KR20180130158A - Communication node supporting multi-radio access technology in mobile communication system and operation method of communication node - Google Patents

Abstract

A method of operating a communication node and a communication node supporting a plurality of RATs in a mobile communication system is disclosed. A method of operating a relay in a mobile communication system includes the steps of: confirming whether the first terminal belongs to the coverage of the relay based on a signal received from the first terminal; Determining whether the first terminal and the second terminal belong to the coverage of the relay, receiving a data message from the first terminal, and determining whether the destination of the data message belongs to the coverage of the relay, And transmitting the data message to the second terminal if the first terminal is the second terminal. Therefore, the performance of the mobile communication system can be improved.

Description

Technical Field [0001] The present invention relates to a communication node and a communication node supporting a plurality of RATs in a mobile communication system. [0002]

The present invention relates to a mobile communication technology, and more particularly, to a communication node supporting a plurality of RAT (radio access technology) and an operation method performed in the communication node.

The mobile communication system may include a core network, a base station, a terminal, and the like. In a mobile communication system, a terminal can generally perform communication with another terminal under the control of a base station. However, according to this communication method, ultra-wideband communication service and real-time communication service (for example, real-time D2D (device to device) communication service) may not be efficiently supported.

Meanwhile, the mobile communication system can support a plurality of RAT (radio access technology), and in this case, functions according to a plurality of RATs can operate to be linked with each other organically. In order to support ultra-wideband communication service and real-time communication service in a mobile communication system supporting a large number of RATs, a method for efficiently using radio resources and a method for setting an optimal communication path will be needed.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a communication node supporting a plurality of RAT (Radio Access Technology) in a mobile communication system.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a method of operating a communication node supporting a plurality of RATs in a mobile communication system.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of operating a relay in a mobile communication system, including: checking whether a first terminal belongs to a coverage of the relay based on a signal received from a first terminal; Determining whether the second terminal belongs to the coverage of the relay based on a signal received from the second terminal, receiving a data message from the first terminal, and receiving the data message from the first terminal and the second terminal, And transmitting the data message to the second terminal when the destination of the data message is the second terminal.

According to the present invention, a communication node (e.g., a relay) supporting multiple radio access technologies (RAT) (e.g., 4G communication technology, 5G communication technology, etc.) can accommodate subscribers of a heterogeneous communication system , It is possible to control the communication between the terminals belonging to the coverage of the communication node. In this case, the terminals can perform communication based on the control of the relay instead of the base station. Therefore, in a mobile communication system, an ultra-wideband communication service and a real-time communication service (for example, real-time D2D (device to device) communication service) can be efficiently performed and radio resources can be efficiently used. Further, the present invention can be applied to a 4G communication system, a 5G communication system, and the like without changing the connection standard. As a result, the performance of the mobile communication system can be improved.

1 is a conceptual diagram showing a first embodiment of a mobile communication system.
2 is a block diagram showing a first embodiment of a communication node included in the mobile communication system.
3 is a block diagram showing a first embodiment of a network interface apparatus included in a communication node.
4 is a flowchart showing a first embodiment of a call processing method.
5 is a flowchart showing a first embodiment of a handover method.

While the invention is susceptible to various modifications and alternative forms, specific embodiments thereof are shown by way of example in the drawings and will herein be described in detail. It should be understood, however, that the invention is not intended to be limited to the particular embodiments, but includes all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the invention.

The terms first, second, etc. may be used to describe various components, but the components should not be limited by the terms. The terms are used only for the purpose of distinguishing one component from another. For example, without departing from the scope of the present invention, the first component may be referred to as a second component, and similarly, the second component may also be referred to as a first component. And / or < / RTI > includes any combination of a plurality of related listed items or any of a plurality of related listed items.

It is to be understood that when an element is referred to as being "connected" or "connected" to another element, it may be directly connected or connected to the other element, . On the other hand, when an element is referred to as being "directly connected" or "directly connected" to another element, it should be understood that there are no other elements in between.

The terminology used in this application is used only to describe a specific embodiment and is not intended to limit the invention. The singular expressions include plural expressions unless the context clearly dictates otherwise. In the present application, the terms "comprises" or "having" and the like are used to specify that there is a feature, a number, a step, an operation, an element, a component or a combination thereof described in the specification, But do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components, or combinations thereof.

Unless defined otherwise, all terms used herein, including technical or scientific terms, have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this invention belongs. Terms such as those defined in commonly used dictionaries should be interpreted as having a meaning consistent with the meaning in the context of the relevant art and are to be interpreted in an ideal or overly formal sense unless explicitly defined in the present application Do not.

Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. In order to facilitate the understanding of the present invention, the same reference numerals are used for the same constituent elements in the drawings and redundant explanations for the same constituent elements are omitted.

1 is a conceptual diagram showing a first embodiment of a mobile communication system.

1, a mobile communication system includes a core network # 1 111, a core network # 2 112, a base station # 1 121, a base station # 2 122, a relay 130, # 1 141, a terminal # 2 142, and the like. The mobile communication system can support a plurality of RAT (radio access technology). For example, the mobile communication system may be a 3G communication technology, 4G communication technology (e.g., LTE (Long Term Evolution) communication technology, LTE-A (advanced) communication technology), 5G communication technology, wireless local area network (WLAN) Communication technology and so on.

Each of the core network # 1 111 and the core network # 2 112 includes a mobile management entity (MME), a serving gateway (S-GW), a packet data network (PDN) . Communication between the core network # 1 (111) and the core network # 2 (112) can be performed using a specific interface. The RAT supported in the core network # 1 (111) may be different from the RAT supported by the core network # 2 (112). For example, the core network # 1 (111) can support 4G communication technology and the core network # 2 (112) can support 5G communication technology. In addition, the operator operating the core network # 1 (111) may be different from the operator operating the core network # 2 (112).

The base station # 1 121 may be connected to the core network # 1 111 and may support the same RAT as the RAT supported by the core network # For example, when the core network # 1 111 supports 4G communication technology, the base station # 1 121 uses the 4G communication technology to transmit the core network # 1 111, the relay 130, the terminal # 1 141 and the like. Base station # 2 122 may be coupled to core network # 2 112 and may support the same RAT as the RAT supported by core network # 2 112. [ For example, when the core network # 2 112 supports 5G communication technology, the base station # 2 122 uses the 5G communication technology to transmit the core network # 2 112, the relay 130, the terminal # 2 142 and the like. Also, communication between the base station # 1 121 and the base station # 2 122 can be performed using the X2 interface.

The relay 130 can relay the communication between the base stations 121 and 122 and the terminals 131 and 132 and can control the communication between the terminals 131 and 132 belonging to the coverage of the relay 130 have. Relay 130 may support multiple RATs. For example, the relay 130 may support 4G communication technology and 5G communication technology. In this case, the relay 130 can communicate with the base station # 1 121 using the 4G communication technology and can communicate with the base station # 2 122 using the 5G communication technology.

Each of the terminal # 1 141 and the terminal # 2 142 may support a plurality of RATs. For example, each of the terminal # 1 141 and the terminal # 2 142 can support the 4G communication technology and the 5G communication technology. The communication path P1 based on the 4G communication technology can be set between the terminal # 1 141 and the base station # 1 121 when the terminal # 1 141 belongs to the coverage of the base station # Communication between the # 1 (141) and the base station # 1 (121) can be performed through the communication path (P1). The communication path P2 based on the 4G communication technology can be set between the terminal # 1 141 and the relay 130 when the terminal # 1 141 belongs to the coverage of the relay 130, And the relay 130 can be performed via the communication path P2. The communication path P3 based on the 5G communication technology can be set between the terminal # 1 141 and the relay 130 and the communication between the terminal # 1 141 and the relay 130 can be set to the communication path P3 Lt; / RTI >

The communication path P4 based on the 5G communication technology can be set between the terminal # 2 142 and the base station # 2 122 when the terminal # 2 142 belongs to the coverage of the base station # 2 122, The communication between the second base station # 2 142 and the base station # 2 122 may be performed via the communication path P4. The communication path P5 based on the 4G communication technology can be set between the terminal # 2 142 and the relay 130 when the terminal # 2 142 belongs to the coverage of the relay 130, And the relay 130 can be performed via the communication path P5. The communication path P6 based on the 5G communication technology can be set between the terminal # 2 142 and the relay 130 and the communication between the terminal # 2 142 and the relay 130 can be set to the communication path P6 Lt; / RTI >

On the other hand, the communication nodes (for example, the base station # 1 121, the base station # 2 122, the relay 130, the terminal # 1 141, and the terminal # 2 142) included in the mobile communication system It can be configured as follows.

2 is a block diagram showing a first embodiment of a communication node included in the mobile communication system.

Referring to FIG. 2, the communication node 200 may include at least one processor 210, a memory 220, and a transceiver 230 connected to the network to perform communication. The communication node 200 may further include an input interface device 240, an output interface device 250, a storage device 260, and the like. Each component included in the communication node 200 may be connected by a bus 270 and communicate with each other.

The processor 210 may execute program commands stored in the memory 220 and / or the storage device 260. Processor 210 may refer to a central processing unit (CPU), a graphics processing unit (GPU), or a dedicated processor on which methods in accordance with the present invention are performed. The memory 220 and the storage device 260 may be composed of a volatile storage medium and / or a non-volatile storage medium. For example, the memory 220 may be comprised of a read only memory (ROM) and / or a random access memory (RAM).

Meanwhile, among the communication nodes included in the mobile communication system, the relay 130, the terminal # 1 141, and the terminal # 2 142 can support a plurality of RATs. A transceiver 230 of a communication node supporting a plurality of RATs may be configured as follows.

3 is a block diagram showing a first embodiment of a network interface apparatus included in a communication node.

Referring to FIG. 3, the transceiver 230 may include a signal processor # 1 231, a signal processor # 2 232, and a radio frequency (RF) unit 233. Each of the signal processor # 1 231 and the signal processor # 2 232 can process the signal based on the control of the processor 210. The RAT supported by the signal processor # 1 231 may be different from the RAT supported by the signal processor # 2 232. For example, signal processor # 1 231 may support 4G communication technology and signal processor # 2 232 may handle 5G communication technology. In this case, the signal processor # 1 231 is used for communication with communication nodes (for example, base station # 1 121, terminal # 1 131, and terminal # 2 132) . The signal processor # 1 231 receives a signal of a layer 1 (for example, a PHY (physical) layer signal in 4G communication), a layer 2 signal (for example, a MAC (e.g., a signal of a medium access control layer), and a signal of a layer 3 (e.g., a signal of a radio link control (RLC) layer in 4G communication).

The signal processor # 2 232 may be used for communication with communication nodes supporting the 5G communication technology (for example, the base station # 2 122, the terminal # 1 131, and the terminal # 2 132). The signal processor # 2 232 also receives the signal of the layer 1 (for example, the signal of the PHY layer in the 5G communication), the signal of the layer 2 (for example, (For example, a signal of the RLC layer in 5G communication), and the like.

The RF unit 233 can be used to transmit the signal processed by the signal processor # 1 231 and the signal processor # 2 232, respectively. Further, the RF unit 233 can receive signals from other communication nodes and can transmit the received signals to the signal processors # 1 231 and # 2 232.

Next, the operation methods of the communication node (for example, the communication node shown in Figs. 2 and 3) included in the mobile communication system shown in Fig. 1 will be described. Even when a method (e.g., transmission or reception of a message) performed in the communication node # 1 is described among the communication nodes, the corresponding communication node # 2 corresponds to the method performed in the communication node # 1 For example, receiving or transmitting a message). That is, when the operation of the terminal is described, the corresponding base station (or relay) can perform an operation corresponding to the operation of the terminal. Conversely, when the operation of the base station (or relay) is described, the corresponding terminal can perform an operation corresponding to the operation of the base station (or relay).

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a first embodiment of a call processing method, and FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a first embodiment of a handover method.

4 and 5, the mobile communication system includes a core network # 1 111, a core network # 2 112, a base station # 1 121, a base station # 2 122, a relay 130, 1 141, a terminal # 2 142, and the like. The core network # 1 111, the core network # 2 112, the base station # 1 121, the base station # 2 122, the relay 130, the terminal # 1 141, The core network # 1 111, the core network # 2 112, the base station # 1 121, the base station # 2 122, the relay 130, the terminal # 1 141, # 2 < / RTI > (142). The terminal # 1 141 may be connected to the base station # 1 121 and the relay 130 and the terminal # 2 142 may be connected to the base station # 2 122 and the relay 130.

The core network # 1 111 and the base station # 1 121 can support the 4G communication technology and the core networks # 2 112 and # 2 122 can support the 5G communication technology. The relay 130, the terminal # 1 141, and the terminal # 2 142 may support a plurality of RATs. For example, the relay 130, the terminal # 1 141, and the terminal # 2 142 can support 4G communication technology and 5G communication technology. Here, the format of the IP (Internet protocol) packet based on the 4G communication technology may be the same as the format of the IP packet based on the 5G communication technology.

The base station # 1 121, the base station # 2 122, the relay 130, the terminal # 1 141 and the terminal # 2 142 are configured to be the same as or similar to the communication node 200 shown in FIG. 2 . The relay 130, the terminal # 1 141, and the transceiver 230 of the terminal # 2 142 that support a plurality of RATs can be configured to be the same as or similar to the transceiver 230 shown in FIG. 3 .

The terminal # 1 141 and the terminal # 2 142 may be located within the coverage of the relay 130. In this case, the relay 130 can receive messages (e.g., location registration messages, handover request messages, etc.) from each of the terminal # 1 141 and the terminal # 2 142, (E.g., a subscriber identifier) of each of the terminal # 1 141 and the terminal # 2 142. [ The relay 130 may store the identifier of each of the terminal # 1 141 and the terminal # 142 in a memory or a storage device.

On the other hand, the terminal # 1 (141) which intends to perform communication with the terminal # 2 (142) can generate a call request message. When the priority of the 5G communication technology is higher than that of the 4G communication technology, the terminal # 1 141 can generate a call request message based on the 5G communication technology. For example, the signal processor # 2 of the terminal # 1 141 may generate a call request message based on the control of the processor. The call request message may include an identifier of the terminal # 1 (141), an identifier of the terminal # 2 (142), and the like.

The terminal # 1 141 may transmit a call request message to the relay 130 (S401). That is, the call request message generated by the signal processor # 2 of the terminal # 1 (141) can be transmitted through the RF unit of the terminal # 1 (141). Here, the call request message may be transmitted through a communication path P3 formed between the terminal # 1 141 and the relay 130. [ The relay 130 can receive the call request message from the terminal # 1 121 and analyze the received call request message (for example, by checking the identifier included in the call request message) It is possible to confirm that the communication between the terminals 141 and 142 belonging to the same group is requested. The call request message received from the terminal # 1 (121) can be processed in the signal processor # 2 of the relay (130). Since the terminal # 1 141 is connected to the base station # 1 121, the relay 130 can transmit a call request message of the terminal # 1 121 to the base station # 1 121 (S402). Since the base station # 1 121 supports the 4G communication technology, the signal processor # 1 of the relay 130 can process a call request message to be transmitted to the base station # 1 121. That is, the signal processor # 2 of the relay 130 can transmit a call request message of the terminal # 1 121 to the signal processor # 1 of the relay 130, and the signal processor # 1 of the relay 130 can transmit the call request message of the relay 130 And the call request message processed by the signal processor # 1 can be transmitted through the RF unit of the relay 130. The call request message processed by the signal processor #

The base station # 1 121 can receive the call request message from the relay 130 and analyze the received call request message to determine that the call processing procedure between the terminal # 1 141 and the terminal # Can be confirmed. Thereafter, the base station # 1 121 can transmit a call request message of the terminal # 1 141 to the core network # 1 111 (S403). The core network # 1 111 can receive the call request message from the base station # 1 121 and analyze the received call request message to determine that the call processing procedure between the terminal # 1 141 and the terminal # . Therefore, the core network # 1 (111) can confirm the communication path for communication between the terminal # 1 (141) and the terminal # 2 (142) (S404).

The core network # 2 112 can receive the call request message from the core network # 1 111 and analyze the received call request message to thereby process the call processing procedure between the terminal # 1 141 and the terminal # Is performed. Thereafter, the core network # 2 112 can transmit a call paging message to the base station # 2 122 to which the terminal # 2 142 is connected (S405). The call paging message may include an identifier of the terminal # 1 (141), an identifier of the terminal # 2 (142), and the like.

The base station # 2 122 may receive the call paging message from the core network # 2 112 and analyze the received call paging message so that the call processing procedure between the terminal # 1 141 and the terminal # . Thereafter, base station # 2 122 may send a call paging message to relay 130 (S406). The relay 130 can receive the call paging message from the base station # 2 122 and analyzes the received call paging message to determine that the call processing procedure between the terminal # 1 141 and the terminal # can do. Here, the signal processor # 2 of the relay 130 can process the call paging message received from the base station # 2 (122).

If only P5 is available among the communication paths P5 and P6 formed between the relay 130 and the terminal # 2 142, the signal processor # 1 of the relay 130 transmits the call to be transmitted to the terminal # 2 142 The call message can be processed. That is, the signal processor # 2 of the relay 130 can transmit the call paging message of the terminal # 2 122 to the signal processor # 1 of the relay 130, and the signal processor # 1 of the relay 130 can transmit the call 2 from the signal processor # 2. The relay 130 may transmit the call paging message to the terminal # 2 142 via the communication path P5 (S407). The terminal # 2 142 can receive the call paging message from the relay 130 and can confirm that the call setting is requested from the terminal # 1 (141) by analyzing the received call paging message.

The call processing procedure can be completed by the steps S401 to S407 described above and the communication between the terminal # 1 141 and the terminal # 2 142 can be performed when the call processing procedure is completed. When it is determined that the communication between the terminal # 1 141 and the terminal 2 142 is performed through the relay 130 instead of the base stations 121 and 122, the relay 130 transmits the communication between the terminal # 1 141 and the terminal # 2 142 may be generated via the relay 130, and may transmit the generated notification message. A notification message may be transmitted to the base station # 1 (121) and the base station # 2 (122).

Each of the base station # 1 121 and base station # 2 122 can receive a notification message from the relay 130 and communicate between the terminal # 1 141 and the terminal # 2 142 based on the received notification message. Can be determined to be performed through the relay 130. In this case, each of the base station # 1 121 and the base station # 2 122 can transmit the data message of the terminal # 1 141 or the data message of the terminal # The path can be maintained without determining it as fail. Therefore, when communication through the relay 130 can not be performed because the terminal # 1 141 or the terminal # 2 142 is out of the coverage of the relay 130, the terminal # 1 141 and the terminal # ) May be performed via the base stations 121, 122 based on the path set by the call processing procedure (i.e., the path held by the base station 121, 122 that received the announcement message).

On the other hand, the communication between the terminal # 1 141 and the terminal # 2 142 can be performed through the relay 130 (S408). For example, the terminal # 1 141 may generate a data message to be transmitted to the terminal # 2 142 and may transmit the generated data message to the relay 130 via the communication path P3. The relay 130 can receive the data message from the terminal # 1 141 and can confirm that the destination of the data message is the terminal # 2 142 by analyzing the received data message, 2 to the terminal # 2 142 through the P5. That is, the relay 130 can transmit the data message of the terminal # 1 141 to the terminal # 2 142 instead of the base station # 1 121. Here, the signal processor # 2 of the relay 130 can process the data message received from the terminal # 1 141 and transmit the processed data message to the signal processor # 1 of the relay 130. The signal processor # 1 of the relay 130 can process the data message received from the signal processor # 2 and the processed data message can be transmitted to the terminal # 2 142 through the RF unit of the relay 130 . Thus, the terminal # 2 142 may receive a data message from the relay 130.

Also, the terminal # 2 142 may generate a data message to be transmitted to the terminal # 1 141 and may transmit the generated data message to the relay 130 via the communication path P5. The relay 130 can receive the data message from the terminal # 2 142 and can confirm that the destination of the data message is the terminal # 1 141 by analyzing the received data message, P3) to the terminal # 1 (141). That is, the relay 130 can transmit the data message of the terminal # 2 142 to the terminal # 1 141 instead of the base station # 2 122. Here, the signal processor # 1 of the relay 130 can process the data message received from the terminal # 2 142 and can transmit the processed data message to the signal processor # 2 of the relay 130. [ The signal processor # 2 of the relay 130 can process the data message received from the signal processor # 1 and the processed data message can be transmitted to the terminal # 1 141 through the RF unit of the relay 130 . Accordingly, the terminal # 1 141 can receive the data message from the relay 130.

On the other hand, when the signal strength received from the relay 130 (for example, the received signal strength of the message) is less than a preset threshold value (for example, when the terminal # 2 142 is located outside the coverage of the relay 130 The UE # 2 142 may generate a handover request message and may transmit the handover request message to the relay 130 via the communication path P5 (S501). The relay 130 can receive the handover request message from the terminal # 2 142 and confirm that handover for the terminal # 2 142 is requested by analyzing the handover request message.

The relay 130 may transmit a handover request message of the terminal # 2 142 to the base station # 2 122 (S502). The base station # 2 122 can receive the handover request message from the relay 130 and can confirm that handover for the terminal # 2 142 is requested by analyzing the handover request message. The handover of the terminal # 2 142 may be performed based on the handover request message. When the handover of the terminal # 2 142 is completed, the base station # 2 122 can transmit a handover complete message to the relay 130 (S503).

The relay 130 can receive the handover complete message from the base station # 2 122 and can determine that the handover of the terminal # 2 142 is completed by analyzing the handover complete message. In this case, the relay 130 may transmit data of the terminal # 2 142 to the base station # 2 122 and may not support communication between the terminal # 1 141 and the terminal # Also, the relay 130 may transmit a handover complete message to the terminal # 2 142 (S504).

When the handover complete message is received from the relay 130, the terminal # 2 142 can determine that the handover is completed. When the handover of the terminal # 2 142 is completed, communication between the terminal # 1 141 and the terminal # 2 142 can be performed through the base stations 121 and 122. That is, the communication between the terminal # 1 141 and the terminal # 2 142 can be performed through the path set by the call processing procedure. For example, the terminal # 2 142 may generate a data message to be transmitted to the terminal # 1 141 and may transmit the data message to the base station # 2 122 (S505). The base station # 2 122 may receive the data message from the terminal # 2 142 and may transmit the data message to the core network # 2 112 (S506). The core network # 2 112 can receive the data message from the base station # 2 121 and can confirm the communication path of the data message by analyzing the received data message. The core network # 2 112 can transmit a data message to the core network # 1 111 belonging to the communication path of the data message (S507).

The core network # 1 111 can receive the data message from the core network # 2 112 and analyze the received data message so that the base station to which the terminal # 1 141, which is the destination of the data message, (121). Thereafter, the core network # 1 (111) can transmit the data message to the base station # 1 (121) (S508). The base station # 1 121 can receive a data message from the core network # 1 111 and can confirm the destination of the data message by analyzing the received data message. The base station # 1 121 may transmit the data message to the terminal # 1 141 which is the destination of the data message (S509). The terminal # 1 141 can receive a data message from the base station # 1 (121).

The methods according to the present invention can be implemented in the form of program instructions that can be executed through various computer means and recorded on a computer readable medium. The computer readable medium may include program instructions, data files, data structures, and the like, alone or in combination. The program instructions recorded on the computer readable medium may be those specially designed and constructed for the present invention or may be available to those skilled in the computer software.

Examples of computer readable media include hardware devices that are specially configured to store and execute program instructions, such as ROM, RAM, flash memory, and the like. Examples of program instructions include machine language code such as those generated by a compiler, as well as high-level language code that can be executed by a computer using an interpreter or the like. The hardware devices described above may be configured to operate with at least one software module to perform the operations of the present invention, and vice versa.

It will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes in form and details may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims. It will be possible.

Claims (1)

A method of operating a relay in a mobile communication system,
Confirming that the first terminal belongs to the coverage of the relay based on a signal received from the first terminal;
Confirming that the second terminal belongs to the coverage of the relay based on the signal received from the second terminal;
Receiving a data message from the first terminal; And
And transmitting the data message to the second terminal if the first terminal and the second terminal belong to the coverage of the relay and the destination of the data message is the second terminal. Way.

Images