monitoring unit) 312, the acquisition unit (first acquisition unit) 313 that acquires the communication status of the host network 41, the monitoring result of the monitoring unit 312, and the communication status acquired by the acquisition unit 313. And a determination unit (first determination unit) 314 that determines weights for each of the IMS networks 11 and 12. In addition, the determination unit 314 determines the weighting so that, for example, a relatively large number of femtocell bases are connected to the network having the larger weighting among the IMS networks 11 and 12. Then, the instruction unit 311 instructs the weight distribution determined by the determination unit 314 to the load balancer 21.

  The host network 41 is, for example, a network that covers each region in Japan including the Kanto region and the Kansai region, and is, for example, a subnetwork included in the Internet.

  Next, an example of a communication control procedure of the communication system 1 will be described with reference to FIGS. More specifically, FIG. 5 shows the control timing until the information processing apparatus 31 instructs the load distribution apparatus 21 to perform weighting. FIG. 6 shows the mobile station 51 via the femtocell base station F1 and the IMS network 11. Or the timing of control until it connects to 12 is shown.

  As shown in FIG. 5, first, the information processing apparatus 31 is connected to the upper network 41 (ST101), and acquires the communication status of the upper network 41 (ST102). The communication status is acquired, for example, periodically or at a predetermined timing. As the communication status, for example, information on the status of the load in each area covered by the upper network 41 is acquired.

  Further, the information processing apparatus 31 is connected to each of the IMS networks 11 and 12 (ST103), and monitors the load size of each of the IMS networks 11 and 12 (ST104). This load monitoring is performed periodically, for example. By performing this monitoring, the information processing apparatus 31 compensates for the influence of a failure or the like caused by, for example, a failure occurring in one of the redundantly configured server device groups or the operation being stopped due to maintenance. Therefore, when a situation occurs in which the load in the network increases, the increased load situation can be grasped in a timely manner. In addition, the information processing apparatus 31 instantaneously receives access from a large number of femtocell base stations in an area covered by one of the IMS networks 11 and 12 (for example, after the end of a predetermined watching event, After a large-scale accident or after a natural disaster such as an earthquake), when the load on the IMS network covering the area increases, the increased load can be grasped in a timely manner.

  In FIG. 5, the case has been described where the information processing apparatus 31 performs a process of monitoring the magnitude of the load on each of the IMS networks 11 and 12 after the process of acquiring the communication status from the upper network 41. In some cases, the steps may be performed in the reverse order, or may be performed substantially simultaneously.

  The information processing apparatus 31 determines the weights of the IMS networks 11 and 12 based on the communication status acquired in step ST102 and the monitoring result acquired in ST104 (ST105). For example, if the monitoring result acquired in step S104 indicates that the load on the IMS network 12 has increased significantly even though the communication status of the upper network 41 acquired in step ST102 has not changed much, an earthquake has occurred in the Kansai region. Natural disasters such as this may have occurred. In such a case, the weighting is determined so as to connect to the IMS network 11 covering the Kanto region with priority over the IMS network 12 covering the Kansai region. In this case, the weighting is calculated using, for example, a calculation formula: IMS network 11: IMS network 12 = X: 100-X (natural number in the range of X: 0 ≦ X <50). As a specific example, when the weight of the IMS network 11 is slightly increased, for example, a weight of IMS network 11: IMS network 12 = 75: 25 is calculated. In accordance with this weighting, for example, the load balancer 21 instructs each femtocell base station to connect the femtocell base stations F1 to F3 to the IMS network 11 and the femtocell base station F4 to the IMS network 12. As a result, the femtocell base stations F1 to F3 try to connect to the IMS network 12 where the load in the network may be large, and after the connection failure, a FQDN (Fully Qualified Domain Name) request is again sent to the load balancer. It is possible to reduce the useless processing of transmitting to 21 and switching the connection to the network 11. Preferably, the information processing device 31 is weighted so that the IMS networks 11 and 12 have the same load based on the magnitude of the loads of the IMS networks 11 and 12, that is, the number of femtocell base stations connected. Determine the weights to adjust. The timing at which the information processing apparatus 31 makes the determination is, for example, a predetermined interval.

  In the present embodiment, the case where the weighting is determined based on the communication status of the upper network 41 and the monitoring results of the IMS networks 11 and 12 has been described. The weighting may be determined based on only the monitoring result.

  When determining the weight in step ST105, the information processing apparatus 31 instructs the load distribution apparatus 21 on the determined weight (ST106). Thereby, the load distribution apparatus 21 controls which of the networks 11 and 12 the femtocell base stations F1 to F4 are connected to based on the weighting instructed from the information processing apparatus 31.

  Next, control until the mobile station 51 is connected to one of the plurality of IMS networks 11 and 12, that is, allocation is determined so that more femtocell base stations are connected to the network having the larger weight value. Then, control for presenting a network connected to each femtocell base station according to this determination will be described with reference to FIG.

  When the femtocell base station F1 receives a connection request to the IMS network from the mobile device 51 (refer to FIG. 2) existing in the communication area A1 (ST201), the femtocell base station F1 sends it to the load balancer 21. Inquires about the IP address of the PDG of the IMS network to be connected by FQDN (ST202).

  The load balancer 21 controls which of the plurality of IMS networks 11 and 12 is connected to the femtocell base station F1 that is the source of the FQDN, based on the weighting instructed from the information processing device 31. Here, as an example of weighting, as described above, the case where IMS network 11: IMS network 12 = 75: 25 is instructed will be described in more detail. When weighting is instructed in this way, for example, when the load distribution apparatus 21 receives FQDN from four femtocell base stations F1 to F4, the load distribution apparatus 21 sets three femtocell base stations. In order to connect one femtocell base station to the IMS network 11 to the IMS network 11, in response to four FQDN requests, the IP address of the PDG 11a is assigned three times and the IP address of the PDG 12a is assigned once. The IP address is transmitted to the femtocell base stations F1 to F4. For example, by this control, an IP address that connects the femtocell base stations F1 to F3 to the IMS network 11 and the femtocell base station F4 to the IMS network 12 is transmitted.

  When the femtocell base station F1 receives, for example, the IP address of the PDG 11a received from the load balancer 21 (ST203), the femtocell base station F1 requests connection to the PDG 11a based on the IP address (ST204). In response to this connection request, the femtocell base station F1 and the IMS network 11 are connected (ST205). Thereby, the mobile device 51 is communicably connected to the IMS network 11 via the femtocell base station F1. Similarly, the femtocell base stations F2 and F3 are also communicably connected to the IMS network 11. Further, the femtocell base station F4 is connected to the IMS network 12 in order to receive the IP address of the PDG 12a.

  According to the communication system 1 configured as described above, when the load distribution apparatus 21 receives FQDNs from the femtocell base stations F1 to F4 based on a predetermined weight, a plurality of femtocell base stations F1 to F4 are provided. Since it is possible to control which of the IMS networks 11 and 12 is connected to, the load on the IMS networks 11 and 12 can be effectively reduced.

  Further, since the information processing apparatus 31 includes the instruction unit 311 that instructs the load distribution apparatus 21 to perform predetermined weighting, the information processing apparatus 31 can change the weighting of the load distribution apparatus 21 in the communication system 1.

  Furthermore, the information processing apparatus 31 can determine the weighting based on the monitoring result of the monitoring unit 312 and the communication status of the upper network 41. Therefore, for example, when the communication status of the upper network 41 indicates that a failure has occurred in the Kansai region, the communication system 1 includes the femtocell base stations F1 to F4 in the IMS network 12 that covers the Kansai region. The weighting can be determined so as to eliminate or reduce the number of connections.

  Further, the information processing apparatus 31 can determine the weighting based on the monitoring result of the monitoring unit 312 without considering the communication status of the upper network 41, and can instruct the weighting to the load distribution apparatus 21. For this reason, the communication system 1 can perform weighting according to the load situation of each of the IMS networks 11 and 12.

  Moreover, the control part 211 of the load distribution apparatus 21 can perform control so that a relatively large number of femtocell base stations F1 to F4 are connected to the network having the larger weight among the IMS networks 11 and 12. For this reason, for example, the communication system 1 can increase the weight of the network with a small load in the IMS networks 11 and 12, thereby more effectively distributing the load on the IMS networks 11 and 12. Can be relaxed.

(Modification)
Next, a modification of the above embodiment will be described. This modification is different from the above embodiment in that the load distribution device and the information processing device are each configured in a redundant configuration in the communication system 1 in the above embodiment. For this reason, the same reference numerals are given to the same components as those of the above-described embodiment, and detailed description thereof will be omitted.

  In the communication system 1a according to the present modification, the load distribution device 21 and the load distribution device (second load distribution device) 22 have a redundant configuration, and the information processing device 31 and the information processing device (second The information processing device 32 has a redundant configuration.

  The load distribution device 22 includes a control unit (not shown: second control unit) having the same function as the control unit 211 of the load distribution device 21 shown in FIG. 4, an instruction unit (not shown: second instruction unit) having the same function as the instruction unit 311, the monitoring unit 312, the acquisition unit 313, and the determination unit 314 of the load distribution device 31, and a monitoring unit (not shown: second). Monitoring unit), an acquisition unit (not shown: second acquisition unit), and a determination unit (not shown: second determination unit). The load distribution device 21 and the load distribution device 22 operate in parallel, and the information processing device 31 and the information processing device 32 operate in parallel.

  According to the communication system 1a in this modification, even if a failure occurs in one of the load balancer 21 and the load balancer 22, the other load balancer causes the femtocell base stations F1 to F4 to have a plurality of IMSs. Since it is possible to control which of the networks 11 and 12 is connected, the reliability of the communication system 1a can be improved.

  Further, according to the communication system 1a, even if a failure occurs in one of the information processing apparatuses 31 and 32, the other information processing apparatus instructs the load distribution apparatuses 21 and 22 to perform weighting. Therefore, the reliability of the communication system 1a can be improved.

  In the communication system 1a of the above-described modification, the load distribution device 21 and the information processing device 31 are described as being redundant with the load distribution device 22 and the information processing device 32, respectively. Only the information processing device 31 may have a redundant configuration, and the redundancy may be 3 or more.

1, 1a ... Communication system 11, 12 ... IMS network 11a, 12a ... PDG
21, 22 ... load distribution device 211 ... control unit 31, 32 ... information processing device 311 ... instruction unit 312 ... monitoring unit 313 ... acquisition unit 314 ... determination unit 41 ..Upper network 51 ... Mobile devices F1 to F4 ... Femtocell base station A1 ... Communication area

Claims (4)

A communication system including a plurality of femtocell base stations connectable to a plurality of networks,
A first load balancer capable of communicating with the plurality of femtocell base stations; and a first information processing device capable of communicating with at least the first load balancer ;
The first load balancing apparatus, e Bei a first control unit that controls whether the plurality of femtocell base station is connected to any of a plurality of said network based on a predetermined weighting,
The first information processing apparatus includes:
A first monitoring unit that monitors loads in the plurality of networks;
A first acquisition unit that acquires a communication status of an upper network different from the plurality of networks;
A first determination unit that determines the predetermined weighting based on a monitoring result of the first monitoring unit and the communication status acquired by the first acquisition unit;
Communications system. Before Symbol first information processing apparatus,
A first instruction unit for instructing the first load distribution apparatus to perform the predetermined weighting;
The communication system according to claim 1. The first control unit performs control so that a relatively large number of the femtocell base stations are connected to a network having a larger predetermined weight.
The communication system according to claim 1 or 2 . A second load balancer capable of communicating with the plurality of femtocell base stations;
The second load balancer is:
A second control unit configured to control which of the plurality of femtocell base stations is connected to the plurality of networks based on the predetermined weight;
The first load balancer and the second load balancer operate in parallel;
The communication system according to claim 3 .

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